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Sleep Apnea: Too Fat to Breathe

Note: this content originally appeared in our November 2010 newsletter. More up-to-date research may be available, but the message is still the same!

The delivery of air to the lungs by an electrical pump system is a commonly prescribed treatment known as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). When air is provided at a pressure that is above that of normal atmospheric pressure, it relieves some of the bedtime suffocation that sleep apnea patents suffer. In my experience, this treatment has been life changing for about half of those who try it. A temporary inability to breathe, referred to as apnea, exceeding 10 seconds in duration, and snoring can be reduced after patients are successfully attached to a CPAP machine. Their nights become more restful and their days more energetic. Relief of incapacitating fatigue is one of the most rewarding benefits, which translates into documented reductions in traffic accidents.1 Claims have also been made about improvements in patients’ moods and mental functions.2 Bed partners welcome the exchange of thunderous snoring and the multiple frightening episodes of apnea hourly for the softer mechanical rumblings of a CPAP machine.

Since the original scientific publication citing the benefits of CPAP in the British medical journal, the Lancet, in 1981 there has been published research showing that this treatment can also result in very small reductions in blood pressure (less then 3 mmHg) and can prolong the lives of patients with heart failure.3-5

CPAP works by overinflating the entire breathing system during both inhalation and exhalation. While inhaling

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