Over the last couple of years I have been reading a little about sleep apnea and have taken a few online quizzes that ask question likes "do you ever feel yourself unable to breath at night", "are you sleepy during the day even after a long night sleep", etc. Almost invariably my answers to these questions were YES, YES and YES.

I started thinking about it a little more last year when someone who worked for me went through a sleep study and was diagnosed with sleep apnea. He spoke highly of how much better he felt once he was put on a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine that allows for a restful sleep.

Lately I've been hearing ads on the radio for a sleep center and I finally bit the bullet during my annual physical, and talked to my doctor about what I thought I had. He concurred and referred me to a specialist.

Yesterday afternoon I met with the specialist, which really amounted to nothing more than watching a little video on sleep apnea and what I could expect by visiting a sleep clinic for an overnight observation, and going over a survey that I completed. At the conclusion of that meeting we setup an overnight sleep study, where coincidentally enough the first opening was that night!

So last night I packed up an overnight bag and headed over to the sleep clinic, which was a nice new building with what appeared to be pretty good security. I met the technician at the front desk, went through some paperwork and then was shown to my room, which was a very nice hotel-style room with private toilet and shower, tv and a wonderful Sleep Number bed. It also had a bedside CPAP machine all setup.

Once I got into my PJs (they don't allow just undergarments so I just wore shorts and a t-shirt) she started to get me all wired up. She must have applied 20 sensors to various parts of my body. I counted 12 on my head alone. Once I got all wired up we went back to the room and she tested the CPAP machine on me but we started off without it. She would put that on me in the middle of the night if I needed it.

I had to wait for awhile until she got another patient wired up and I started to get pretty sleepy just reading a book. Finally, just when I thought I might fall asleep before it was time, she came in to finish her work, which was to get all my sensors and wires hooked up to the machine and test from her control station (there was a camera videotaping me) that all the sensors were working.

Once everything was working she wished me good night and I no doubt fell asleep right away, which is another sleep apnea M.O.

I didn't see her again until sometime in the middle of the night when she put the CPAP nosepiece on me so that I was getting oxygen from the machine. She had to come in a couple of times during the night to adjust some sensors but that's all I really remember.

In the morning we had to walk through all the tests again, I guess to make sure the equipment was working normally, and then I got unwired, cleaned off, fed, and waited for the doctor to talk to me about the initial results.

All in all it was a pretty uneventful night, and not much different than staying at a nice clean hotel, albeit without most of the amenities. If you are nervous about going to a sleep study, don't be – it was a piece of cake and it could save your life!

Want to know how it turned out? You'll have to tune in tomorrow – I'm saving that up for another post.

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Tags: sleep study, sleep clinic, apnea, sleep apnea, cpap, cpap machine, snoring

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

My Visit to a Sleep Clinic – Overnight Sleep Study

I am the Fat Daddy. I coined this phrase in a post I wrote for my blog on June 19, entitled Fat People, A Carnival Side Show, which dealt with the show the Biggest Loser and other public weight loss ventures.

When I wrote it I was thinking about how many people have vices – alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling addictions just to name a few. For the most part though, until they go completely off the rails, they battle their demons in relative obscurity from the public.

Not us. Not really fat people. If you are really overweight, you stick out like the old "whore in church" analogy. I am the fattest person I know. I bet a lot of the folks who read this blog are or have been the fattest person they know too.

And each day we live a life of challenges that is on display for others to view. I have decided to do a weekly series in my blog called the "Not-So-Private" Hell of Being Really Really Fat! Each week I will pick one of the challenges that I live in front of people as a consequence of my over-indulgence.

I wrote the first one on June 12 before I thought of the series title. It is called Airplanes…Damn I hate riding on airplanes! As you can imagine it deals with flying while fat. My discomfort at …well, my discomfort. My shame at inflicting my fat self on my fellow passengers. My effort to avoid embarrassment by stealing a seatbelt extender.

I have a couple more concepts in the can ready to post, but I would love to hear ideas from others. In this endeavor I have actually finally found some benefit to sharing my not-so-private hell. Because of my latest diet, on my last flight I only had to use my seat belt extender on one of the four legs of the journey. I look forward to the day when I can turn the contraband back in to the airlines.

In the meantime, I will post not-so-private hell, part 2 – swimming pools very soon. If you get the chance come see the Fat Daddy.

Tags: fat daddy, fat daddy rants, being fat, fat people

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

The Not-So-Private Hell of Being Really Really Fat

Studies are currently underway to establish which genes are responsible for how our bodies process fat and nutrients. The main focus is determining if obesity is in fact genetic, or if lifestyle plays a larger role.

Genetic Consistency
For thousands of years, human genetics have stayed pretty much the same. However, within the last few decades, obesity has increased exponentially, causing problems such as metabolic syndrome, which could lead to diabetes and heart disease. Even some individuals are genetically prone to be overweight; the steady increase in obesity signifies that genetics is not the only player on the field.

In fact, genetics can actually be steered in the direction of obesity, but is guided by what is known as epigenetics, which are specific environmental and behavioral influences that tell the genes what they are supposed to do. The epigenetics are greatly influenced by nutritional intake. This includes eating too much, or not enough of the right nutrients.

