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Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

temertymedicine.utoronto.ca

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Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#71

Post by al_borland »

chasebank wrote: post #53
kiddz wrote: post #25

I have severe obstructive sleep apnea -- am 6ft and 210. I wear a CPAP and now swear by it. A couple things to help those who try: 1) Make sure you have a CPAP machine with a water tank so the forced air is moist. For me, if the water runs out, that's when I wake up bc my nose dries. 2) Get a spray saline solution for your nose -- not Afrin or drugs (habit inducing) -- just simple and cheap Arm & Hammer Simply Saline…

Have you tried losing weight and if so, did that help?

My dad used a CPAP for many years and was quite the evangelist for them due to how significantly it improved his quality of life. At one point, when trying to nudge him toward weight loss and diet changes for type 2 diabetes, I mentioned it may also help with his sleep apnea. He was adamant that the type of sleep apnea he had would exist no matter what and weight loss wouldn't help... apparently his doctor told him this. Fast forward 5 years, he ends up in a program for his diabetes that put him on a pretty extreme elimination diet which led to him losing a pretty significant amount of weight. During that time he kept having to turn the pressure on the CPAP down, until eventually even the lowest setting was too strong and he was able to get off the CPAP completely. For over a decade he talked about how happy that CPAP made him, he almost seemed proud of it. However, he got pretty emotional when he found out he was able to get off of it. As much as it may help, it is still a burden to need a machine to sleep.

I know it's an N of one, but it shows it can help and is worth a shot. Even if it doesn't completely resolve the sleep apnea, there are so many other additional benefits.

After an alert from my Apple Watch and a few extremely rough nights of sleep when my weight hit an all time high, I scheduled a sleep study for myself. It's 2-3 months out still, so I plan to lose what I can while I wait to see how much it can help. Even the first 10 lbs was a significant help and stopped the truly awful sleep I had for a week or two.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#72

Post by deepspace »

procone wrote: post #49
an0malous wrote: post #29

I went through the whole process of seeing an ENT, using the machine for the at-home sleep study so insurance would give me a CPAP, then not being able to sleep with a CPAP, and over the course of a couple years I fixed my sleep apnea by fixing my posture and breathing. If you have forward head posture or are not used to breathing through your nose, you might also benefit from this. I think it’s kind of crazy that we…

What a ridiculous post. Please leave the Reddit pseudoscience at the door. There are researchers actively working and studying people with sleep apnea. They're not suffering from "forward head posture" or "breathing wrong". I have severe sleep apnea and no amount of "breathing exercises" are going to cause my soft palate to uncollapse itself while I'm trying to get REM sleep.

Yes! It is a shame that this kind of nonsense gets upvoted. Pure snake oil.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#73

Post by deepspace »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #19
ElijahLynn wrote: post #5

It only reduces by 4 events per hour. That seems like it might be helpful for someone with mild sleep apnea. But not with moderate or severe sleep apnea. Adult AHI Severity Levels Normal: Less than (5) events per hour. Mild Sleep Apnea: (5) to (14.9) events per hour (frequent minor interruptions). Moderate Sleep Apnea: (15) to (29.9) events per hour.Severe Sleep Apnea: (30) or more events per hour. "By mapping the ne…

They say later in the article that the pill is a good option for folks that can't or won't use the CPAP. A CPAP is really effective, so it would be first line treatment. If I couldn't use one but needed it, I'd be happy to have fewer events per hour than all of it. Improvement is better than nothing in this case. Besides, a lot of drugs are improved after the initial breakthrough drug - so this gives hope that we mig…

CPAP reduces my AHI from 55-60 down to less than 0.5. For people with severe sleep apnea, an 'improvement' of 4 events per hour does absolutely nothing for their health and provides a false sense of security. Their time, money, and energy is much better spent learning how to adapt to CPAP.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#74

Post by procone »

tedk-42 wrote: post #60
procone wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a ridiculous post. Please leave the Reddit pseudoscience at the door. There are researchers actively working and studying people with sleep apnea. They're not suffering from "forward head posture" or "breathing wrong". I have severe sleep apnea and no amount of "breathing exercises" are going to cause my soft palate to uncollapse itself while I'm trying to get REM sleep.

Do you run regularly? Overweight by chance? I've put on a bit of weight sunce having kids and my breathing at night is much worse than before.

You have no idea what you're talking about and it shows by what you choose to type.

It's not exclusively caused by fitness or lack thereof. A cursory Google search would show you this. It's not "breathing at night", it's literally suffocating in your sleep.

This place used to be full of intellectuals. It's a real shame.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#76

Post by UberFly »

justinator wrote: post #47
an0malous wrote: post #29

I went through the whole process of seeing an ENT, using the machine for the at-home sleep study so insurance would give me a CPAP, then not being able to sleep with a CPAP, and over the course of a couple years I fixed my sleep apnea by fixing my posture and breathing. If you have forward head posture or are not used to breathing through your nose, you might also benefit from this. I think it’s kind of crazy that we…

> what I believe in many cases is a structural issue Many cases it is not. I'm not trying to be a contrarian but I don't want to plant hope in some people who suffer from sleep apnea thinking it's something they can just do breathing exercises for. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/central-sleep...

In MOST cases it actually is a structural issue. The brain anomaly that causes paused and intermittent breathing is much more rare.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#77

Post by dnnddidiej »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #38
gpt5 wrote: post #2

People should be more aware of the symptoms of sleep apneas - the lack of energy during the day, feeling tired, waking up throughout the night, waking up tired/exhausted, etc. People with untreated sleep apnea have multiple folds higher chances to be depressed, unemployed, and have trouble with basic life functions, in addition to the long term health consequences of depriving your brain from Oxygen. I've suggested 4…

#1 symptom - fat necks! if you are like me and had a 17" neck at 185 in high school and now boast a 18.5".... you have it!

Why is that?

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#78

Post by 01100011 »

chasebank wrote: post #53
kiddz wrote: post #25

I have severe obstructive sleep apnea -- am 6ft and 210. I wear a CPAP and now swear by it. A couple things to help those who try: 1) Make sure you have a CPAP machine with a water tank so the forced air is moist. For me, if the water runs out, that's when I wake up bc my nose dries. 2) Get a spray saline solution for your nose -- not Afrin or drugs (habit inducing) -- just simple and cheap Arm & Hammer Simply Saline…

Have you tried losing weight and if so, did that help?

I was diagnosed while skinny. I do have a fat and long tongue though.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#79

Post by JoeyJoJoJr »

ajkjk wrote: post #57
justinator wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what I believe in many cases is a structural issue Many cases it is not. I'm not trying to be a contrarian but I don't want to plant hope in some people who suffer from sleep apnea thinking it's something they can just do breathing exercises for. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/central-sleep...

fwiw I really believe it is , my sleep problems come and go based on entirely physical variables--how flexible I feel, how much time I spent "shrimping", how tight my back and neck are. Personally I would not be surprised at all if in 50-100 years we look back on this era as one where we massively overprescribed CPAP machines to treat an entirely-fixable condition in most people (alongside all the other medical inter…

I don’t think it’s an outlandish take at all. You can possibly also put orthotics and spectacles in the list of interventions as solutions to problems largely induced by unnatural adaptations to an unnatural environment.
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