[subego]

Just got diagnosed with an over-the-top case of sleep apnea. Frankly, I'm thrilled. Now I know why I feel like shit every morning. Believe me, I'm so ready to wear the Vader mask at this point.

Props to the Fitbit for giving me the evidence I needed to get a sleep study. I've thought I might have sleep apnea, but don't fit the profile, so I've been resistant to getting tested.

[olePigeon]

Welcome to the club. I've refused to use a CPAP as an incentive to lose weight. I think if I shed a few pounds I might be able to avoid it. Always feeling tired is a reminder for me to hit the gym.

[subego]

FWIW, working out makes you hungry. When people "work up an appetite", this is what they're talking about.

As for avoiding it through weight-loss. I'm 6' and 170 lbs. it's not necessarily tied to weight.

[Athens]

I suffer it, dont know how to do anything about it.

[subego]

Talk to your doctor. Get a sleep study.

[Athens]

hasn't been a big enough issue for me to bother

[subego]

I'm not sure the word "suffer" means what you think it means.

[Rumor]

There are surgeries that can be done to alleviate it when it isn't weight related.

[subego]

That sounds aggressive.

[idontlikelionosx]

You work out but replace those calories by foods low in fat. Tada!

Salad and quinoa. Salmon. Rinse and repeat.

[subego]

I need fat. Fat's my fuel.

[ghporter]

Not all sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea, which is the worse of the two types and is responsible for substantial risks of hypoxia overnight. Even without the serious hypoxia, obstructive sleep apnea cuts your oxygen intake enough to make "sleep" not very effective at resting you, and a C-PAP or Bi-PAP is a very effective and very worthwhile intervention.

Mild sleep apnea can be caused by an oversized uvula, lax jaw muscles and other issues. There are simple interventions such as a type of bite guard that aligns the jaws. The bite guard is cheap and easy to use and if it works, WIN! If it doesn't, it's good evidence that you don't have the milder problem.

Obesity CAN cause sleep apnea, but a) it doesn't always and b) sleep apnea does not require obesity. A physician can easily determine if the problem is due to weight, structural issues, lax muscles, or something else, mainly through a sleep study. Since obstructive sleep apnea can cause permanent brain injury, it's important to get anything like it checked out. Soon.

[Jawbone54]

In a strange way, congratulations. I know you're going to feel better very quickly. My dad and brother's lives were changed after getting a CPAP.

[andi*pandi]

My husband had a cpap and when he used it voila no more snoring and life was good. however it irritated his nose so he stopped. He uses a mouthguard now with some improvement but not as much.

[Athens]

Originally Posted by idontlikelionosx 

You work out but replace those calories by foods low in fat. Tada!

Salad and quinoa. Salmon. Rinse and repeat.

It is not as simple as that. A calorie isn't just a calorie when it comes to the effect on the human body..

Example Glucose (main carb in pasta) can be absorbed and processed by every single cell in the body because its the bodies natural fuel. A 100 calories from glucose only a small % hits the liver for processing.

Sucrose which is 50% Glucose and 50% fructose gets broken down into its 2 parts and while a little bit of the glucose gets processed by the liver like the previous example, all of the fructose has to be processed in the liver and turned into something usable by the body. During this process the bad LDL is created, the small cell fat cells the kind that stick to arteries and some of the energy storage is kept in the liver as triglycerides (fatty liver) The process also releases uric acid causing increased blood pressure.

So even though both was 100 calories, the way the body processed the calories are very different. Its sugar that needs to be avoided at all cost. The problem with a lot of low fat products is they replaced the fat with sugar. And sugar is the one that is causing the high blood pressure, the damage to the liver and arteries and causing diabetes. And our sugar intake keeps going up because its in everything. Add to that the addition of HFCS over the last 20 years to all our foods, that extra 5-10% in fructose which seems small turns out to be a lot. Estimates is that Americans consume 156 pounds of sugar per year. If that was all sucrose that would be 78 pounds of glucose and 78 pounds of fructose. If it was all HFCS it would be it would be 65.52 pounds of glucose and 85.8 pounds of fructose. Almost 8 additional pounds of fructose for the liver to process over a year.

