AHI does NOT explain your Sleep Apnea

This video explains why AHI fails to describe the severity of Sleep Apnea and Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome. It covers where the AHI falls short, and what we can expect moving forward.

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Wishing you all the best :) If anything’s on your mind or you have any questions, don’t hesitate to share in the comments below. I'de love to hear back from you!

The content provided is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with a qualified and licensed healthcare provider for any medical concerns.

Apnea-hypopnea index; AHI; mild, moderate, and sever sleep apnea; sleep architecture; threshold of arousal; oxygen desaturation; low arousal threshold.

[ddrgsdl]

First of all you look just like my son-in-law. You are obviously highly intelligent, curious, and like to think out of the box. In whatever you do, I predict a high degree of success! You are also very likeable!

[ngndoor]

i love your clear straight-forward way of speaking, ---- and your gorgeous surroundings - WOW. I'm in Niagara, Canada, but wouldn't mind living where you live not just because it's beautiful, but because I'd have my CPAP buddy around for great advice while out for a morning canoe ride! I'm on APAP for six weeks, and it's already my new best friend.😃.

[mightyshenanigans]

I’m really glad that I found this channel.

[marvinwhisman]

Really well done video. Thanks for raising such significant points

[rinabeans]

I had a zoom meeting with him today and a lot of what he touched base on was in this video too! He showed me parts in my flow rate that could explain why I’m still feeling the way I do. It’s definitely a start and thankful I had that meeting today! The journey of healthy sleep is an important one 💞

[dtoro]

I have been on CPAP treatment for a year and this is a great vid to help educate myself. My sleep doctor- whom I've never met in person, put me on APAP 5-15 Jan of last year. That's the last time I have ever communicated with them. It's been a struggle to adapt to CPAP but I'm getting better at it. I use OSCAR to try and interpret my sleep data but it's hard because I don't really know what I'm looking at. My DME provider is pretty useless too.

[shanehansen]

Wake up in the morning, check ahi ( .8 ), give myself a pat on the back and not give a second thought to why I still felt tired. Thanks so much, your information makes perfect sense. ❤❤❤

[joelcampbell]

Fantastic video thank you so much for sharing, you answered a lot of the things that I have been pondering since my “diagnosis “. Apparently I have moderate sleep apnea… Which I felt like was this big rubber stamp that was banged on my head MODERATE SLEEP APNEA FOREVER. lol. I have very few if any symptoms… my AHI count from my one and only sleep study said that I had 25.7, technician afterwards told me that I “stopped breathing” that many times an hour. Since then, I have been doing my own research and went back and looked at my study. It said 99% of the events were hypopnea about one was an apnea… They neglected to tell me the difference between the two which I find in itself misleading. Anyways, you raised great questions. Since I’ve made a lot of lifestyle changes healthwise, and pursuing conservative treatments instead, I would be curious to see what a new sleep study would determine. 🤔 I gave CPAP a try and it only made my sleep horrendously worse. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Matt_j]

I always thought it was weird to say “mild” sleep apnea. Like, I’m only “mildly” going without oxygen.

[Aerodynamics]

Preach it brother. AHI is bullshit. True fatigue is perception and different with every person. Keep the videos coming mate!

[MrBearfaced]

So true, I recently had an online discussion with a few people who used a CPAP machine one or 2 times, felt they were suffocating and sent it back. We all know it's highly likely to be down to bad machine configuration but if you've been told you have mild obstructive sleep apnea (5 AHI for example) you're perhaps not going to try as hard to find a solution as someone diagnosed with moderate or severe apnea.

[jerrygudknecht]

AHI is just one input to the equation. You need to consider desaturations and sleep disturbances. I have an O2 sensor that also detects movement, and the app allows me to correlate apneas from the cpap machine, desaturations, and disturbances/movement. Wish I could also do electroencephalography instead of movement, but I don't have a sleep lab :)

I also have a sleep stage app on my watch, but they're not that great.

