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+--- Thread: Slim members with sleep apnea? AHI? Experience? Improvement? (/Thread-Slim-members-with-sleep-apnea-AHI-Experience-Improvement)
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Slim members with sleep apnea? AHI? Experience? Improvement? - Kryogen - 09-09-2017
Hi, I am wondering if we have many members here that are slim, and are not suffering from obstructive apnea because of the excess weight.
I am 120 pounds and so I was often told I wasnt having sleep apnea because I wasn't fat.
I usually can't breathe through my nose during the day, mostly blocked, allergies or whatever else. I have been on nasonex for 2 years and it has helped somewhat.
I was always tired and waking up with headaches, often all sweaty with the heart pounding and catching my breath. Not a lot of snoring.
I ended up having a home test, which gave an ahi of 4, so I was told I wasn't really having sleep apnea.
I went to a sleep clinic, and I got again an ahi of 4, but an index with the micro wakings of 12 or something because of resp events, so I was told I had mild apnea.
I have been testing an apap for 3 weeks, and first week I noticed that I was waking up less tired (not hugely less tired, but feeling more normal and ready to get up), with no headaches, and often, dry instead of the usual all sweaty.
So, I guess it's doing something good.
(Last 2 weeks I got the flu, so I'm tired and having headaches but there's a cause....) So I wasn't really able to see how I feel, because I just feel bad because of the flu.
Prescription is 7-12, 90% pressure is 8.5.
AHI average is 2.7, treated (so that kind if makes me doubt that it was a real 4 untreated, maybe I just had "good" nights during the tests?).
Weird thing, AHI was 8 the first night, and 6.5 the next night, (with more than half being central apneas) and then dropped to around 2-3 all the time now.
Getting hypopneas a little more than the rest now, and then FL, CA, and some OA.
Like I was having a lot of central apneas before the cpap, and now with the CPAP I'm getting way less centrals?
Oh well, so that's it, I am trying the machine another month before I buy.
How does my experience compare to some other slim members with lower AHIs?
I wonder if I really need the machine, if it's really helping. I guess I need to see how I feel for another month without a virus and evaluate. But I don't understand how I can have a treated AHI of 3 and an untreated 4, doesn't make sense to me.
Anyone wants to comment?
RE: Slim members with sleep apnea? AHI? Experience? Improvement? - OpalRose - 09-09-2017
It's a misconception that slim people can't have sleep apnea. It's a misconception that only overweight people have apnea.
It's more about your anatomy.
You state you've always had a hard time breathing through your nose. Is it possible your throat and airway passages are narrow?
Your sleep study showed an AHI of 4, but you had micro awakening events of 12.
This is called RDI or Respiratory Distrubance Index.
From Wiki:
[The respiratory disturbance index (RDI) — or respiratory distress Index — is a formula used in reporting polysomnography (sleep study) findings. Like the apnea hypopnea index (AHI), it reports on respiratory events during sleep, but unlike the AHI, it also includes respiratory-effort related arousas (RERAs). RERAs are arousals from sleep that do not technically meet the definitions of apneas or hypopneas, but do disrupt sleep. They are abrupt transitions from a deeper stage of sleep to a shallower.
So you see, you had an AHI of 16. (AHI of 4 + an RDI of 12= 16.)
Also, your APAP machine records RERA's. (RDI index) You can see this on #SleepyHead software.
If you are achieving an AHI of 2.7 now, then your machine is doing its job.
When you start to feel better, post some data here and we can take a look.
RE: Slim members with sleep apnea? AHI? Experience? Improvement? - Kryogen - 09-10-2017
So most people here have apnea because of an overweight issue?
RE: Slim members with sleep apnea? AHI? Experience? Improvement? - chill - 09-10-2017
No, the opposite. Most people don't have sleep apnea from an overweight issue. It is an anatomical issue. Overweight can aggravate it in some people, it depends on their anatomy. Infants can have sleep apnea.
RE: Slim members with sleep apnea? AHI? Experience? Improvement? - Gary1of2 - 09-10-2017
I am not over weight and I have high mild. Part is central but most are not. My sinuses are clear. It depends on you anatomy. The effect of the therapy might not show full effect for months. Some people take 3 to 6 months or more to fell a lot better. Each of us are differant. Keep up with it it gets better.
RE: Slim members with sleep apnea? AHI? Experience? Improvement? - Kryogen - 09-10-2017
Great will report
RE: Slim members with sleep apnea? AHI? Experience? Improvement? - jsielke - 09-11-2017
(09-09-2017, 08:41 PM)Kryogen Wrote: Hi, I am wondering if we have many members here that are slim, and are not suffering from obstructive apnea because of the excess weight.
I am 120 pounds and so I was often told I wasnt having sleep apnea because I wasn't fat.
I usually can't breathe through my nose during the day, mostly blocked, allergies or whatever else. I have been on nasonex for 2 years and it has helped somewhat.
