About 70% of people with obstructive sleep apnea are overweight. But does sleep apnea cause weight gain (or vice versa), or are these two things completely unrelated?
Sleep apnea is when the airway is partially blocked and breathing can stop for short periods of time while a person sleeps. Often your breathing only stops for 10 seconds at a time. However, these short stops can lead to multiple wakings during the night, gasping for air, snoring and daytime fatigue.
About snoring. The snoring happens when your neck muscles relax, the tissues of the airway collapse, and air is blocked leading to dropping oxygen levels.
How Weight Loss Helps Your Sleep Apnea
These episodes can lead to many other health problems including: diabetes or pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, acid reflux (GERD), brain fog or memory loss, and heart disease
Holding extra weight can contribute to sleep apnea, but is the opposite true? Can having sleep apnea make it hard for individuals to lose weight? Unfortunately for many people, the answer is YES! And here’s why…
Without treatment for sleep apnea or taking steps to get to a healthy weight, a vicious cycle occurs. Weight gain leads to sleep apnea, which leads to weight gain, which makes sleep apnea worse, which leads to more weight gain and so on.
Sleep Apnea And Weight
On the positive side, this cycle can work both ways. Getting treatment for sleep apnea can improve sleep quality, making it easier to lose weight. Research shows that losing even 10% of your weight can lead to a 20% drop in sleep apnea symptoms.
SnoreLab is an app that records snoring. By measuring nightly changes in your snoring intensity with SnoreLab, you can hear what you sound like, so you don’t just have to take your partner’s word for it!
Bring up your concerns with your primary care doctor, a pulmonary doctor or a sleep specialist. They will likely order a sleep study which can now be done in the comfort of your own home.
Don't Bother Trying To Lose Weight This Year Without Reading This
Proper treatment following test results can help you start getting back to the restful nights you deserve. The most common and effective treatment for sleep apnea is CPAP therapy. CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure, provides a constant stream of air that holds the airway open during sleep. Consistent use of a CPAP device can help reduce symptoms of brain fog, cardiovascular disease and heart attacks.
Try to Lose Excess Weight. Weight loss can help symptoms, but it won’t necessarily cure the disorder. Since symptoms can worsen if you gain weight, losing weight can help you combat symptoms of sleep apnea. One study showed that weight loss in moderately obese patients reduced the need for long-term CPAP therapy. Also, weight loss when combined with CPAP therapy may result in even greater weight loss.
✓ Avoid alcohol and certain medications such as tranquilizers and sleeping pills. These substances relax the muscles in the back of your throat and further interfere with breathing.
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✓ Sleep on your side or stomach rather than on your back. Sleeping on your back can cause your tongue and soft palate to rest against the back of your throat and block your airway.
To keep from rolling onto your back while you sleep, try attaching a tennis ball to the back of your pajama top. There are also commercial devices that vibrate when you roll onto your back in sleep.
✓ Don’t smoke. If you’re a smoker, look for resources to help you quit or ask your doctor about smoke cessation programs and medications.
How Weight Affects Sleep Apnea
✓ Consider Yoga. Yoga can help improve your oxygen flow and improve the strength of your lungs for better respiration. Breathing techniques used in Yoga can increase your oxygen levels.
✓ Try a humidifier in your bedroom. Dry air often causes irritation in the breathing passages. Making use of a humidifier while you sleep can help open your airways, reduce congestion, and promote clearer breathing.
✓ Consider using essential oils. Adding peppermint, lavender, or eucalyptus oil in your humidifier have been shown to provide soothing and anti-inflammatory benefits.
Sleep Apnoea And Weight Loss
✓ Treat congestion, acid reflux and cough. Individuals struggling with heavy snoring and sleep apnea can also experience heartburn, chronic cough, and congestion. Reduce your exposure to allergens, adjust your diet, and raise your head when sleeping to help reduce these symptoms.
For individuals who are experiencing difficulty sleeping, contact our office to sign up for our Better Sleep Group Coaching Program. If you are experiencing weight loss resistance, schedule a functional medicine consultation with our doctors to find out if sleep apnea may be at the root.
