Hi all,

This is my first post here. Many of you may find fault with my beliefs on Sleep Apnea. But I am a non-believer in this syndrome. First off let me say that I do not beleive in Sleep apnea. I feel it is a catch all for something that Dr's do not understand. I have Fibromyalgia and chronic pain. My Dr is also testing for MS. And yes my Dr says I have a mild case of S.A. To top everything else off I am a light sleeper and highly chlosterphobic. I can't be in a small room without either a window or door open. I have to be able to see out. I have lost many jobs to not being able to wear a mask of some kind. I find it difficult to have anything around or on my face. I also know people who have this syndrome and they have the machines to breath. I have found them to be very noisy and bulky. My sister in law has to put hers in her bathroom and her husband modified the bathroom door to allow the hoses to coome into their bedroom. He says it is so noisy that he does not get a good nights sleep with it in their bedroom. I know I will be flamed by many. But that is Ok. This is my beliefe and no one has yet to change it. Will I die of it, probably not. I will die from the many other symptoms I have. I firmly believe that I have something else that is triggering the so called S. A. I also will always believe that with all S. A. And Fibromyalgia that something else that is more serious causes these problems. I feel that Dr's make a living off of keeping people sick. No profit in curing someone from a disease or syndrome. Much more profit and kick-backs from medical compaies that sell equipment and drugs for the sick. Asd long as Dr's are able to get rich off the sick, there will never be a cure for the major diseases. There will be no real research for syndromes. Just guesses and hypothesis's on what it might be. Dr's and researchers are too lazy to find real cures for the troubles we as people have. Money makes the medical field keep going and medical research companies rich with profit.

Well that is my say....You all have a wonderfyul day...

Oh and as for my opinion, well I hold a PhD and I have studied so called syndromes and the research that goes into them. It isn't much. Lots go for finding so called treatments, but little goes for finding a cure and what causes the problem. Too much money is in the treatment of a problem. No money in a cure. If Dr's were paid to keep their patience healthy and disease free, then maybe we would see a change in people and more cures being made.

Thank You....

NB,

It seems clear to me that you've had good deal of frustration with the medical system while trying to find solutions to your health problems.  I'm sure that many on this forum have met with similar problems, and I have to say that at some level I share your cynicism.  I recognize, however, that there are ethical and unethical medical professionals, as is the case with all people.  Unfortunately, the bad doctors don't reveal themselves by wearing black lab coats.

I find it puzzling why someone would log onto a forum for people with sleep apnea only to refute the existence of this syndrome.  After all, you are not likely to find anyone here who agrees with you.  It raises in me the question that perhaps you are, at some level, hoping to be "converted" into a believer.  If so, I have to say you have come to the right place, although I do wish to be the one to proselytize to you.  I will say, though, that what we call sleep apnea exists independent of belief - it is simply a matter of emprical observation.  If you would information on the nature of this sleep disorder, please go to www.sleepapnea.org/info/index.html.

I'm curious about how you were diagnosed with mild SA?  Did you have a sleep study?  

If your denial (and I'm afraid it is denial) about the existence of sleep apnea stems from a concern that your claustrophobia precludes you from pursuing treatment with CPAP, you should know that there are other treatment options that can be explored.  PAP therapy is simply the most common because it is the most effective and least invasive.  But for your case, you might want to talk to an ENT about pursuing a surgical option.  There has recently been developed a "Pillar Procedure" to prevent the soft pallate from collapsing during sleep, and I wonder if in a mild case such as yours it might be effective.  If you could like to read more about this, this link might be helpful: http://sleepdisorders.about.com/od/surgery/a/Pillar.htm

Will you die from untreated mild sleep apnea?  Perhaps not directly, but it will increase your risk of stroke, heart disease, and other things that will.  You have to ask yourself, is it worth the risk to persist in an erroneous belief?  In asking yourself this question, you might want to take into account your life in relation to your friends and family.  In the long run, pursuing treatment could help them almost as much as yourself.

There actually has been a good deal of research on sleep apnea.  Here you will find the beneficiaries of those efforts.  I hope that you will take the time to puruse this forum and read other peoples stories and how much treatment for their sleep apnea has improved their lives.  I can honestly say that doing so has helped me a great deal in coming to understand this syndrome and how it has affected my own life, and I'm sure it can for you as well.

I agree with you about Doctors keeping people sick or they don't make any money.
I'm sorry but I have a million reasons not to trust traditional medicine,too.

Have you ever searched the words Fybromialgia and Sleep Apnea on Google or MSN Search?
I did and found a website that said about 90% of Fibromyalgia sufferers have Sleep Apnea  that is undetected.I did this search thinking I might have Fibromyalgia before I found out that my problem is osteoarthritis (degenerative arthritis that is not cureable)that is responsible for my lack of sleep and chronic pain.

