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Anyone Lose Weight and Stop Using CPAP?
Many doctors will tell you that the key to disconnecting from CPAP for good is losing weight. My question is whether anyone has actually been able to safely stop using CPAP because of weight loss?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jay Polatnick on
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Nothing profound here to add, but it's easily possible to have significant Sleep Apnea and be as skinny as a rail. If your airway is underdeveloped due to narrow jaws and nasal passages, weight loss can help but never address the underlying deficit. I'm trying to exercise my lungs via breathing exercise to increase my oxygen utilization efficiency.
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Permalink Reply by Kath Hope www.hope2Sleep.co.uk on
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Firstly, like another member has more-or-less said, in my words "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Most people with undiagnosed sleep apnoea put on weight as a result of sleep deprivation and the need to eat the wrong foods for energy and survival. People constantly say, once diagnosed, they still snored when they were slim. I'm sure there are the odd cases of people piling on weight for other reasons, hence developing sleep apnoea, but most people won't be cured as it's not the weight that has caused it in the first place, although it will obviously make it worse. Just my humble opinion ;)
We have someone in the UK who's come off CPAP as a result of losing 10 stone http://hope2sleepguide.co.uk/forum/topics/happy-new-year-1 (read the post by Suzie Stiles) but her AHI is down to below 7, and she says her clinic in the UK don't treat people with an AHI of less than 10 :( I personally would want mine down to zero before I came off CPAP.
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Permalink Reply by Mack D Jones, MD, SAAN on
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My view is that in the majority of patients, sleep apnea (SA) causes obesity. It's not the other way around, ie, obesity causing SA. During apneas, repeated surges of stress hormones, especially cortisol, result in weight gain, which in turn, worsens SA. Weight loss may reduce your AHI, but it is not likely to completely eliminate it. That's because SA is a neurological disease involving the neurons of the autonomic nervous system within the lower brainstem. These neurons normally control the muscles of the upper airway automatically without our having to think about it. Even if you lose weight down to a normal BMI, you will still have SA, but it won't be as severe. I suspect those reported rare cases of large amounts of weight lose in which the AHI was claimed to be reduced to 0, were most likely false negatives and if sleep tests were repeated by another accredited lab, they would likely still have apneas requiring CPAP.
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Dr. Jones, wouldn't you be assuming that all Apnea is 'Central Apnea' by your findings ? I maybe misinterpreting you and I'm certain that it is more often an anatomical deficiency at the root of the problem. This deficiency then leads to a whole host of bad breathing 'habits' and weight loss can help, but do only so much. I'm a layman, but a pretty well-read one.
Regards
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Permalink Reply by Jess on
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I am approaching 90 pounds lost. Still using CPAP nightly but have reduced my pressure from 12 to seven. Before my weight loss sleeping one night, or even taking a nap, without CPAP would leave me feeling wrecked. I don't know if I will reach a point where I can permanently stop using CPAP it is nice to have the ability to take a nap or sleep a night without it and wake feeling rested and refreshed. I've gone as long as two nights therapy-free without feeling any ill effects.
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A cpap does not force you to take a breath. It corrects obstructive sleep apnea but it does it by splinting open the airway. In OSA the airway closes down on its self. The CPAP holds it open.
Some times the CPAP is all that is needed to insure the person using it continues to breathe. Some times oxygen is needed. You see when we breathe, we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. The CPAP will help with both. In some cases CPAP and oxygen is needed also to help to lose weight.
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I like what cluelessinredwoodshores posted. After being diagnosed with severe SA at 71 yrs and learned what it was I looked back over my life and can remember many times when I would nod off (fortunately not public) . I always thought it was because I was tired from having overexerted myself. I was not overweight and in good health at that time.
I am thinking that my weight gain over the years and decrease in physical activity exacerbated the condition .
I am losing weight and exercising but I feel (as someone posted) I am dependent on CPAP and will always use it.
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Permalink Reply by ZolliStar on
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Good point, Jay. At a Manhattan A.W.A.K.E. meeting, Dr. Park said essentiallly the same thing. noting that more people are being born with narrow jaws, nasal passages, etc. and this may be at higher risk for sleep apnea. Those with nice, big, square Farrah Fawcett-type jaw and mouth architecture seem to be at lower risk.
Jay Polatnick said:Nothing profound here to add, but it's easily possible to have significant Sleep Apnea and be as skinny as a rail. If your airway is underdeveloped due to narrow jaws and nasal passages, weight loss can help but never address the underlying deficit. I'm trying to exercise my lungs via breathing exercise to increase my oxygen utilization efficiency.
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No matter how much weight my husband and I lose, we'll both always have sleep apnea due to palate abnormalities. I have several extended family members who are normal weight and they have sleep apnea due to the family palate abnormality. I've lost 60 pounds but it hasn't changed my sleep apnea.
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I think it's time to lay the weight issue to rest.
I'm a normal weight (125 lbs; 5' 51/2") middle age female. I think my profile -- I'm not an overwight male -- explains why sleep disorder clinic I first visited completely misdiagnosed me. I was assured that "all" I had was insomnia and good sleep hygiene was all I needed.
A trip and a shared hotel room with a friend who knew about sleep apnea prompted me to go to another clinic after her -- not the doctors' (three saw me at the first clinic) -- diagnosis.
I went to a different clinic. Joy oh joy! There was a reason for my condition -- and I can do something about it.
I'm perfectly at peace with the fact that a CPAP is part of my life for the rest of my life. I only wish it had entered my life some 20 years ago. Maybe I needed it earlier.
Again, let's face it: weight may be a factor, but it's probably not THE factor, in sleep apnea.
At my support group meetings, I notice several of us are slim; a few are rail thin, including one woman who has lost huge amounts of weight. We all have the same problem in common: We have sleep apnea.
Our weight not withstanding.
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The reason you should bother is that if you have sleep apnea, not enough oxygen may be getting to your heart. The risk is not dying in your sleep. It's the potential for long term harm to your heart.
kristine kirchner said:Ive been of the cpap for 2 years. I didnt want to be on it to begin with.I only totally wake up 1 to 2 times a nite and use the restrom.It disturbed me more with the noise and stuff up my nose.I had already lost wait be4 using it.Plus I was told I wouldnt die in my sleep...so why bother
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Good point, Paul! Thanks for making it.
Paul Barkowitz said:The reason you should bother is that if you have sleep apnea, not enough oxygen may be getting to your heart. The risk is not dying in your sleep. It's the potential for long term harm to your heart.
kristine kirchner said:Ive been of the cpap for 2 years. I didnt want to be on it to begin with.I only totally wake up 1 to 2 times a nite and use the restrom.It disturbed me more with the noise and stuff up my nose.I had already lost wait be4 using it.Plus I was told I wouldnt die in my sleep...so why bother
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