When I was carrying 150lbs of extra weight, my sleep apnea was mild. After dropping 125, it disappeared. There's no CPAP, no apnea, and no snoring; these days I sleep soundly, like a baby. My wife's snoring used to sound like a motorbike. It got so bad that I kept earplugs close by. She has shed roughly the same percentage of body weight that I did, and now her snoring is nearly nonexistent... Thank you, Jesus!
OP, this is the response you were after. When you do a sleep study, you're seeing just a single night in one particular set of circumstances. That works well to detect and guide treatment for moderate to severe apnea, since the finding is clear-cut in those cases. Where it falls short is borderline situations: a dozen random variables can influence your airway, and results can shift depending on whether the test happens at the clinic, your own bed, or a hotel bed.QueenMuntha said:
Major Update:
Since Dec 2023, I've been using CPAP for my severe OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) diagnosis, which had an AHI of 49. CPAP treatment has worked wonderfully; I haven't skipped a single night, and my AHI while on CPAP ranges from 0.0 to 0.2. Fantastic.
A week ago, I had two wisdom teeth extracted. They were located deep in the sinus and had bulbous roots, so my oral surgeon instructed me to keep my CPAP (BiLevel) off for Two Weeks. I expected that not using it would cause nightly AFib episodes, but I'm complying with his orders because I've heard a Dry Socket is the absolute worst.
Thus, over the last two nights, I conducted an experiment using my Wellue O2 ring—I wore it nonstop throughout the whole night-morning.
Consider me shocked. My untreated, no-CPAP night showed no oxygen dips under 92%! Holy shit! Since beginning GLP-1s last June, I've dropped 65 pounds, but since I still have 120 pounds left to lose, that's really not a huge amount of weight loss.
I've read that GLP1s fix OSA through more than just weight loss—they lower inflammation in the throat's tissue and reduce adipose tissue, and some people even think it involves brain-stimulated mechanisms for the entire breathing system.
I've booked an at-home Sleep Test to formally verify the results. This is insane!
So, in my case, beginning this class of medications has:
The weight loss is merely a bonus compared to the many other benefits these drugs are giving me. Although I've found that Reta causes gall bladder issues, Tirzepatide will likely be my lifelong choice, provided my overseas friends keep making it.
- Moved me from Stage 3 Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), where my eGFR was 49, down to Stage 2, where my eGFR is 78.
- Got rid of the agonizing chronic pain from bilateral knee osteoarthritis, which was bone-on-bone (no surgeon would perform a knee replacement due to my starting weight. [thank God now]). The pain was so crippling that I needed a cane full-time, and because of CKD I couldn't take any pain medication other than Tylenol.
- Completely cured my Overactive Bladder, so I no longer need fucking adult protection. Like, entirely.
- Completely wiped out my IBS.
- Halted Gout flares that Allopurinol wasn't fully resolving.
- Thus far seems to have sent my sleep apnea (severe obstructive) into remission
- Bringing lipedema down to levels I never imagined
- Sharply improving PCOS markers
- Gave me a new sensation of actually enjoying going out again, since I can now do it without getting breathless or needing a cane.
AND, don't get me started on what GLOW has done for me--THAT deserves its own separate post.
My GLP1 doses starting June 25
View attachment 149
Man, that's wild — 10 years in, you'd assume it was permanent. That's awesome.
The sleeping-position part is what caught my attention.tubby said:
OP, this is the response you were after. When you do a sleep study, you're seeing just a single night in one particular set of circumstances. That works well to detect and guide treatment for moderate to severe apnea, since the finding is clear-cut in those cases. Where it falls short is borderline situations: a dozen random variables can influence your airway, and results can shift depending on whether the test happens at the clinic, your own bed, or a hotel bed.QueenMuntha said:
Major Update:
Since Dec 2023, I've been using CPAP for my severe OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) diagnosis, which had an AHI of 49. CPAP treatment has worked wonderfully; I haven't skipped a single night, and my AHI while on CPAP ranges from 0.0 to 0.2. Fantastic.
