How much is weight related to apnea?

[Julie]

Remember that when you're tired you're more likely to look for stimulants, and sugar and lots of carbs are biggies!

[RestedRebel]

Weight may be a factor, as is age, but the fact is, weight loss does not necessarily mean you will be able to wean yourself from cpap therapy. I have lots 129.5 lbs. since starting treatment, and I still need my cpap machine. People are telling me that I look 'tiny,' so I would say that I have lost enough weight to no longer be obese, but the obstructions I suffer from are not entirely related to weight. Age may also be somewhat of a factor in my case, but since I used to snore as a child, I believe that my problems like in my physical anatomy too. By all means, lose weight, get healthy, and feel good, but just be aware of the fact that weight loss may not automatically wean you from dependence on your cpap machine.

[cpapVAL]

I agree with most posters. I had 110 events in my sleep study, which basically means it was killing me without me knowing it! The sleep doc said mine is so bad that I've probably had it my entire life and it was hereditary. So even though I am about 50-60 lbs overweight, the doc said that it probably would not help my apnea at all. Lose to fill better about yourself and your life in general, just don't expect cpap changes.

[parksje]

Although it's not always the case, there is a strong statistical correlation between being overweight or obese and OSA, and it looks like losing weight can sometimes completely eliminate OSA in overweight patients:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 081319.htm

This is not to say that thin people can't have OSA, but it does offer some hope to fat xPAP users like me to one day be able to put their machines away:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/weig ... 1310026713

My personal opinion is that it is an oversimplification to say "I'm fat because I have sleep apnea" or "I have sleep apnea because I'm fat". I think the two can be intertwined, and that in my own case, as I gradually allowed myself to put on the pounds, the OSA manifested itself more and more, and the more tired I was all the time, the less likely I was to get any exercise and the more I'd stuff my face trying to make up with calories the energy I lost due to not sleeping. The more weight I'd put on, the worse the OSA would be -- a death spiral of weight gain and health deterioration that fed itself on Oreos and sleepiness.

I love my machine, but for right now, I'm using it as a way to get back that energy and buy myself an opportunity to get my weight down to the point where I don't have OSA any more. If I reach that weight and still have OSA, so be it -- I'll deal with that disappointment, but still enjoy the other benefits of weighing 100 pounds less than I do right now, like maybe avoiding becoming diabetic or having a heart attack or a stroke.

There just aren't a lot of downsides to taking off the weight.

[andy88488]

Posted this in another thread.

I am 6'-2" tall and weigh about 210. By no means overweight. Have run 5 marathons in recent past and have been diagnosed with severe apnea. Took me awhile to convince my doctor that I needed a sleep test even with my RN bed partner (wife) observing me at night. In great heath except I do have hypertension. So while loosing weight may help it is not the only reason someone has OSA. Hoping the CPAP will lower the BP.

Pretty much ditto. I'm 6' and 207. Slight gut, but basically not the classic bull-neck profile. I have had Apnea for years, even when I was super-skinny. My (then) wife told me that she thought I might have it, because I snored like a son-of-a-gun and stopped breathing. I ignored it for years until I tried to fix the snoring, got a sleep test, and got diagnosed.

[SuddenlyWornOut45]

weight is a big factor for most people who have OSA. while some of it has to do purely with genetic structure of your airway (throat, nose, sinuses, enlarged tonsils), most of it is obesity related.

A lot of the people on this particular forum have a problem being told they are fat and if they lost 150 lbs, their OSA would either go away or improve about 80%. So this forum is IMO, kind of a bad place to ask that particular question. But if you are real about it, obesity does cause and/or greatly exacerbate OSA. So to answer your question, excess weight is very much related to apnea.

Eric

[ironhands]

Weight is certainly a factor when it comes to obstructive and hypopneas, but there are other issues. The formation of the windpipes, and amount of fatty tissue in that area play a factor, so, while a person can be skinny, they could still have a flabby windpipe

Central apneas are different, and generally aren't associated with weight, but neurological in nature.

Weight loss can help with apnea, but may not remove all symptoms, it really depends on the individual.

[jweeks]

I am a competitive runner (up to marathons), have a BMI of 19-20 and have mild sleep apnea. I have always been thin, so my "low" weight is genetic and not due to my running. So, yes there is a category of sleep apnea patients who are thin.

Hi,

Good to know that there are other runners out there using the machine. I am at about 9% body fat. I have run 5 marathons and 15 half marathons this past year, and I use BiPAP every night. I wasn't always thin. My apnea was dramatically worse when I was overweight. At first, losing weight made it even more difficult to treat. I agree with the doctors who advocate that apnea enables weight gain rather than weight being the cause of apnea.

-john-

[SuddenlyWornOut45]

That certainly is atypical and far, far, far from the average OSA patient. The average OSA patient is obese and losing significant amounts of weight leads to significant reductions in severity of the sleep apnea.