Uniquely Human
When each of us is born, we have a unique set of genes that is referred to as our genome, which is our hardwired DNA. These genes just lie around waiting to see if they are activated or not, depending on the tagging systems that are resting on the top of our genes, known as the epigenome. Our epigenetics and genes are sort of like a computer and software. The genes work as the hard drive, while the epigenetics work as the software that tells the hard drive what it is supposed to be doing.

The chemical epigenome tags are known as methyl groups, which come from the food that we eat. Our environment and several other influences from food intensely affect the tagging of our epigenetics as well. To put it another way, the epigenetic tag system guiding the genes is greatly influenced by nutritional intake, as well as other factors.

New Weight-Related Research
Methyl groups have a number of positive effects, such as protecting us against many different kinds of cancer. In lab mice, a significant impact on weight has been noted. Innovative research in lab mice with the overeating gene, the Agouti gene, determined that mice that were given a methyl group that contained nutrients such as choline, betaine, folic acid and vitamin B12 produced leaner, healthier offspring who seemed to have a longer lifespan. Mice that were not given the supplement became resistant to insulin, obese, prone to cancer and did not live as long.

Surprisingly, the obesity or anti-obesity epigenome effects were passed down to the offspring, continuing through to successive generations. Experts noticed that the Agouti gene showed no changes; it was expressed or not depending on the DNA methylation.

Still In Control
It is true that there are genes that have the power to bless us with thunder thighs or bubble buns, but we have the power to keep these genes dormant. As long as we eat right and exercise on a regular basis, we are able to fight back against the genes in our DNA that affect our weight.

Studies continue on the effects that DNA and nutrition have on cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity, as well as how these effects are passed to our children and grandchildren.

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Tags: dna, gene, epigenetics, epigenome, weight, weight issues

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Which Genes in Our DNA Affect Weight Issues?

Want to know if you won anything? Well you are going to have to check the video tape! I have posted both a high quality .WMV video and a low quality YouTube one. I suggest just watching the .WMV unless you can't view it for some reason in which case the YouTube video will have to do. I didn't have my font size quite large enough so it is very hard to see everything in YouTube but I do speak out the winners too so that should help.

So here you go, the winners:

June 2009 Contest Winners! (WMV format)
June 2009 Contest Winners! (YouTube format)

Congratulations to all of the winners! Please use my contact form to give me your PayPal email address (for prizes 1-3) or your shipping address (for prizes 4-7). Remember, I only ship to the continental U.S. If you are not eligible the prize will go back into a prize pool to be used again at some later date.

Prizes must be claimed by July 15th.

One of the things I learned in running this contest is that there are a lot of blogs out there that appear to do nothing but sign up for contests. I don't blame them, but it really goes against the spirit of what I tried to do here. In the future I will probably limit such contests to my fellow weight loss bloggers, which should really help with the odds of winning!

Anyway, I had fun giving away cool prizes. Hope you had fun winning them!

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Tags: weight loss blog contest, contest, giveaway

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

June 2009 Contest Winners Announced!

I have to say this was one of the smoothest doctor visit's I've ever had. I arrived about 10 minutes early and before I could even finish one side of the little health survey they give you my name was called – 5 minutes early. I had a student nurse who walked me through the collection of the height and weight data. She may have been a student but she did know to have me take off my shoes. Last time the nurse didn't and I came in at 6'1". Of course she may have been seasoned enough to know she simply had to subtract an inch to get my real height. In any case, this time I took my shoes off and I came in at an even six feet.

It's a good thing I took those shoes off too, because the scale was not kind. Of course this is a different scale than I normally use and I was almost fully clothes (sans shoes) but when I first got on it registered an even 300, something I have never seen before. Then it dropped to 299 before settling in at 299.5. THAT SUCKS!

I was ushered into the exam room and went through the normal 20 questions and assessments. The initial reading on my blood pressure came in at 132/80 and when I expressed surprise at it being so high the student nurse took another reading, saying something about how she didn't like the cuff. This time it came in at 110/72, which is exactly what it was 20 months ago. I'm going to go with that one.

After the nurse left the doctor followed within a minute. We went through all the normal mumbo jumbo. He loved the family history my mom put together for me. He wasn't concerned about some residual pain I have in my legs. We talked about some of the symptoms I have which lead me to believe I have sleep apnea and he agreed enough to give me a referral at a sleep clinic.

I had to setup another appointment for the blood work so that I could fast, I'm doing that on Monday so I should have the results by the end of next week I would guess.

I hesitated even reporting these results since they are pretty meaningless without the blood work but I didn't want to hold back. But we'll see how the blood work looks. I am not expecting it to be good and I'm hoping I can use it as the impetus I need.

Have you been avoiding going to your doctor? Stop it and make the call – you won't regret it even if the scale doesn't report what you would like it to.

Enter my contest to win the top prize of $250 in CASH!

Tags: physical, annual physical, doctor, doctor visit

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Doctor Visit