Greetings!

You are in more company than you realize. It is estimated that less than one in ten people who have it are aware of it and are doing something about it. That's too bad, because it's a killer.

I have it and have been on a machine (CPAP for the first three years, now a BiPAP for the last six months) since my first sleep study showed 58 events per hour, and the second one showed 43 events per hour six months ago. The CPAP machine seemed to do the trick until about six months after my bypass, but then I started noticing being more tired again, thus I had the second sleep study. The BiPAP machine varies between 12 and 21 units as necessary to control my events.

In my case, I may have had it for ten years or more before I was diagnosed, but the damage was already done by then. The result was a triple bypass (no heart attack), and the heart people have told me that it was the sleep apnea that was mostly to blame. When you have it, your blood oxygen level falls and your carbon dioxide level rises, and over time this does damage to your arteries by hardening them and causing inflammation, and it may also make them more likely to get blockages because of the damage to arterial walls. Research on this is learning more every day, but this is what I was told by the group of cardiologists who handled me in the hospital.

Don't assume that if you are not overweight you don't get obstructive sleep apnea either. It can occur in slim people too, but excess weight definitely will aggravate it. This is part of why I'm riding a bike these days.

If you know someone who sounds like they're dying when they sleep and are snorting, snore excessively (all of the time they're sleeping), is constantly falling asleep during the day for no obvious reason, or just has a very thick neck (like NFL players, who commonly have it) or a known family history (such as I have), you would do them a favor to suggest they look into the facts about sleep apnea and ask their doctor about it. You might save their life.

Regards,
Jefferito