Some months back I went to a private clinic to seek help for my growing sleep apnea and snoring issues. They wanted £250 JUST for consultation. Revolted, I left and decided to do what should always been done these days when you have a health problem - research it yourself on pubmed and get your own cure.
You see, doctors are not there too help you, they are there to make money. The only person who really wants to help you is YOU.
Anyway, a few searches later and it had become quite clear that sleep apnea was very strongly "associated" with metabolic syndrome. Which in turn is strongly associated with insulin resistance and carbohydrate consumption. During my snoring troubles I had been on and off high-carb, as I usually am, and was probably more on high-carb than I wanted to admit to myself.
So I went back to zero-carb, which I know I can always count on. I know zero-carb rapidly resolves insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, which I had hoped would also resolve my snoring. It took only a few days, but zero-carb did a fantastic job of alleviating both my sleep apnea and snoring. Within as little as a week there were substantial improvements, And within 2 weeks almost complete remission. This was accompanied by only mild weight loss.
The moral of the story is that, I firmly believe that for whatever reason, sleep apnea and snoring is caused by insulin resistance.
You don't KNOW that going zero carb did anything for your sleep apnea, although it may very well have reduced your snoring. The ONLY way to know if you have apnea in the first place and the degree of apnea , is to be tested--there are people who never snore who have horrible apnea, and people who snore the roof off who don't have apnea which requires treatment. The danger of assuming that you don't have apnea is that you very well might, and untreated apnea leads to a host of medical issues, including messing with your grehlin and insulin levels, which can make your efforts at controlling carbs in the long term very difficult.
ReplyDeleteNow, you don't have to spend a fortune in a sleep lab setting. There are home tests that can be used, small devices that strap on to your hand and record multiple channels of data including SO2, blood pressure, and more. The trick is finding an outfit who can set you up for that. IF moderate or severe apnea is found, it's also possible to titrate at home on an auto-adjusting CPAP machine. At cpaptalk.com, we see many people who get hold of a machine (yes, there are ways . . . ) and do their own titration because they don't want to line their doctors' pockets either.
Think of the expense of untreated apnea down the line. It is worth getting tested if for no other reason than to assure yourself that your zero carb approach is really doing you as much good as you think it is.
All I know is that I use to wake myself up from very loud vibrations in my throat "sometimes" while sleeping. Maybe I dont have apnea, maybe it was just VERY bad snoring.
ReplyDeleteWhatever the issue was however, zero-carb almost certainly resolved it.
A friend had bad sleep apnea and had to use one of the machines JanKnitz mentioned. Pleased to say all is well now but interestingly they also improved their lifestyle by going low carb high fat.
ReplyDeleteWhether you snore or not however you improve your health, fitness and well being is good.
All the best Jan
I would like to suggest that you consult to stop snoring agency as they are providing the service of stop snoring and sleep apnea and I have recently dealt with them which was a great experience with them.
ReplyDeletestop-snoring.co
Good going! At least you have been able to address your problem without having to shell out a big amount of money. It's really difficult to find a proper cure for sleep apnea, as it can be caused by a lot of factors. Good thing that you found a solution that works for you. :D
ReplyDeleteWallace Tucker @ Robert Kelleher DDS
It’s good to hear you were able to find the cause and cure to the problems on your own. But I think it’s advisable to consult with an ENT specialist about your condition. At the very least, you can find out what really triggers sleep apnea, and get ideas on how you can prevent it.
ReplyDeleteCynthia Bowers @ Bay Area TMJ & Sleep Center