My Life and Sleep Apnea

There has been a lot of information on the web lately about how losing weight will help with sleep apnea. A study done at the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University in Philadelphia has come to the conclusion that a loss of 10 percent will greatly reduce sleep apnea in patients. Most of headlines that I have read will have you believe that is just folks with sleep apnea. The study was actually done with people who also had type 2 diabetes. This all sounds encouraging but I can’t see that losing 10 percent of your weight can have that much effect on sleep apnea because not all sleep apnea is caused by being overweight . My father had sleep apnea and he wasn’t overweight. Losing weight wasn’t an option for him and even if it was it wouldn’t have helped his sleep apnea. The other causes of sleep apnea are: The size and shape of your head may cause the airway in your mouth to be smaller When you get older your brain sends signals to the muscles in the mouth ...

There is a direct correlation between sleep apnea and diabetes. Twelve million Americans have sleep apnea and 23 million have diabetes. Studies have shown that forty percent of sleep apnea sufferers have diabetes. At one time the excess weight that usually accompanies sleep apnea was seen as the connecting factor to diabetes. But now the connection seems to be the reaction the body has to the sudden jolt of waking up caused by sleep apnea. High levels hormone cortisol is produced which causes insulin and glucose intolerance. This may lead to the development of diabetes. The use of cpap reduces the insulin resistance. Feel free to comment and please subscribe to my RSS Feed thanks