CPAPtalk.com

Sarcoidosis is a nasty disease that can affect much more than the heart. Reggie White had a severe, progressive form of the disease. I don't know if his OSA was related to the sardcoisosis.

jim brown former pro football player

Jim Brown? Really? He did a movie or two as well as Hall of Fame Football. What a spokesman a man like that could make. Catfish, are you sure? Wonder if he would be a willing spokesman. Ya never know till you ask.

Jabba

Earlier this year, I saw this article on another forum and asked Linda to also post it here.....the "celebrity" is John McEuen.

Here it is again:

viewtopic.php?t=7251


Den

This was before CPAP was invented, but if I remember right, all of The Three Stooges had a pretty bad snoring problem. They probably all had Apnea!

Bob Dylan's dog...really!

10 years ago my girlfriend sold an Old English Mastiff to Bob Dylan. She dealt by phone with his personal assistant who kept referring to him as "my boss". After speaking to his assistant many times in the course of a few weeks then determining that her boss was qualified to own one of her well bred pups (rested gal can relate to people being picky who their dogs are placed with!) arrangements were made for him to come to her house. On the scheduled day, three tour busses popped in. We had no idea who was coming to her house! Bob Dylan and Company were on their way to his farm in Minnesota from touring and stopped in Wisconsin to purchase the pup. He had owned Mastiffs for long time. After a very pleasant few hours the deal was made and he promised to keep in touch and let her know how the pup was doing. He also said that when ever he was going to be in town he'd let her know and she could come see the dog and the show and back stage passes would be waiting for her and her friend (me!) Seeing as we are both huge Dylan fans meeting him was such a cool thing and for her to be selling him a dog. The first time he came to town for a concert she was notified and we met up with him after the show, saw the dog and enjoyed stories of the road. The dog was a valued member of his entourage and went everywhere with them. Problem was he SNORED so loud that the crew didn't want him sleeping on the bus. Bob got him his own hotel room in each town. The crew drew straws to see who got the honor of sleeping with the dog each night. Bob always got himself a separate room. Needless to say, no one wanted that job. I think Bob Dylan's dog qualifys as a celebrity, don't you think?

Forgot to log in

In the past I remember googling sleep apnea and I remember that John Goodman has a site that either sells something related to sleep apnea or something like that. I mean he really is a candidate for sleep apnea.

whoops, I just googled it and it turns out that the John Goodman I was talking about is the cofounder and president of cpap.com not the actor

Bonnie wrote: I think Bob Dylan's dog qualifys as a celebrity, don't you think?

Absolutely!

What an interesting story, Bonnie!! Yes, I'm glad your friend asked the right questions...she was a responsible dog breeder to do that, despite the stardust. I'm a Bob Dylan fan, too! Glad to hear he was a "good" dog owner.

It's a shame that OSA doesn't have a celebrity spokesperson to bring more attention to the plight of such a broad segment of the US population.

However, having worked for several disease-related charities, my experience has been that few celebs are prepared to reveal their own maladies if they risk being labeled as either unreliable or un-insurable by potential employers. While OSA isn't often associated with high-risk symptoms or side effects, imagine a movie director envisioning his leading lady going into some kind of narcoleptic fit in the middle of shooting a love scene. (Think Celine Dion snoring loudly as Leonardo DiCaprio desperately tried to hold her up on the rail of the Titanic! ) As ridiculous as it sounds, this is the type of scenario that keeps celebs in the medical closet.

Where's Williard Scott or Al Roker when we need them? My guess is that both suffer from OSA and should use CPAP if they aren't already.

Anthony Davis (of USC football fame - six touchdowns in one game vs. Notre Dame) is a CPAP user.

http://liteandhope.or-live.com/ (old picture, looks a lot like OJ)

Sorry, the guest comment 2 up was from me. Don't know why the computer didn't log me in correctly!

Kurtchan

The actor (actress?) Divine suffered from sleep apnea. I don't know if s/he used CPAP, though.

I think it's too bad that the famous people with apnea who have gone public are all large -- it strengthens the stereotype of apnea as a 'disease of the obese,' when in fact up to 40% of apnea patients are normal weight and below. Personally, I delayed getting evaluation and treatment because I didn't fit the stereotypical profile (fat white man), and I'll bet there are others like me out there who have NO idea they have apnea, or are embarrassed to check it out because they think it means they're "fat." Even in this thread, the idea that only fat people have apnea is apparent in some of the suggestions... let's get some normal-sized spokespeople out there!

Min