I am not trying to ''convert'' you about anything...there are plenty of people out there that get diagnosed and give up on treatment because it is inconvenient but I am not one of them nor would I ever consider discontinuing my treatment because it makes me feel a lot better than I have in years.

It is OK for you to believe that Sleep Apnea does not exist if you want to.

All the members here wish it didn't too.

Rapunzel111


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Masks are like a box of chocolate-
You never know what you're gonna get !

Hi Non-believer and Welcome!

You won't get flamed, but we do try to provide education and yours is deficient in the area of sleep apnea.  I have a PhD too, but I am not an expert in sleep apnea, my area of specialty is molecular biology and medicine.  However, the rigors of obtaining my PhD did teach me resourcefulness and the mechanisms of conducting detailed and meticulous scientific searches.

As you probably know, all peer reviewed and published medical journals are archived at the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health's PubMed archive.  A quick search of PubMed will, with the search query of “obstructive sleep apneaâ€�, return 7878 published and peer reviewed articles.  I certainly would not give that many peer reviewed articles the understatement of "not much".

PubMed query field

Sleep apnea is very well understood.  Over the past 10 years, as the wealth of information on this breathing disorder has accumulated, so has the realization of the many systemic and deleterious effects it has on the body.

I don’t know what your PhD is in, but hopefully you learned objectivity in analyzing problems.  It feels to me like you have interjected a great deal of subjectivity into the issue of OSA because of your personal fears.  A lot of people do and we are here to educate, guide and support all who post or lurk.  We can help you work through those fears, step by step, moment by moment, day by day.

You do not have to use a loud and bulky machine.  There are many different models on the market, some are quite small (and cute) and most are very quite.  If your SIL's is so noisy, she should get it checked out to make sure it is functioning proper.  And if it is, then she should consider getting a different model.  There are even battery powered options if you want to go camping.

Of course OSA eventually kills people, just like HIV doesn't kill people, but the effects of HIV infection do (i.e. immunosuppression causing opportunistic infections and Kaposi's sarcoma).  You can do some reading of peer-reviewed journal articles on how apnea kills here:

The Cardio and Vascular Effects of OSA

And if you think that "lots go for finding so called treatments, but little goes for finding a cure and what causes the problem", then you haven't looked at where NIH's funding goes.  You must know that NIH is the biggest funder of medical research in the US and you get nothing unless you are trying to cure something.  Some of the biggest NIH winners are basic research into the causes and cures for cancer, AIDs and heart disease.

You might be interested to know that many patients who have been diagnosed as having "Fibromyalsia" (including myself) find that their symptoms disappear upon effective CPAP therapy.  I was unable to walk before I was diagnosed with OSA and had all of the classic Fibromyalsia symptoms and trigger point pain.  My personal hypothesis as to how untreated OSA would cause these symptoms is two words, "peripheral hypoxia".  Just think, you could have had a real cure at your, well nose, so to speak.  Put Fibromyalsia in the search field on the right to read about some of the other poster's experiences.

Untreated OSA causes increased sensitivity to pain as well.  That is also anecdotal from myself and other posters and the cause is probably a combination of real pain due to hypoxia and decreased pain tolerance because of the lack of sleep.

Please come back and post or lurk non-believer, we'd love to have you.  Education is the key to overcoming fear.

Vicki


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That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

to know that CPAP is a lifesaver; I live to breathe and breathe to live.  Don't need a PhD to know that the difference in my treated sleep is like night and day from untreated sleep..

There are many "educated" people on this forum, including me with higher education in clinical psychologyand human resources, but my expertise is in clinical psychology and human resources, I don't pretend to know all there is to know about SA; just that mine is treated and I am a different person.

Good luck to you.


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From the land of ahhhzzzz...

Since opinions are all that this ill-informed individual seems capable of posting, I'll take the liberty to post my own:

It seems to me that if he (or is it she?) were a real PhD, he would be trained well enough to back up his opinions with real facts. Instead he offers paragraphs of misspelled words and poor grammar to describe a myriad of personal phobias. If he really does have a PhD, he should ask that online course for a refund of the $19.95 for the course he used to obtain it. Apparently it didn't come with spell-check.

And what's with the story of the sister-in-law whose husband had to drill holes in a bathroom door because of the noise from a CPAP?? She must have mistakenly picked up a leaf blower or a sandblaster at her local hardware store. Perhaps her brilliant PhD brother-in-law should help her to return it to Lowe's and then take her to a medical supply company for a real CPAP.

It's my unprofessional opinion that this person needs to follow his own advice: he needs to first find a cure for all of his phobias (claustrophobia, etc) before any of his physical ailments can be treated. Most importantly, he needs to get over his fear of doctors and the medical profession in general. It sounds like he has a bad case of "they're all out to get me."


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A Happy CPAPee since 1993