A week ago, I had two wisdom teeth extracted. They were located deep in the sinus and had bulbous roots, so my oral surgeon instructed me to keep my CPAP (BiLevel) off for Two Weeks. I expected that not using it would cause nightly AFib episodes, but I'm complying with his orders because I've heard a Dry Socket is the absolute worst.
Thus, over the last two nights, I conducted an experiment using my Wellue O2 ring—I wore it nonstop throughout the whole night-morning.
Consider me shocked. My untreated, no-CPAP night showed no oxygen dips under 92%! Holy shit! Since beginning GLP-1s last June, I've dropped 65 pounds, but since I still have 120 pounds left to lose, that's really not a huge amount of weight loss.
I've read that GLP1s fix OSA through more than just weight loss—they lower inflammation in the throat's tissue and reduce adipose tissue, and some people even think it involves brain-stimulated mechanisms for the entire breathing system.
I've booked an at-home Sleep Test to formally verify the results. This is insane!
So, in my case, beginning this class of medications has:
The weight loss is merely a bonus compared to the many other benefits these drugs are giving me. Although I've found that Reta causes gall bladder issues, Tirzepatide will likely be my lifelong choice, provided my overseas friends keep making it.
- Moved me from Stage 3 Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), where my eGFR was 49, down to Stage 2, where my eGFR is 78.
- Got rid of the agonizing chronic pain from bilateral knee osteoarthritis, which was bone-on-bone (no surgeon would perform a knee replacement due to my starting weight. [thank God now]). The pain was so crippling that I needed a cane full-time, and because of CKD I couldn't take any pain medication other than Tylenol.
- Completely cured my Overactive Bladder, so I no longer need fucking adult protection. Like, entirely.
- Completely wiped out my IBS.
- Halted Gout flares that Allopurinol wasn't fully resolving.
- Thus far seems to have sent my sleep apnea (severe obstructive) into remission
- Bringing lipedema down to levels I never imagined
- Sharply improving PCOS markers
- Gave me a new sensation of actually enjoying going out again, since I can now do it without getting breathless or needing a cane.
AND, don't get me started on what GLOW has done for me--THAT deserves its own separate post.
My GLP1 doses starting June 25
View attachment 149
Having your own ring also lets you check whether sleeping on your side is needed, or whether you might manage on your back with no machine, and how those two positions stack up.
If mild OSA remains an issue, another option to explore is a dental appliance — custom-made by your dentist or a self-fit version from an inexpensive Amazon kit — to see whether it's enough to resolve your OSA. It can bring some minor jaw problems, but you might be able to keep CPAP at home and pack the dental appliance for travel, because it's far easier to carry, assuming it controls your current level of sleep apnea.
Finally, certain people have dialed in stomach-sleeping positions and discovered that their personally adjusted stomach placement is enough to resolve their current degree of OSA. That gets more involved than I want to get into here, but a little searching on OSA forums should turn up a fuller description of what I mean.
And clearly, no matter what the pulse oximeter reports, how you're feeling the following morning matters a lot too. Still, I wouldn't make a decision based only on how you feel, because it's common to cope with mild sleep apnea while negative health consequences still occur without "feeling" it when the next day arrives.
Yep, you’ve landed on the same logic. I tried to locate the thread I had in mind and couldn’t, so I had my chatbot pal search it out, and it found the thing:lessthanhalf said:
The sleeping-position part is what caught my attention.tubby said:
OP, this is the response you were after. When you do a sleep study, you're seeing just a single night in one particular set of circumstances. That works well to detect and guide treatment for moderate to severe apnea, since the finding is clear-cut in those cases. Where it falls short is borderline situations: a dozen random variables can influence your airway, and results can shift depending on whether the test happens at the clinic, your own bed, or a hotel bed.QueenMuntha said:
Major Update:
Since Dec 2023, I've been using CPAP for my severe OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) diagnosis, which had an AHI of 49. CPAP treatment has worked wonderfully; I haven't skipped a single night, and my AHI while on CPAP ranges from 0.0 to 0.2. Fantastic.
