Did your liver and kidney function improve after being treated on CPAP?

[theredheadsaid]

If you had not great kidney or liver function numbers before treatment, did they improve after CPAP treatment?
Before I was aware I had severe sleep apnea, my doctor was concerned about my higher than normal creatinine and liver (ALT) numbers. Well, I had an ultrasound of my liver and I was found to have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. I am also overweight, so of course it was blamed on me being overweight. Well, now that I know I have sleep apnea, I know both conditions are correlated with sleep apnea. I have been on treatment for a few months now, and I was hoping that my numbers would have shown improvement, but they didn't. Maybe they aren't going to change much in just two months. I guess I'm wondering, for those who were in a similar position, if CPAP treatment improved kidney and liver function. I hope some of the damage can be reversed. I hope I'm not headed for kidney and liver failure.

[OpalRose]

You can find many articles on this subject.  I've been told by my doctors that untreated Sleep Apnea can aggravate an already known condition. I already knew that.

Cpap is used to treat OSA. We can't depend on it to cure other illnesses.
But if other conditions improve, then I guess that's a bonus.

With that said, I also was diagnosed with fatty liver disease.  This has never improved with 8+ years of Cpap use.  It wasn't until I got serious about my diet, that I saw change.  About 6 months ago, I started (IF) Intermittent Fasting, and have lost 38 lbs.
I also am mindful of the carbs I eat. This has been the easiest lifestyle change I've made and will stick with it.  Liver function readings are now normal.  I can't speak for kidney issues.  
I can even use a slightly lower Cpap pressure with the weight loss.  

https://www.healio.com/news/pulmonology/...20Medicine.

[mesenteria]

People with Type II diabetes, meaning they acquired it later in life and not due much to their genetics, can reverse themselves out of the disease by controlling their blood sugar AND their insulin.  If you were to go to your physician and ask for a proper FASTED insulin test, and for a C-peptide test, you'd soon learn if you are headed the wrong way in your eating habits.

What these people have done was to do research and to listen to those whose experiences are similar and who no longer have the problems associated with eating the wrong foods, or too much of them.  For one thing, they learned never to drink their calories.  Calories should be chewed.

By strictly limiting how many grams of carbohydrates you consume, maybe even how much protein, you can back out of many conditions in which your head is currently stuck.  Carbs are the big one because after you ingest them, the body uses them first preferentially, particularly sugars.  Particularly fruit sugar, meaning fructose, which makes up half of cane sugar. When blood sugars rise, the pancreas must secret insulin to deal with it. If your body can't use it during a foot race, or during a long hard hike, it stores it. Insulin is a storage hormone that helps calories get stored in adipose tissue, fat cells.  Fat cells become resistant when they get too full, and then commences a downward spiral of making the pancreas produce more and more insulin in an attempt to force more sugars into the fat cells.  This is what we call insulin resistance, and it becomes 'metabolic syndrome'.  

If you cut your total carb intake each day to less than 100 gms, 70 would be quite a bit better, and eat more fat, you will find your insulin problems going away.  Eat protein and fat preferentially over baking, sugars, starches, and pretty much any prepared/processed foods that give you pleasure and comfort. 

The person above mentions IF, intermittent fasting.  I, too, do this regularly, about twice a week, and for no shorter than 21 hours. I have gone 36 hours without eating.  Once you get past that initial hunger period (which your brain learns), you lose the hunger and can live easily with your body dissolving its fat stores and using that to run your body.  The process is called 'autophagy', or literally 'self-eating'.  When you do this, and go low-carb, within weeks your health is likely to improve, your joints will thank you, and you might even find your liver losing some of that fat.  One thing is true, you'll lose any dangerous visceral fat, the kind that fills your innards, not the kind that your belt must contend with under your belly's skin.

I lost 11 kg over four months, and photos clearly showed it. That's 24 pounds.  I'm not a large man, so those pounds showed on me prior to my self-imposed regimen.

[theredheadsaid]

I do not have diabetes. Insulin and glucose levels are normal.

[mesenteria]

That may be so, but the C-Peptide test will tell you and your caregiver if you are headed toward Type II.  The simple and usual blood tests don't show that, they just take 'today's' snapshot. If you fast, and your blood sugar rises late in the fast, that's not a good sign, and why physicians ought to do a full fasting insulin measurement.

The reason I raised all this is because non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is most often associated with too much food, too much of what you consume being carbohydrates.

Just a thought.

[KeepSmiling]

theredheadsaid,

Kidney disease

My kidney disease was a reaction to PPI meds prescribe for GERD. Dr missed the declining kidney function and increasing creatine levels. I went to ER because I was not feeling well yet not dire and was asked if I knew I had sever kidney disease. I knew my kidney function was decreasing, but I thought that was age related. It is not.


I now know that if kidney function is 60% or less for a couple of months a nephrologist should be consulted. Well mine were growing worse for over a year and half before I got myself to the ER. Damage is done, got some treatment. Now being vigilant with all the precautions necessary for Kidney disease. Symptom free infections are now the issue.


Liver Disease

I have been tired since my late teens. I was diagnosed with both non-acholic liver disease (LD) and sleep apnea for over 15 years. Which came first, I do not know.

I remember asking the dr what can I do, his response was it is the North American and most of the population has it. I was crestfallen at the response.

A couple of years ago I also did an intermittent diet. I followed the diet for diabetics. (The author a Dr in Toronto has written two books one for diabetics and an obesity one). I lost a lot of weight and my LD did not appear in blood test. After going on medication for the KD the I gained some weight back. I do not know if LD is back. I do not have the pain I used to get in my liver area.


I am not diabetic. In my early 20s with a BMI of around 20 I noticed eating sweets did not agree with me. Since then I always eat proteins with carbs.

Not sure how helpful this is to use.