When I arrived at the sleep clinic with a BMI of 22, the first thing they told me was: there are lots of people with sleep apnea who have a healthy weight, including children.
The notion that sleep apnea is generally caused by weight needs to die. People also conveniently forget that being woken up multiple times every hour causes weight gain, so often times being overweight is the consequence of sleep apnea rather than the cause.
What's crazy is all the downvoting. Why are people so invested in this idea that BMI is the primary/sole cause of OSA? It's literally killing people and the science is pretty conclusive. It should be one of those screens you take at certain milestone ages like colonoscopies.
> I wonder how many years are left before Ozempic-like drugs make sleep apnea a rarity.
Obstructive sleep apnea is not caused by being obese or old, although those things don't help. In some people, losing enough weight may allow for sufficient airflow despite their airway restrictions.
I wouldn't count the Ozempic chickens before they roost. So far it looks like it's a costly lifelong injectable drug with a lot of reported uncomfortable side effects. That doesn't bode well for adherence at the population level.
Weekly injectable semaglutide is the first generation.
Tirzepatide is already more effective and better tolerated for most people, and there is also semaglutide as a daily oral pill available as Rybelsus. Further generations of obesity drugs are already in human trials, and are showing even greater effects relative to the side effects (e.g. retatrutide and combination therapy with cagrilintide).
Price is an issue, but with multiple pharma companies that have effective drugs, the prices have already come down quite a lot. My tirzepatide is running me less than £200/month now, and I'm saving at least that on groceries and eating out. Not even counting that it's effectively cured a few weight related medical conditions that were costing me more.
Actually, it's also a miracle drug that can reduce inflammation and reduce the medication load of millions of people.
From what I've seen anecdotally, Ozempic adherence is much higher than most other meds. And the side effects are minor compared to, say, being 200 lbs overweight.
>And the side effects are minor compared to, say, being 200 lbs overweight.
I was about the reply the same thing. Obesity is directly or indirectly a risk factor for almost every health problem imaginable.
Even for a situation that looks completely unrelated like getting shot in the knee by a gun, the risk of dying during
the surgery will be significantly higher if you are obese.
That depends. A lot of people experience significant GI issues. And it isn’t clear yet if those issues are reversible after stopping. It’s still best for people to naturally control their weight and diet. Is one better than the other - depends on how overweight and how severe the side effects. Right now I feel like there isn’t much focus and rigorous study of those side effects but over time I expect it will reduce the overall positives of the drug somewhat.
"A lot of people experience significant GI issues. And it isn’t clear yet if those issues are reversible after stopping."
I don't think there's any reasonable definition of "a lot" where this is true. A significant number of people experience GI issues. Most of them subside after a time. There is some evidence that a small number of people may experience more severe GI issues that don't go away after stopping.
"It’s still best for people to naturally control their weight and diet."
What is your evidence for this? Right now, it's looking like the "unnatural" GLP-1 agonists are racking up quite a score against "natural" methods like "willpower" and programmed diets. It's not a useful distinction, in any case. These medications cause reduced calorie consumption, and reduced calorie consumption causes weight loss naturally.
The only advantage I know of for the natural way is you can retain more muscle mass potentially[0], so your relative body composition is probably better than someone who lost 75 pounds with Ozempic (eg. Ozempic Face).
[0-1] Especially if you: Try to consume about 1 gram of protein per day per gram of lean mass, lift weights, limit cardio intensity and duration (30 mins on stationary bike 3x a week worked for me)
Yeah, the lean mass loss effect associated with GLP-1 agonists is just the effect of rapid weight loss without lifestyle and dietary changes other than calorie restriction. There's nothing about Ozempic etc. that keeps you from eating more protein, working out more, and so on (in fact, it makes it easier to do those things in most cases). People are noticing "Ozempic face" because the people who are losing weight through calorie restriction via GLP-1 agonists previously would have just failed at dieting and kept the weight on.
Not necessarily true - it's a lot easier to workout when you're actively losing weight. Obese people aren't stupid, they've tried working out before. Turns out it's hard, it hurts, and the benefit you get from working out in relation to weight is slim to none. If they're on the right track already and their mind a little clearer, I'm sure it makes it more likely for them to work out.
It's also easier to workout if you don't drink and smoke, which Ozempic also helps with.
Thanks. Yes, this is exactly true, I can testify from personal experience. And GLP-1 agonists also often seem to make it easier for people to make good dietary decisions. When you're not driven as much by cravings, you will find it easier to resist hyperpalatable foods.
Yeah, I bought the "Ultra" less than 24 months ago, it was released September 23, 2022, only for it to be obsolete within 12 months and now it's the model that can't even do new features. IT'S LESS THAN 2 YEARS OLD!
Maybe I should learn my lesson and stop buying Apple Watches, it's really a joke.
Yeah, kinda weird considering afaik the gyroscope hasn’t been changed since they introduced the improved three axis one with your model year (powering the crash detection feature).
I feel like if they were just trying to get people to upgrade they wouldn’t have bothered putting it on last years models either, but they did, so maybe there’s something we don’t know about that makes it more difficult.