A week ago, I had two wisdom teeth extracted. They were located deep in the sinus and had bulbous roots, so my oral surgeon instructed me to keep my CPAP (BiLevel) off for Two Weeks. I expected that not using it would cause nightly AFib episodes, but I'm complying with his orders because I've heard a Dry Socket is the absolute worst.
Thus, over the last two nights, I conducted an experiment using my Wellue O2 ring—I wore it nonstop throughout the whole night-morning.
Consider me shocked. My untreated, no-CPAP night showed no oxygen dips under 92%! Holy shit! Since beginning GLP-1s last June, I've dropped 65 pounds, but since I still have 120 pounds left to lose, that's really not a huge amount of weight loss.
I've read that GLP1s fix OSA through more than just weight loss—they lower inflammation in the throat's tissue and reduce adipose tissue, and some people even think it involves brain-stimulated mechanisms for the entire breathing system.
I've booked an at-home Sleep Test to formally verify the results. This is insane!
So, in my case, beginning this class of medications has:
The weight loss is merely a bonus compared to the many other benefits these drugs are giving me. Although I've found that Reta causes gall bladder issues, Tirzepatide will likely be my lifelong choice, provided my overseas friends keep making it.
- Moved me from Stage 3 Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), where my eGFR was 49, down to Stage 2, where my eGFR is 78.
- Got rid of the agonizing chronic pain from bilateral knee osteoarthritis, which was bone-on-bone (no surgeon would perform a knee replacement due to my starting weight. [thank God now]). The pain was so crippling that I needed a cane full-time, and because of CKD I couldn't take any pain medication other than Tylenol.
- Completely cured my Overactive Bladder, so I no longer need fucking adult protection. Like, entirely.
- Completely wiped out my IBS.
- Halted Gout flares that Allopurinol wasn't fully resolving.
- Thus far seems to have sent my sleep apnea (severe obstructive) into remission
- Bringing lipedema down to levels I never imagined
- Sharply improving PCOS markers
- Gave me a new sensation of actually enjoying going out again, since I can now do it without getting breathless or needing a cane.
AND, don't get me started on what GLOW has done for me--THAT deserves its own separate post.
My GLP1 doses starting June 25
View attachment 149
Having your own ring also lets you check whether sleeping on your side is needed, or whether you might manage on your back with no machine, and how those two positions stack up.
If mild OSA remains an issue, another option to explore is a dental appliance — custom-made by your dentist or a self-fit version from an inexpensive Amazon kit — to see whether it's enough to resolve your OSA. It can bring some minor jaw problems, but you might be able to keep CPAP at home and pack the dental appliance for travel, because it's far easier to carry, assuming it controls your current level of sleep apnea.
Finally, certain people have dialed in stomach-sleeping positions and discovered that their personally adjusted stomach placement is enough to resolve their current degree of OSA. That gets more involved than I want to get into here, but a little searching on OSA forums should turn up a fuller description of what I mean.
And clearly, no matter what the pulse oximeter reports, how you're feeling the following morning matters a lot too. Still, I wouldn't make a decision based only on how you feel, because it's common to cope with mild sleep apnea while negative health consequences still occur without "feeling" it when the next day arrives.
Over time, I’ve settled into a peculiar sleeping posture: face down and on my left side, with a slight prop from around 5 pillows. The primary aim was avoiding waking with a terribly dry, painful throat brought on by snoring. My thinking was that, in that pose, my jaw would drop forward instead of backward during sleep, easing both the snoring and the sore throat it caused. That sounds much like your description; it hadn’t crossed my mind to search for it and find out whether others did the same. If anything, this probably strengthens the case that I truly had sleep apnea. At this point, though, I don’t snore at all, and my samsung watch indicates no sleep apnea, so having it checked now is likely unnecessary—unless I’m foolish enough to put back a lot of weight. Mostly out of habit, I still sleep that way.
It's wonderful to see you out here grinding away, since a lot of us are walking this very same path. Here's to your health, your objectives, and the progress you're making!