A high fat diet has its own problems but between high in fat and high in sugar, the fat is starting to win out. The biggest change to occur in the last 30 years is the low fat craze. Producers removed a couple grams of fat from products and replaced it with twice as much sugar to make up for the taste. This started in the 80's. And you can see from after 30 years of this the trend in people getting bigger and more unhealthy.

Fructose has another nasty side effect as well. It messes up with the lipids signals in the blood to the brain that tells the body it is full. So very high consumption of sugar makes you not feel full but the reverse more Hungry.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by subego 

FWIW, working out makes you hungry. When people "work up an appetite", this is what they're talking about.

Makes it difficult, but it's all about self control. I'll get there eventually.

Originally Posted by subego 

As for avoiding it through weight-loss. I'm 6' and 170 lbs. it's not necessarily tied to weight.

Yeah, everyone's different. For me it's weight. I noticed over the past 10 years or so as I slowly gained weight that I started to have more and more issues. I never used to snore, now I do. My pallet has fat deposits and is obstructing my airway. I could get surgery, but again, that removes my incentive to lose weight.

For my dad, on the other hand, he's like you. He got into a really bad car accident after he fell asleep at the wheel, nearly died. It was the last straw because the CPAP didn't do a darn thing for him. He eventually had to get surgery. It was pretty crazy. They cut his skull just below his nose and around back to where it hinges to the jaw, moved the entire thing forward about a centimeter, then reattaching it.

Weird seeing him again after the surgery, he didn't look like my dad anymore. The funny thing is that he now looks like Jack Nicholson, so much so that he gets the occasional person asking him just that.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Athens 

It is not as simple as that. A calorie isn't just a calorie.

Yes it is. A calorie is a measurement of heat. How efficiently your body converts something into energy is a different issue.

[Athens]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

Yes it is. A calorie is a measurement of heat. How efficiently your body converts something into energy is a different issue.

My statement is correct, it imply's the simple measurement of heat is not all that there is to it. I updated the post to be more clear anyways.

[subego]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Mild sleep apnea can be caused by an oversized uvula, lax jaw muscles and other issues. There are simple interventions such as a type of bite guard that aligns the jaws. The bite guard is cheap and easy to use and if it works, WIN! If it doesn't, it's good evidence that you don't have the milder problem.

My SA apparently is way worse on my back, so the doctor offered me the bite guard... plus a giant shark fin I'm supposed to strap on.

Seriously. I couldn't make this up.

[Athens]

what is the shark fin for?

[andi*pandi]

I'm guessing, to keep him from sleeping on his back.

or to make his SO laugh at him.

but then if it keeps him from snoring, I'm sure his SO is happy and will cheerfully stop punching him in the shoulder whenever he snores.

I mean, that could work too.

[subego]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

I'm guessing, to keep him from sleeping on his back.

Bingo!

[ghporter]

Sleeping on the back brings the whole gravity thing into play. The jaw relaxes and slides backward, allowing the tongue to obstruct the airway and there you have it. I've seen less hilarious approaches involving body pillows, etc. that keep a person on his/her side, but they have a spotty track record.

[d4nth3m4n]

I got a CPAP and lost 100# in a year. YMMV.

[Athens]

Im evaluating my lazyness on the topic and might go see my doctor about options. More stuff has come out about Apnea with cancer, on top of its issues related to weight gain, heat attacks, strokes.

[subego]

Total stage two failure. Couldn't get to sleep with the thing on. The retaining strap kept rubbing my eyelash, it couldn't sync with my breathing pattern, and here's the kicker... the shit actually plugged up my nose. It was harder to breathe with the thing on. Gave up after five hours.

