Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug
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Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug
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Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug
#2People 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 people over the last couple of years to get tested based on them casually mentioning some of these symptoms, and all 4 got diagnosed with moderate to severe sleep apnea (which is classified by the number of times you stopped breathing every hour - AHI, and the blood oxygen level). Getting tested is easy and cheap - you can find kits for under $100 which essentially are just a monitor you attach your finger + a few ECG stickers on your body which you use for a couple of nights. You can order them online without talking to a doctor, and you will get a prescription for CPAP if you are diagnosed as positive.
Treatment with CPAP is highly effective in eliminating these symptoms, and also reversing the brain damage (although MRI scans shows that it takes around a year for the gray matter in your brain to restore itself).
The other suggestion I'd make is that if you are overweight or obese, GLP-1 has proven to be also a miracle drug for sleep apnea. Unlike the study mentioned above, that essentially reduced the average AHI of participants by 4, which for almost everyone wouldn't cure them. Drugs like Zepbound have shown that over half are cured from sleep apnea after roughly a year of use. This is in addition to the other health benefits they provide with the weight reduction. Essentially. This unfortunately won't work for everyone, as weight is not the only cause of sleep apnea, but it is by far the most common one.
Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug
#3I don't have sleep apnea, as in, my severe snoring doesn't cause significant drops in blood oxygen levels, but it's still severely impacted my life - when my wife and I married, I spent the first night of our honeymoon awake so that she could sleep.
Oh and it's so loud that I'm at risk of damaging my own hearing.
And I bounced off CPAP hard, no matter what I tried, I would eventually remove the mask in my sleep, it was heartbreaking, I was so excited to finally be able to fall asleep beside my wife.
I also tried the mouth guards and would wake up panicking and gagging.
So my only other option currently is self-funding expensive surgery (our public system doesn't fund treatment for severe snoring unless it causes apnoea, and my private health insurance excludes the most expensive portions shrug), which like all surgery, carries no guarantees of success, and also carries the risk that any general anaesthesia application does.
So this is awesome! I just hope it continues proving efficacious and safe.
Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug
#4The drug is called AD109, but the title seems misleading as the drug is apparently still under trial, though it has shown good results there so far
Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug
#5It 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 neural circuits that lead to this common condition, work from the Horner lab laid the foundation for AD109, a new treatment developed by researchers in Boston to specifically target the two pathways that contribute to sleep apnea. The daily oral medication contains two drugs: one that increases noradrenaline levels and another that blocks muscarinic receptors.
In a recently published phase 3 randomized clinical trial, people with mild to severe sleep apnea who received AD109 had less airway obstruction and higher oxygen levels than those who received a placebo. On average, per hour of sleep, participants on AD109 had four fewer events where they stopped breathing or had very shallow breathing."
Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug
#6People 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…
> People should be more aware of the symptoms of sleep apneas
I'm always a bit puzzled that this needs to be pointed out? I don't have sleep apnea per se, at least not chronically, but I've definitely had bouts of it due to allergy, sickness, stuff like that. The symptoms are the same because the mechanism is the same: I didn't get enough oxygen in the night.
It's always glaringly obvious to me the next day. I feel way more tired and exhausted than I normally would given the amount of sleep. I sometimes had instances of waking up gasping for air.
I really don't need to be told in those instances that there was an issue during the night. My sleep didn't sleep, of course there's something wrong and needs to be looked at?
Like, one time's a fluke, but if it happens a lot...
Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug
#7Great. Something like 60% of OSA cases are linked to obesity. GLP-1 drugs could probably lead to resolution for a lot of them if the Lilly SURMOUNT-OSA trial tells us anything.
Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug
#8I highly recommend BongoRX (https://bongorx.com/) if you have sleep apnea and can't deal with CPAP. The mechanism: it makes it a little harder to breathe out, which keeps your airways more open when you breathe in next.
The pictures on the website are a little misleading: it comes with a strap to keep the device in your nostrils, so they don't just fall out in the middle of the night.
FDA-approved, and does require a prescription...
Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug
#9People 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…
> People should be more aware of the symptoms of sleep apneas I'm always a bit puzzled that this needs to be pointed out? I don't have sleep apnea per se, at least not chronically, but I've definitely had bouts of it due to allergy, sickness, stuff like that. The symptoms are the same because the mechanism is the same: I didn't get enough oxygen in the night. It's always glaringly obvious to me the next day. I feel w…
It’s typically something that sets in over time (often, but not always with weight gain and age), most people don’t notice because it’s gradual. Especially if they aren’t in normal risk groups. OSA symptoms are easy for an individual (and clinicians) to misatribute
Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People should be more aware of the symptoms of sleep apneas I'm always a bit puzzled that this needs to be pointed out? I don't have sleep apnea per se, at least not chronically, but I've definitely had bouts of it due to allergy, sickness, stuff like that. The symptoms are the same because the mechanism is the same: I didn't get enough oxygen in the night. It's always glaringly obvious to me the next day. I feel w…
It’s typically something that sets in over time (often, but not always with weight gain and age), most people don’t notice because it’s gradual. Especially if they aren’t in normal risk groups. OSA symptoms are easy for an individual (and clinicians) to misatribute
Yeah, but I've met people who think it's "normal" to wake up tired and exhausted even after multiple (or even many) nights of sufficient sleep, time-wise.
I remember one person who thought waking up tired is just part of being an adult?
The original comment said "multiple folds higher chances to be depressed, unemployed", for me that's a bit like saying that being on fire has a very high chance to make you depressed and unemployed.
Yeah, of course that's true, but the effect on performance and well-being after a sleep apnea night is so obvious to me, I don't have to look for the proximate cause...
EDIT: Through the other answer came to me that maybe in other cases, it's not so directly obvious just after waking up.