Exercise, diet may keep sleep apnea from worsening

I am a bit encouraged by this article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/ ... 2R20130418

Many things in particular:

Article wrote:"It usually takes at least a few years to progress from mild disease to the more severe disease, and mostly it's due to weight gain," said Dr. Henri Tuomilehto, who led the new study at the Oivauni Sleep Clinic in Kuopio, Finland.

At least they see the connection with the weight gain. I long for them to see the connection of the hormone changes directly affecting the weight gain. In this study it was mild sleep apnea progressing. I think the results would have been much different starting from moderate or severe!!

Article wrote:"Nobody has really paid any attention to preventing the progression."

Article wrote:They found people in the exercise and diet group had generally succeeded in keeping some weight off. Those participants were 12 pounds lighter than they had been five years earlier, on average, and people in the comparison group were about one pound heavier.

Yes, if you take care of your body it can take better care of you.

Article wrote:Six participants in the intervention group had seen their mild sleep apnea progress to moderate disease, and none had developed severe disease. On the other hand, 12 members of the comparison group had moderate sleep apnea at their follow-up and two had severe sleep apnea, the study team wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine.

I think that sleep apnea adds a lot of “weight” to the tendency to gain weight. You end up at kind of a tipping point where the tendency to gain weight become self perpetuating.

When I was learning tower rigging I forgot to make a loop of a rope we were using on a 300' tower. I pulled on one end of the rope. So began a progression where with each foot traveled the end that I pulled had one more foot of weight than the one traveling toward the pulley at the top of the tower and so more acceleration toward that point. I lucked out when the free end of the rope wrapped itself about a tower cross beam.

I think that weight gain with OSA tends to have self perpetuating acceleration.

Article wrote:"We should really think about weight reduction as a treatment for sleep apnea," Tuomilehto agreed.

When the rope hit the cross beam it was traveling at a very snappy pace and quickly made five or so turns around the beam. Light rope meets structural steel.

A person with mild or moderate sleep apnea has a lot of hormonal and habitual momentum toward gaining weight. Without good treatment of the sleep apnea breaking the fall into morbid obesity is unlikely.
So I watch my treatment carefully – and – have recently purchased a new pedometer[1], plan to do many bicycle trips to a “sister city” (trips run about 25 miles each), eat half veggies, make sure I get the nutrients I need, and otherwise look for good motivation to do what I can to keep myself eating and moving well.

[1] the pedometer is this one: http://www.amazon.com/Omron-HJ-720ITC-P ... sbs_hpc_10 which I got an am using – but then saw this one: http://www.amazon.com/Omron-HJA-312-Act ... _sg_text_y which I think is more what I really want. I used to use an Ipod Nano 6th generation but the battery wore out and I got tired of Itunes.

They missed the most sure thing ... death is guaranteed to stop OSA in it's tracks too.

DreamStalker wrote:They missed the most sure thing ... death is guaranteed to stop OSA in it's tracks too.

On the one hand you have OSA - its comorbid obesity - its absolutely morbid death.

On the other hand you have xPAP “treated” OSA with its pressure induced hypocapnic central apneas.

I wonder which brings death sooner overall. OSA or PIHCA?

I don't have any empircal data to support my beliefs... but yes I think the article is correct up to a point. Those two things may not always knock out sleep apnea, which can be caused by mechanical problems of the airway, brain-stem and nervous system dysfunction, however they certainly do set the stage for a healthy lifestyle which is a great thing in itself.

Excercise strengthens the heart and promotes low abdomen breathing and oxygenation.

Many of us develop food allergies as a result of either leaky gut or nervous system deterioration.

So it stands to reason that both are almost essential to improvement long term.

I have had OSA (in the form of really bad snoring) since my youngest was born 25 years ago. I was around 110 wring wet when it started. I worked out. I ran. I did yoga. I rode a bike to work 45 minutes each way. I still got to the tipping point where I was falling asleep and eating to keep awake. Maybe by being that active I kept it at bay for 20 years. I would rather have been treated with cpap and kept my life and relationships together.