I'm verrry cranky right now.

[Athens]

First time using it?

[Athens]

Have you ever herd of First sleep and Second Sleep?

[subego]

Originally Posted by Athens 

First time using it?

After a fashion. CPAPs need to be set at a specific pressure dependent upon how much air you need to keep things going, so this was actually at the sleep clinic... wired up to a gajillion sensor leads.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Athens 

Have you ever herd of First sleep and Second Sleep?

Yes, but as "segmented sleep".

I sort of do this at times because I'm incapable of taking a nap for less than three hours.

[Athens]

I read up on how this was the norm before street lights, a person would sleep for 4 hours at dusk, be up for a while and go to sleep again for another 4 hours in the early morning. Was something forgotten over the last few hundred years. I tried it for a week, and I really did feel a lot more rested and refreshed. But I couldn't keep it up because my life is to demanding at the hours im supposed to start the first sleep at.

[subego]

"It's 'Daddy' you ****head. Where's my bourbon?"

[Athens]

I really wonder if I could sleep with something like that. I have to sleep on my side, when I sleep on my back my heart skips beats. I see that as being problematic on my face.

[subego]

They could be related.

FWIW, it seemed possible to sleep on your side with it.

[Athens]

I'll setup a appointment with my doctor about it. Really just been lazy. No co-pays, fees, deductibles or any money reasons to keep me from doing anything about it

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by subego 

Luke...I am your father...

(Couldn't resist. )

How's the day go for you, now that you're probably getting real sleep?

[subego]

Not there yet. The testing to set the pressure was a disaster.

[ghporter]

Yow. That's gotta be frustrating. You know the issue, there's a solid fix available, but you're not there yet. Sorry.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

Originally Posted by Athens 

what is the shark fin for?

I'm guessing, to keep him from sleeping on his back.

Then what's the laser on his head for?

[andi*pandi]

Either teasing the cat or obtaining ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

[subego]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Yow. That's gotta be frustrating. You know the issue, there's a solid fix available, but you're not there yet. Sorry.

Thanks!

I'm feeling better about it now. I've thought I've had it for 20 years, so waiting a little longer won't be too bad.

The techs weren't pleasant about it, which made me more irritated. I'm pretty sure they were just out over their skis on this one. The complaints I was having didn't seem to be issues they knew how to deal with.

Sample exchange:

Me: this is uncomfortable because of X, Y, and Z.

Tech: well, what do you want me to do?

Me: how on earth should I know? You're the experts. I've never had one of these on before in my life. You told me to tell you if it's uncomfortable. That's what I'm doing.


I end up giving a suggestion, they don't like it but do it anyway. When that causes other problems they're like "see? This is why we didn't want to do that", as if I made the suggestion to **** with their authority or something.

[Rumor]

Mine has returned recently as I've gained a few pounds. I went into convulsions the other night while sleeping. My wife is making sure I am sleeping on my side until I drop about 15 lbs. being flat on my back is the issue.

[Athens]

Thats scary...

[Rumor]

I dropped from 205 to 170 and now back up to around 200. My condition is weight related thankfully.

[subego]

Well, round two was much more successful. I actually slept for 20 minutes this time.

Of course, they need a minimum of two hours.

[subego]

Remarkably, this turned out to be enough time. I get a rig in a couple weeks.

I'm a little taken aback.

[ghporter]

Congrats. As you get a chance to get used to the setup, you'll likely find you sleep a LOT better (and longer) in spite of the mask and the sound. And once you start really sleeping, everything will be better.

[subego]

The mask I tried had none of the problems the first one had, my only issue was it was a nasal model and I would start to breath through my mouth.

As air would try to go through both my nose and mouth at the same time, the flap at the back of my throat would snap my nasal passages shut.

That really wakes you up.

[Athens]

Im eager to find out how it goes down the road, and the improvements on your life

[subego]

I will continue my MacNN Live Journal, blog thingy right here.