Article - CPAP may not "cure" Sleep Apnea

In the following Reuters article posted yesterday, http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNe ... DP20090518, the story seems to indicate that CPAP doesn't "cure" daytime sleepiness. Not a lot of detail here (rarely is) but they are quoting from a single French study that shows 6% of CPAP users still experiencing daytime sleepiness.

Being one of many on this forum that is still suffering from debilitating sleepiness even after being on the hose for 6 months, 99.9% compliant, low leaks and AHI <5 most of the time, I wonder if there is truth to this study in that CPAP may take some of us only part of the way.

Now I know that it can take some time to overcome years of sleep deprivation but I am beginning to wonder if there isn't something else that is an issue with me that I need to address. At what point have others started to search for additional health issues that are stealing your life away? And where does the search begin?

-Clark

OSA is a condition that keeps people from breathing normally while asleep. CPAP is not a cure of anything. It is a treatment to help you breathe (oxygen in particular) while asleep. Restful sleep is just a by-product of the CPAP treatment ... at least for those successfully treating a severe condition of OSA. Daytime sleepiness can be caused by other conditions besides OSA.

I've been on the hose for a couple of months and still have some "residual daytime sleepiness." (To the point that my doc handed me provigil to try - saving it for a really bad day). I haven't been cured. Bu what the article may have missed is that my good days outnumber my bad days. I generally fell better, my BP is down, headache quantity and severity is down, chest pain down, tingles in extremities down, etc, etc. And, there may still be some to come for me.

The other thing the report failed to mention was how many of those study patients were ACTUALLY getting proper treatment. As we all know here on this forum, the "sleep centers" have a dismal track record for properly treating OSA.

Interesting that this appeared today.
I just came in from 2 hours of mowing and gardening.
Two years ago, when I started CPAP, I noticed that I was better about housekeeping. In the past I always had piles of "gotta get to that" but with better sleep I started seeing things that needed doing and just did them.
I'm noticing this spring that the effect has finally transferred to yardwork - I wake up, see what needs doing before it gets hot, do the tasks, come in and get on with the rest of my day. In the past, such things would have wiped me out for the whole day.

but it took 2 years.

And I can't wait to see more improvements!

I guess my thoughts on the subject are: CPAP reduces the number of events, but they still occur. And the effects of 55 years of sleep deprivation are not reversed "overnight".

Shari

I've been on the hose 28 days and I feel a little better, keyword being little. PAP is not the breakthrough I was hoping for, at least not so far.

I still have work to do on sleep hygiene. It takes me to long to fall asleep. I wake up to often during the night, and to early in the morning. Most nights I count myself lucky if I get 5 hours actual sleep during 7 hours in bed.

As far as exploring other avenues, I've been doing that for years before I got diagnosed with SDB. I believe good diet and exercise contribute to overall well being and lack of good diet and exercise contribute to lack of well being.

Some of the best info I have found on the role of optimal diet in health comes from John McDougall. See
http://www.amazon.com/Mcdougall-Program ... 0452266394

Snorebert wrote:In the following Reuters article posted yesterday, http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNe ... DP20090518, the story seems to indicate that CPAP doesn't "cure" daytime sleepiness. Not a lot of detail here (rarely is) but they are quoting from a single French study that shows 6% of CPAP users still experiencing daytime sleepiness.

Being one of many on this forum that is still suffering from debilitating sleepiness even after being on the hose for 6 months, 99.9% compliant, low leaks and AHI <5 most of the time, I wonder if there is truth to this study in that CPAP may take some of us only part of the way.

Now I know that it can take some time to overcome years of sleep deprivation but I am beginning to wonder if there isn't something else that is an issue with me that I need to address. At what point have others started to search for additional health issues that are stealing your life away? And where does the search begin?

-Clark

I tent to think that daytime sleepiness can depend on many factors including OSA & SA generally. But in relation to my own therapy on plain cpap it never lasted moe than a couple of months before daytime sleepiness returned. On Bilevel, got by for about 5 months before it seemed to return. Have now been on ASV type machines & apart from on small bout (traceable to a severe leak in my system) have had 12 months of very good nights followed by very good days. This experience has led me to believe that bilevel is very good therapy & a well set up ASV is absolutely the best. In terms of my real world use, that is how it is.

Good luck with your therapy.

DSM

At first, PAP therapy on its own made me feel better. But I didn't consider PAP therapy alone to be what would make me feel better long term or "cure" anything; I considered PAP therapy, once documented successful by my numbers, to be something that simply removed an obstacle that had robbed me of the energy and prevented me from doing the other important things that would make me feel better in the long run.

PAP allows me to sleep better at night and breathe better at night so that I can now eat better, get more exercise, stabilize my schedule, arrange my life, improve my relationships, be more involved in helping others, etc, during the day. Those are the things that keep me from feeling tired and sleepy and medically fatigued. They are all part of how I fight the diseases that were starting to sap my strength, and still could if I don't keep them at bay. Untreated OSA was an obstacle in the way of that fight. Nothing less, but nothing more. Treating it is important, but it isn't the only thing wrong with me.

Once PAP therapy gave me some extra energy, I had to immediately invest that into life-style changes that would help me begin to improve the health of my heart and other vital organs. Fortunately, it seems in my case that OSA was my biggest obstacle. Dealing with it has given me the leg up I needed on the other stuff. But others may have other obstacles along with the OSA that must be dealt with some other way. We all have to do what we can to remove the obstacles that prevent us from being active and making healthy choices in other areas of life.

To me, PAP therapy is easy. It's the doing of the work that goes along with it for improving health that is hard. We can't passively expect PAP to make us feel better all on its own. It is only one small part of the formula. We have to to be aggressively active with our health to get the benefits that PAP therapy can allow us to experience. In other words, if I was on PAP therapy, but wasn't kicking my activity level up a notch and changing my eating habits, I wouldn't expect the PAP to do much for me.

I still have a long way to go and a lot of weight to lose, though. I know that because I think I just broke through the soapbox I have been standing on for this post!

Seriously, I only say the above in case it is helpful. And for all I know, my way of looking at it all may be completely wrong. It is the model that works for me in my head, in my situation, but your mileage may vary.

jeff

It has been nearly a year since I began c-pap therapy. I did not get the instant miracle that some do. I started sleeping better, not neccessarily longer almost immediatly. I noticed that the daytime sleepiness was a lot less severe. No longer did I have to struggle to keep my eyes open. Over the last year I began noticing little changes. No longer did I have a "fuzzy" head like a hangover. For years I have had a numbness in my feet. Recently I have noticed more feeling in my feet. One morning not too long ago I woke up and realised that I actually had a dream, a real dream about people and events in my life. It was not the short dream I had been having for years in which I could not catch my breath. Results have been slow and gradual for me. It was not instant as I thought it would be. Each new discovery has been a wonderful gift. I feeeeeel Good!......................Life is good!....................God is Good!

Laura