| Hi Maxcaladin
Sorry to hear about the Sleep Apnoea. I am a doctor in the UK so I know a little bit about what we are talking about here. I presume you have the obstructive form.....which means that your airway when you are asleep gets intermittantly blocked, usually as a result of a relaxed tongue (muscles relax when you asleep) slipping back in your phaynx and most people have large necks with less airway space (in Uk >size 17 neck is a risk factor for sleep apnoea). When the airway is blocked your oxygen decreases, this stimulates your brain to higher activity and you semi rouse to get open the blockage. The severity of the sleep disorder is determine by the frequency of the blockages (measured by dips in oxygen and rousing on sleep studies) and the degree of oxygen drop. As some have said, you get over a 1000 disturbances per night. In the short term is doesnot do to much apart from make you very tired, low fatigue and sometimes fall asleep the next day in normal activities. However, what your doctor was saying about other organ involvement can indeed happen if this continues overtime. From a physiological point of view is that when the oxygen is low in the blood, the lung arteries constrict. If this persists over time it raises the pulmonary blood pressure and this means the right side of the heart has to work harder and can fail. The extreme case of cardiac and pulmonary failure is rare, particularly as sleep apnoea is not that uncommon. I have only ever managed 1 patient with sleep apnoea and lung and right heart failure. You did not say that you had these effects and that your doctor just warned you about them. He was telling you what would happen if nothing was done....but it sounds like you are doing something so that is great. The machine you are to be treated with has been shown to work well. It works by keeping the airway open with positive air pressure. It is a mask and can be noisy. However, because it works most people get better sleep and therefore, all the other problems of fatigue etc reduce. Good luck with it.
Other techniques that can be useful are avoiding alcohol before bed...muscle relaxant. Everyone is right about weight loss, as this will help the sleep apnoea. You have to find the right one for you, but the simple rule to remember is that the net energy output (ie exercise) has to be greater than the net energy input (ie food). Therefore it is finding that balence......usually involves more exercise as opposed to fad diets. Overall the best way is to eat a sensible diet (avoiding crap) and increase exercise. You also want slow gradual weight loss as well , as this is more likely to stay off.
Finally, about the lime and folic acid thing. I have never heard anything about lime causing weight loss. However, effects it may have are 1) vitamin c is anti-oxidant...heart disease protection (?) 2) in animals it has been shown to increase iron absorption 3) one study has shown it may help with reducing LDL-cholesterol in men (the bad cholesterol). With respect to folic acid again I have never heard of it helping with weight loss. Again it has some benefits of note......1) sleep apnoea patients with heart disease have higher homocysteine levels (biochemical pathway in folate) and folic acid can reduce these homocysteine levels 2) it helps with absorbing vitamin B12.
I am sorry your doctor did not explain that much to you. I hope you do not mind me putting all this down, but I thought as I have some skill in this area I might be able to ease your mind a bit. Hope it helps. Good luck. | 
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