[groovetube]

A friend recently started CPAP. She only checks her progress by looking at the score on the MyAir app (Resmed). Her scores are usually 100. When I looked at her stats, AHI is close to zero and no leaks. She uses it her entire sleep time ~8 hours a night. All that matters to her is that she feels better than prior to CPAP. Although she is not the norm, for majority of patients they don’t care that much about all the tech specs. They mainly will ask, is this helping me or is it doing nothing? In any event, most folks watching your videos like me are biohackers who love data. I don’t check my data on OSCAR as frequently since I’ve realized that looking at data doesn’t change how I feel. Is it worth to wear a collar or chinstrap to eliminate large leaks? Probably not. My AHIs with CPAP are 2 or less.

[filmbuffoon]

Any other Kaiser Permanente patients here? I live in Northern California, and despite having a low AHI on the machine, I still have excessive daytime sleepiness. When I spoke to a Sleep MD at Kaiser, she revealed to me today that my machine's information had not been updated with Kaiser for over 1 year. So this entire time she was telling me numbers look fine, she was looking at old numbers rather than the info from the last few months.

[creatorex]

That’s the reason why continuous monitoring, data analysis and patient proactivity is necessary for the sleep apnea . Of course AHÍ is just an indicator … so adding oxigen measurement and another ways to measure more things and variables is essential. In my case I’m having zero events and most of my sleeps are under 5 (around 2 central events / hour) so my conclusion is that obstructive contributes to central. Also I have centrals from 10a to 20s on which my o2 levels are not impacted; curious . So I am learning that being conscious about breathing and how manage also stress and mind affects to central apnea. When this central is not associated to specific pathologies of course. It’s my experience. 90% of my apnea first medical study was obstructive. I’m using a resmed airsense 11 in auto 4-8. With humidifier to 1 and EPR to 3 with a n30i mask. O2 ring and I use SleepHQ software to paste data and analyze it. I’m going to try shortly orthoapnea Noa device to combine methods and get a more flexible treatment. I tested with cheap Mandibular device and my O2 keeps as in CPAP. What’s important in mouth device is go for a top one and get results with a minimal advance. And care your teeth !! So now my live returned to normal as I always do lot of sport since ever and I’m a healthy person with this obstructive apnea ruining lot of my days before I was diagnosed and I could manage it as now 🎉 so if you’re snoring or know someone snoring recommend them to go for a sleep study . Apart of my synthoms, tired, easy to get cold (sick), feeling sleepy and weak many times many days, even knees pain, etc. it’s the strong snoring and breathing pauses detected by your partner or because you record your sleep with snoring apps. none must ignore it and go and try for a solution.

[seinfan]

I recall seeing on a CPAP forum some guy saying he has been on a CPAP machine for a decade and his sleep has never been that good despite low AHI numbers. Like, dude, clearly something isn't being addressed with the sleep therapy.

[loltrumpet]

Hey, have you ever heard of dr Barry Krakow? And what’s your take on ASV ?

[ToJoFickleFan]

Science is skeptical. I can’t have this sort of conversation in the hallowed halls of AHI. Keep it up, Galileo.

[japelape]

I have an RDI of 3.5 and AHI of 3.4 but still feel brainfog and fatigued everyday. Blood oxygen was normal. I got diagnosed for mild obstructive apnea and the doctors didn't even know what UARS which was odd because I had the test at the place UARS was discovered lol. I'll try getting money for a used cpap out of my own money and try it out.

[AssyrianKingever]

Thank you for your video.

I got back my SA test results.

June 8, 2022 results were;
The patient recorded a total of 5.0 hours. Apnea/Hypopnea Index (AHI) = 11.3/hr. Minimum O2 saturation was 93%; Respiratory Disturbance Index (RDI) = 23.0/hr.

March 13, 2024;
The patient had a total sleep time of 6.75 hours. Apnea/Hypopnea Index (AHI) = 1.2/hr. Minimum O2 saturation was 91%; Respiratory Disturbance Index (RDI) = 8.5/hr.

Clinician's comments:

While RDI suggests mild OSA, AHI is already below the threshold target for PAP therapy. It is not clear that PAP therapy would be of additional benefit under these circumstances.

Where do I go from here? Should I still push for a prescription?

I'm freaking out. I've dealt with severe anxiety, mood swings, low T, and high thyroid. I also feel as if I'm in a dream and one day I will wake up from this bad dream.

2 years ago, I decided not to get the CPAP, and now I retested in hopes of getting a prescription so I can treat my symptoms.

Thank you in advance.