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Sleep Apnea

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Loafmeister:
My own personal history with Sleep Apnea and comments:

1 – Breathing exercises: with the obstructive sleep apnea, I really don’t know how the heck exercises can help. The problem is when you sleep, most are horizontal and the loose fatty tissue in your throat falls down and obstructs the air flow. The reason why a CPAP device works is because it provides constant air pressure that keeps the fatty tissue out of the way.  Contrary to popular belief, the CPAP device does not provide oxygen, just air pressure.  I don’t see how your sub consciousness can help defy gravity.  However, depending on how severe your sleep apnea is, sleeping in a different position can help, elevating your upper body can for some be helpful too (and for others it could make things worse).

2 – Fatty tissue:  It is true, you do not have to be overweight to have sleep apnea however it certainly doesn’t help and is probably the #1 cause.  However, when discussing overweight and sleep apnea, people forget the only issue to consider is weight that’s in the throat area that is obstructing the air passage. IE: some people can be thin most places but they can still have considerable fatty tissue deposit in the throat area.

For an example, consider some overweight people have a thin abdomen but a huge butt and legs , while others have thin legs and derrieres, but a large gut; etc. The same is true inside your throat. You could be fairly thin everywhere but for whatever reason, your body stores fat in a few places and one of those hard hitters is your throat.

So can you do some form of exercise strictly in the neck area that will remove that fat? Eheh Unfortunately not really. You cannot target weight loss to a specific section, just like you can’t target weight gain to a specific section.  “Wait a sec, what about those people who do a bazillion sit-ups and lose their guts?”.  These people deserve credit for working hard but they are not localizing the weight loss.  If you’ll take a good look, they are thin everywhere else and simply lost most of their last remaining fat tissue, which happened to be in the gut.  Ie: if you took a look at them before and after, they will have lost weight in the legs, butt and gut too.

So what makes me an expert? Well for starters I am no expert, but I am educated. I had sleep apnea for years, got the evaluation done and was identified as a “moderate”. My memory is poor, but I think they said I stopped breathing 7-10 times per hour. My response in panic was “that’s moderate?!?”.  The health therapist said “hell yeah!”.

So I tried the CPAP mask the next day and low and behold, I had my best night’s sleep, a good 6 hours and for once, I did not wake up with a headache, which was the norm.

Unfortunately things soured from there.  For whatever reason, as a mouth breather my throat would get very dry, to the point where it burned a lot.  I tried different masks, different settings, different machines (yes, the model with the added water) and nothing worked, so I’m one of those few that although it helps one area, it didn’t work out in another.

So a bad ending?  Not really.  My problem was a weight issue brought forth by an improper diet and a lack of exercise, which was worsened by poor health which in fact prevented me from exercising. This doesn’t mean I was a slob, an idiot, a pig or whatever. Part of the issue with some obese people is one of addiction too. In no way am I comparing it in severity to smoking but let me remind you who judge harshly that if I stop smoking and I see an add on the tv on smoking, I can change the channel. For eating, at least 3 times a day I have to ingest food or it will lead to bad health, so I can just abstinence from the issue to make me healthy.

So anyway I’m a lucky guy.  Through great effort I took care of business, went on a program and proceeded to lose 106 pounds or so.  Next thing you know, no sleep apnea, not high blood pressure, no “borderline diabetic”, no headaches, etc etc etc.  This wasn’t easy and it’s a lifelong battle. It is so easy to fall back into the mode where “hey, just want to sit down and watch some TV for the evening”. I do that for too long and the butt gets used to the couch eheh.

I have put on a bit of weight (real crappy summer in Ottawa, haven’t been able to bike as often as I’d like), so I have to work that down but just to show you, I can see I’m not sleeping as well as I was during the end of the weight loss.  The sleep apnea is just waiting for a chance to creep back in it seems, so have to be vigilante.

ChadTower:

That's good info.  I'm fairly convinced, looking at the timing of when it came on for me, that it coincided with my powerlifting and when my neck was at its biggest.  It's not only fat - it is also documented that people with more muscular necks than average can also have apnea problems.  Of course, my neck isn't nearly as big as it once was, but at the time it was pretty big and I was carrying more bodyfat than I ever had (powerlifter's diet - as much as I could eat so long as it was whole foods).

I should get back on the CPAP horse.  It does make a real difference.  My challenge was always that while it makes sleep better as often as not it prevented sleep too.  I traded lots of poor sleep for miniscule amounts of good sleep.  It wasn't too much of a net win.

leapinlew:
is this the machine?

You totally got to MAME it.

mountain:
 :laugh2:

Screamin for Dig Dug artwork!

Xiaou2:
I dont know a lot about Apnea... however,  from looking at Katies pic,  I dont see
much in the line of Fat in the Neck area.   Looks pretty normal to me...


  I can tell you an interesting story however...

 
  When I was 5yrs old,  I was watching  TV.    On comes a commercial about Asthma.
I see this poor kid gasping and choking for air.    Strangely enough,  I thought to
myself:  "How am I breathing?"    As I never really pondered it before.

 All the sudden, I found that I could not physically breath anymore.   It was like I
forgot how to do it for a moment... and then it wouldnt re-start!   I was gasping my last
breaths singnaling to my mom,  trying to blurt out that I couldnt breath...

 Then,  she Slaps me heavily on the back and said something mean like: "Stop being an
Idiot".    As if I was faking the event.
 
 At the moment she hit me... it snapped my system out of the problem,
and I was able to finally breath again.

 
 I never faked the event... and I remember the day it happened almost like it
was yesterday.  It was scary as hell.   


 My point being... is that the Mind controls the bodys functions.   It somehow the
mind gets out of balance,  things can be thrown for a loop.   However,  things
like Meditation can help re-center the brain.

 While the problem may be purely physical for some...  maybe there is a problem with
the mind as well?   

 
 Also, breathing exercises are not exactly easy if you are doing them correctly.
Its very strenuous internally and who knows.. might be able to burn away anything
internally that may be clogging things up.

 At very least... it would greatly increase your O2 intake and bodys o2 capacity.

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