I agree in central apnea cases, obesity is not always the cause. But the causes of central apneas is so many and so varied, you cannot pen it down on just one or two things. Cental apneas can be from heart problems, to purely neuro, to being from simply too high pressures used.

Many members of this forum are very resistant to being told they are fat and the fatness is a big part of their OSA.

Eric

Hi,

Good to know that there are other runners out there using the machine. I am at about 9% body fat. I have run 5 marathons and 15 half marathons this past year, and I use BiPAP every night. I wasn't always thin. My apnea was dramatically worse when I was overweight. At first, losing weight made it even more difficult to treat. I agree with the doctors who advocate that apnea enables weight gain rather than weight being the cause of apnea.

-john-

[IRONFISH]

My doctor told me "Men are likely to wean off their C.P.A.P. if they lose weight. Women are not likely to be able to stop using their C.P.A.P. with a weight loss".

I lost over a hundred pounds when I had a Sudden Cardiac Death event, none of my numbers changed. I need the Autoset as much as I did before. I believe I have had Apnea all my life. I have never been able to sleep at night. I was always going to sleep in class when I was a little kid.

My doctor also said if a woman has sleep apnea her children are likely to have apnea, however if their father has sleep apnea, it does not necessarily carry over to his children.

[BlackSpinner]

That certainly is atypical and far, far, far from the average OSA patient. The average OSA patient is obese and losing significant amounts of weight leads to significant reductions in severity of the sleep apnea.

Many members of this forum are very resistant to being told they are fat and the fatness is a big part of their OSA.

Because that is not true. What is atypical is doctors testing people who are not over weight. The current myth out there is exactly what you are pushing and it becomes self fulfilling. If you only test the people that meet your myopic criteria then you confirm your bias. Only 49% of obese people get rid of their apnea by losing weight.

[ironhands]

That certainly is atypical and far, far, far from the average OSA patient. The average OSA patient is obese and losing significant amounts of weight leads to significant reductions in severity of the sleep apnea.

Many members of this forum are very resistant to being told they are fat and the fatness is a big part of their OSA.

Because that is not true. What is atypical is doctors testing people who are not over weight. The current myth out there is exactly what you are pushing and it becomes self fulfilling. If you only test the people that meet your myopic criteria then you confirm your bias. Only 49% of obese people get rid of their apnea by losing weight.

Absolutely concur. Well, depending on your definition of obese really. If you're using the medical term, possibly (BMI 30+), but to most the term obese means 100 pounds overweight. I work with 2 people who are on a CPAP, and a 3rd who will be tested in a month. None of us are more than 20-30 pounds overweight, if that. Very much the average 30-40 year old males who don't regularly hit the gym.

[Rustsmith]

Agreed that this is somewhat controversial, but if you read the literature that supports the existence of UARS as a separate entity from OSA, then there may very well be two different patient populations. If this is true, then the stereotypical OSA patient may be a "weight challenged" older male and possibly has a larger frame. By contrast, the stereotypical UARS patient would be on the thin side, younger female with a slight build. In my case, I was provisionally diagnosed with UARS prior to sleep testing based upon my body type, jaw structure and an examination of the size of the open portion of my throat while reclined. Testing later proved this for me even though I was not a major snorer.

The important point is what Blackspinner said

What is atypical is doctors testing people who are not over weight. The current myth out there is exactly what you are pushing and it becomes self fulfilling. If you only test the people that meet your myopic criteria then you confirm your bias.

If you don't look, you will not find it.

For JWeeks,

Good to know that there are other runners out there using the machine. I am at about 9% body fat. I have run 5 marathons and 15 half marathons this past year, and I use BiPAP every night.

I ran three marathons (including Boston), one half and three ten mile races last year. I placed in most of those races, but obviously not at Boston where I was just happy to be one of those who got to finish.

[49er]

My 2nd sleep doctor was convinced I didn't have OSA because I was a thin female. I wonder whether I also have UARS issues also which Dr. Krakow has said you can have in addition to OSA.

It will be interesting to see what happens after I have a turbinate reduction and septoplasty sometime in March.

49er

[Nozzelnut]

For me it was a circular problem. The snoring and throat irritation were caused my tonsils upper airway to get inflamed; causing more snoring and throat irritation.....

Did it add to weight gain? Maybe; or was it my thyroid deciding to take a vacation for the rest of my life; maybe a bit of that too. Add that with the poor sleep and always tired feeling, my weight was going up. Making my airway smaller and increasing the inflammation....

Starting APAP and getting on thyroid meds started to break the cycle. Feeling better, eating better, and even working out. (my enlarged tonsils are coming out soon too; I figured it was time when my dentist asked when was I getting them out.)