For individuals who are experiencing difficulty sleeping, contact our office to sign up for our Better Sleep Group Coaching Program — 516.801.1313. If you are experiencing weight loss resistance, schedule a functional medicine consultation with our doctors to find out if sleep apnea may be at the root.
Can Losing Weight Help Sleep Apnea? What To Know
Ready for the legal disclaimer? Information offered here is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. As with any health recommendations, please contact your doctor to be sure any changes you wish to consider are safe for you!Long term weight loss can have a significant impact on patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a common but serious sleep disorder. Weight maintenance is also of importance when considering long term success of apnea treatment, especially with oral appliance therapy (sleep mouthguards).
In this article, we will be sharing information on the relationship between weight changes after successful obstructive sleep apnea treatments as well as perspective on the best long term weight maintenance strategies.
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Unfortunately, many patients often continue to gain weight after successful apnea therapy, even though controlling apnea events helps regulate hormones that are involved in weight control and metabolism cycles. For information on hormone effects of untreated apnea affects see 4 Ways Sleep Apnea Affects Weight Loss Efforts.
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Our American lifestyle and access to processed foods makes weight loss efforts difficult. Obesity is expected to continue to rise in America, as is apnea.
Unfortunately, increased weight is one of the most significant predisposing factors for obstructive sleep apnea. And as individuals continue to gain weight across America, more people will have apnea.
For apnea patients, increases in weight may result in the need for higher therapeutic CPAP pressures. This, in return, can lead to mask leaks and lower compliance.
Reversing Sleep Apnea: Proof That Sleep Apnea Can Be Reversed By Losing Weight
Lower compliance can result in a return of apnea symptoms such as excessive daytime sleepiness, poor sleep quality, and snoring which had been relieved through earlier CPAP use.
Although CPAP therapy is a highly effective treatment choice for OSA, many people prefer to turn to oral appliance therapy, a common treatment alternative for apnea sufferers.
Most successful oral appliance therapy patients use custom dental mouth guards called mandibular advancement devices (MAD). The MADs work by advancing and stabilizing the jaw in a forward position. Muscles and tissues are prevented from collapsing into the airway, preventing the obstructive apnea events from occurring.
Does Sleep Apnea Cause Weight Gain?
For patients who are successful with oral appliance therapy, weight gain may lead to a return of apnea events and associated symptoms and cause the dental sleep mouthguard to be less effective or simply not work.
Should this occur, the dental sleep apnea mouthguard would need to be further advanced. However, a lower jaw (mandible) can be advanced only so far without discomfort. This limiting factor can lead to treatment failure. These patients may then need to stop oral appliance therapy, turn to CPAP therapy as a primary treatment choice or seek adjunctive therapies.
Body mass index or BMI is a way to help you figure out if you are at a healthy weight for your height. The BMI chart or calculator calculates a number range based on your weight and height. In general, the higher the number, the more body fat a person has. The BMI screening chart is often used to decide if your weight might be putting you at risk for health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
Sleep Apnea And Weight Gain
A perfect system for analyzing health for several reasons. BMI does not take into account gender differences nor adjust for athletic composition of muscle-fat ratios.Your calculated BMI index should be used ideally as a screening tool only.
It is not uncommon for an individual to have several medical visits to tackle sleep issues. During a patient’s journey through medical appointments, they have often been told to lose weight as part of the treatment recommendation to ‘reverse’ apnea or curb the severity. But rarely do medical providers give patients specific direction as to the
Of losing weight Those who struggle with weight know that “Eat healthier food and exercise more” is not enough to help them on their journey to better health.
Healthy Tips For Sleeping Better With Sleep Apnea
Admittedly, this is not an easy task for medical providers. There are many reasons for such little guidance. These may include a lack of nutrition and weight loss training in the medical field, time restraints during medical visits, and lack of a consensus of recommendations. Medical doctors have very little training in nutrition as they focus the majority of their time on disease management.
I personally feel that we as health leaders need to take a more proactive role in helping patients find tools and resources that discourage fad diets and encourage
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