CPAP machine question: have you lost enough to stop using yours?

queenoscots
queenoscots Posts: 44 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've used a CPAP machine to control my sleep apnea for several years. One of my weight loss goals is to lose enough weight to have a curative effect on my sleep apnea and be able to discontinue using the machine. Has anyone out there managed to do that? I've lost 130 lbs, and next month is my yearly pulmonology check up so I want to approach the doctor about a retest. Tell me your stories!

Replies

  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    Yes! After I reached my goal of 150 lost, I was retested and was cured. If your condition is genetic/anatomical, weight loss doesn’t cure it. Good luck!
    My retest was fine at home using sensors on my machine, not in the sleep lab.
  • dejavuohlala
    dejavuohlala Posts: 1,821 Member
    Was it defiantly a weight issue that required you to need a cpap machine? I know several people that are not overweight and have needed to use cpap at some time or other
  • makkimakki2018
    makkimakki2018 Posts: 414 Member


    Im 5'9" 140lbs, but i still wake up randomly throughout some nights. This leads to sore eyes, head aches, and overall exhaustion. I dont always use the sleep app machine, but when i do i use it to recover my tired and battered body through direct oxygen flow. It seems to do the trick and i feel rejuvenated the following day.
  • queenoscots
    queenoscots Posts: 44 Member
    dejavuohlala wrote: »
    Was it defiantly a weight issue that required you to need a cpap machine? I know several people that are not overweight and have needed to use cpap at some time or other

    My weight was definitely a contributing factor, and some people are able to go without the cpap after losing enough weight. I've used my machine faithfully for three plus years, but I'd love to sleep without it. I guess only an updated sleep study will tell me.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,953 Member
    edited December 2018
    I'd hoped that losing weight would eliminate my need for the CPAP, but it didn't.

    I started at around BMI 30-point-something, so just over the line into obese. I'd been using the CPAP for 10 years or so, at that point.

    I lost down to BMI 19.3 (overshot goal weight a little). I found that I needed a lower-pressure CPAP prescription, but still needed the CPAP. I'm now in year 3 of maintaining around BMI 22, and that's still true.

    Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get that reduced-pressure prescription (long freakin' story), but still need the CPAP or I wake up with sore throat & headache. Sometimes, I wake up feeling like the danged machine is trying to drown me in air . . . . :|
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    I went from a BMI > 33 to < 25 and from moderate to severe apnea to just moderate. Pressure is lower. I am pretty much 100% compliant because of how much difference it made before. Doc tells me I can get away with a night here and there easier now. That was important to me as I want to do some overnight trips touring on my SUP; paddling out to an island park and camping.
  • itzcath
    itzcath Posts: 94 Member
    I work in a sleep clinic and have seen several patients lose significant weight.

    Retesting with a level 3 take home device is a good idea. Sometimes with weight loss sleep apnea improves, or resolves completely.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,953 Member
    itzcath wrote: »
    I work in a sleep clinic and have seen several patients lose significant weight.

    Retesting with a level 3 take home device is a good idea. Sometimes with weight loss sleep apnea improves, or resolves completely.

    Just for the interest value: Part of my long story (see related post above) is that I test inaccurately with simple tests.

    My CPAP will go to max pressure when I'm sleeping, consistently. It will climb about halfway even when I'm awake and reading and breathing normally - something the sleep clinic tech told me doesn't happen, until she saw it in person.

    (My theory, and it's only a theory, is that they don't often see semi-fit people using CPAPs. My HR will drop into the 40s when I'm sleeping or sometimes even resting - confirmed by my doctor as fitness related. I think my respiration rate drops along with it, and the machine thinks I've stopped breathing.)

    I'm still arguing with them about it. Sigh.
  • itzcath
    itzcath Posts: 94 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    itzcath wrote: »
    I work in a sleep clinic and have seen several patients lose significant weight.

    Retesting with a level 3 take home device is a good idea. Sometimes with weight loss sleep apnea improves, or resolves completely.

    Just for the interest value: Part of my long story (see related post above) is that I test inaccurately with simple tests.

    My CPAP will go to max pressure when I'm sleeping, consistently. It will climb about halfway even when I'm awake and reading and breathing normally - something the sleep clinic tech told me doesn't happen, until she saw it in person.

    (My theory, and it's only a theory, is that they don't often see semi-fit people using CPAPs. My HR will drop into the 40s when I'm sleeping or sometimes even resting - confirmed by my doctor as fitness related. I think my respiration rate drops along with it, and the machine thinks I've stopped breathing.)

    I'm still arguing with them about it. Sigh.

    If your sleep apnea is complicated you should also be seeing a sleep specialist physician in conjunction with your respiratory therapist at least once a year.

    The sleep specialist would recommend the best method of retesting for you based on your history and download information. In-lab testing can also be done with or without CPAP. There are also different types of machines. BIPAP as opposed to an auto or fixed pressure device.

    Everyone is a snowflake. Only your sleep specialist can recommend the right treatment for you based on your history.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,953 Member
    edited December 2018
    itzcath wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    itzcath wrote: »
    I work in a sleep clinic and have seen several patients lose significant weight.

    Retesting with a level 3 take home device is a good idea. Sometimes with weight loss sleep apnea improves, or resolves completely.

    Just for the interest value: Part of my long story (see related post above) is that I test inaccurately with simple tests.

    My CPAP will go to max pressure when I'm sleeping, consistently. It will climb about halfway even when I'm awake and reading and breathing normally - something the sleep clinic tech told me doesn't happen, until she saw it in person.

    (My theory, and it's only a theory, is that they don't often see semi-fit people using CPAPs. My HR will drop into the 40s when I'm sleeping or sometimes even resting - confirmed by my doctor as fitness related. I think my respiration rate drops along with it, and the machine thinks I've stopped breathing.)

    I'm still arguing with them about it. Sigh.

    If your sleep apnea is complicated you should also be seeing a sleep specialist physician in conjunction with your respiratory therapist at least once a year.

    The sleep specialist would recommend the best method of retesting for you based on your history and download information. In-lab testing can also be done with or without CPAP. There are also different types of machines. BIPAP as opposed to an auto or fixed pressure device.

    Everyone is a snowflake. Only your sleep specialist can recommend the right treatment for you based on your history.

    Thanks - I have a sleep specialist, in theory. Right now, I'm caught in a weird medical Bermuda triangle between insurance company (which won't pay at for sleep studies unless a "CPAP management appointment" with a tech justifies), sleep docs (who want to do new-patient intake because it's been awhile and old doc retired, but says they can't schedule me until they fill a "new patient coordinator" position), and the tech who waited too long to write up the CPAP management visit, forgot she saw pressure rise while I was awake, and wrote up mumbo jumbo based on my CPAP SD card data and my long-previous sleep study. I work on it for a while, then lose will. It'll get sorted eventually. ;)

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