I was always tired and waking up with headaches, often all sweaty with the heart pounding and catching my breath. Not a lot of snoring.
I ended up having a home test, which gave an ahi of 4, so I was told I wasn't really having sleep apnea.
I went to a sleep clinic, and I got again an ahi of 4, but an index with the micro wakings of 12 or something because of resp events, so I was told I had mild apnea.
I have been testing an apap for 3 weeks, and first week I noticed that I was waking up less tired (not hugely less tired, but feeling more normal and ready to get up), with no headaches, and often, dry instead of the usual all sweaty.
So, I guess it's doing something good.
(Last 2 weeks I got the flu, so I'm tired and having headaches but there's a cause....) So I wasn't really able to see how I feel, because I just feel bad because of the flu.
Prescription is 7-12, 90% pressure is 8.5.
AHI average is 2.7, treated (so that kind if makes me doubt that it was a real 4 untreated, maybe I just had "good" nights during the tests?).
Weird thing, AHI was 8 the first night, and 6.5 the next night, (with more than half being central apneas) and then dropped to around 2-3 all the time now.
Getting hypopneas a little more than the rest now, and then FL, CA, and some OA.
Like I was having a lot of central apneas before the cpap, and now with the CPAP I'm getting way less centrals?
Oh well, so that's it, I am trying the machine another month before I buy.
How does my experience compare to some other slim members with lower AHIs?
I wonder if I really need the machine, if it's really helping. I guess I need to see how I feel for another month without a virus and evaluate. But I don't understand how I can have a treated AHI of 3 and an untreated 4, doesn't make sense to me.
Anyone wants to comment?
I am 6'2" and weigh 175. I have Apnea. So no, you don't have to be overweight.
RE: Slim members with sleep apnea? AHI? Experience? Improvement? - kingstar - 09-11-2017
I'm 39 years old, 5'11", and 155 pounds. I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea 2 years ago just trying to help stop snoring that was bothering my wife. From my sleep study I had an AHI of 86. I gave CPAP a try for about 2 weeks and convinced myself that the test was wrong because I slept on my back in the test and that I'll be fine just sleeping on my side. Since that time I started to notice myself waking up gasping for breath. About 2 months ago I started having hours long bouts of very uncomfortable heart palpitations (maybe related maybe not). Got all sorts of testing done on the heart and had no problems there. I mentioned to the cardiologist that I had been diagnosed with sever sleep apnea, but that I couldn't get used to the CPAP (not that I really tried all that hard). He shared his own success with treating his sleep apnea and how much of a difference it made in his life and that there certainly could be a connection with the heart palpitations. I returned to my sleep doctor and he set me up with one of the fancy new APAP machines. After doing a bunch of research I settled on the Respironics Dreamwear to try and I love it. I haven't had any issues with leaking and using the technique of sucking your tongue to the roof of your mouth that I saw on this board has helped me significantly reduce the amount of mouth leaks I have. I have been using the Sleepyhead software to look at my data and there is definitely a correlation to my sleeping position to my pressure needs, but the big thing for me has been how I feel. I've only been using it for about a week and a half but even if I can only tolerate it for 4-5 hours I still feel way more awake and aware. I didn't realize how exhausted and tired I was feeling until I started using the machine. For me the APAP has been extremely successful. My AHI has been generally less than 1, with a high of 1.57. My heart palpitations have also been getting better, but were also starting to get better before the APAP so I'm not ready to draw a conclusion there. I got some of the same comments when talking to people about my sleep apnea diagnosis that they didn't think "slim" people had sleep apnea. We definitely do.
RE: Slim members with sleep apnea? AHI? Experience? Improvement? - HalfAsleep - 09-11-2017
(09-10-2017, 12:29 PM)Kryogen Wrote: So most people here have apnea because of an overweight issue?
Not I. I am on the slender side of average BMI and have the scrawniest, longest, neck you may ever have laid eyes on. I have moderate SA with AHI of 18. For Medicare purposes, I meet the criteria with CMS 5 AHI (4% O2 desat required). CPAP on the way.
Females with less than or equal to 5 AHI have been scientifically determined to have the same symptoms as men with >15 AHI. I'll bet there are men in this category, too, but are not diagnosed because they don't meet the stereotypical body type.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5028797/
RE: Slim members with sleep apnea? AHI? Experience? Improvement? - Kryogen - 09-11-2017
Yeah what really told me something was going on was waking up all wet in the bed every night with palpitations and trying to catch my breath. Wet like I needed two bath towels, one under me and one above me, to get back in between the two, and then remove them one hour later after they got most of the sweat out, and then they had to dry in the morning because they were wet like you just used those out of the shower. Crazy.
With the cpap, it didn't happen for 3 weeks (other than the nights I've had the flu recently, which is a reason by itself to wake up all sweaty...).
Just for waking up dry, the cpap is worth it.