Manny's Healthful Story
My father’s father had a severe chronic illness. My father had it. I had it.
I would like to say that I understood it, but over twenty years, it got worse, slowly and inexorably destroying my life. And I didn’t even know it.
After two decades of intermittently ignoring my disease and failed experimentation, I was able to halt my disease and likely add 20 years to my own life, and (subjectively) improve it’s quality 4-fold. And now nobody knows how I did it but me.
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Click the arrows below to walk with me through my Healthful Story and discover how I have been able to effectively control my Severe Chronic Obstructive Sleep Apnea (#OSA).
- I was born in the remote Pacific island of Guam in 1981. I have snored heavily for as long as I can remember, even though I was rail thin reaching just 117 lbs by my sophomore year in college.
- I gained substantial weight in college, going from 117 lbs in 2001 to 165 lbs by 2003
- In 2004, I moved to Philadelphia at the age of 23
- In 2007, at the age of 26, I took my first sleep study at the Penn Family Health Sleep Center in Philadelphia and was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea (apnea-hypoxia index of >50, which meant I would wake up once nearly every 1 – 2 minutes). I was prescribed a CPAP device from ResMed to help manage my severe obstructive sleep apnea.
- In the 12 years I have had my CPAP device, I have used it perhaps two dozen times, and only for a few hours each time given the pressure and discomfort it places on my face at night when I am asleep.
I didn’t know how much I was suffering, because I had nothing to compare it to. The following symptoms are listed in order of how much they impacted my life.
- SEVERE IRRITABILITY AND IMPATIENCE: I was severely irritable and impatient. I always thought it was because my dad was that way. In my mind, it was clearly genetic. Clearly it was just the way I was always going to be. If things were done too slowly or not to my preference, I would become irritated and impatient. My personal relationships suffered tremendously. I had no clue that this was caused by a severe chronic lack of sleep.
- SEVERE NIGHTTIME SLEEPINESS: After dinner each night, I would fall asleep extremely quickly. I estimate I lost 4 hours of wakeful time each day for at least the last 20 years. That amounts to >29,000 waking hours, 1,200 days, or more than 3 of my 38 years of life. I have a 4 year-old daughter and I didn’t have the energy to play with her. I didn’t have the energy after work to have conversations with my wife.
- SEVERE BRAIN FOG: I’ve always been smart. I was known as a huge nerd in high school. In college, I ended up majoring in Finance and minored in German at the University of Portland. I was the first in my family to graduate from college. I was named a US Fulbright Scholar to Germany. I became a strategy consultant in the life sciences for multi-billion dollar drugs. I went to MIT Sloan for business school and received my MBA. I am a 38-year old vice president at a leading edge biotech company. I was named an emerging leader by Pharmaceutical Executive magazine, a leading trade publication for the drug industry. HOWEVER, I used to say that I was running a Pentium 3 when everyone else was on a Pentium 7. I can’t remember anything except snippets from before I was 10 years old. My working memory is very limited to the point where I sometimes can’t remember a 7 digit phone number for more than 2 seconds. Forget remembering names. It was so difficult to do so.
- EXPLOSIVE SNORING: I recall when I was in high school on a church retreat and the embarrassment on waking up and finding that my fellows had hit me with pillows trying to stop me from snoring. I didn’t even wake up.
- DAYTIME SLEEPINESS: I wasn’t ever more tired at work than I supposed was normal. Caffeine works wonders. I have always been a very hard worker and extraordinarily productive. I did not have the energy to exercise. Even the thought of exercise seemed beyond me. I presumed it was because I am a Pacific Islander. Pacific Islanders are not exactly known to be big on exercise. I am the person who drives our family car on most road trips. I would drink a ton of caffeine and inevitably need to blast the radio or slap my own face to stay awake on the road.
- SYMPTOMS ON WAKING: When I would wake up, I would sometimes have headaches or psychosomatic responses (strange fits of coughing) that I attribute to chronic oxygen deprivation to the brain.
All of the above, I found out later, were a direct result of my severe debilitating condition, Chronic Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA).
- Upon diagnosis in 2007 in Philadelphia, I was prescribed a CPAP device from ResMed, which I used perhaps a few dozen times over the next 12 years.
- In 2008, I moved to Boston to attend business school at MIT Sloan
- In 2012, at the age of 31, I took another sleep study, which confirmed severe sleep apnea
- In 2013, I visited Massachusetts General Hospital to see whether I could get a jaw surgery called maxillomandibular advancement to open up my airway. I did the full work-up but had to move to the San Francisco Bay Area for work and never did get the surgery.
- From 2013 – 2018, I became increasingly tired all the time. I had no clue that falling asleep immediately after dinner was not normal.
- In 2018, I purchased a $5k bed that elevates to see if it would help my apnea. It did not.
- In 2019, at the age of 37, I took another sleep study which once again confirmed my severe obstructive sleep apnea and I received a referral for a dental device.
- That dental device did not work.
- I received a referral to an ENT specialist, who recommended I get my tonsils removed as well as what is called a uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) despite the lack of clinical recommendation nor evidence of strong efficacy for the treatment of severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
- The tonsillectomy and UPPP did not work.
- In January of 2020, lightening struck and I figured out how to manage my disease chronically.
- By March 15, 2020, Healthful Data, Inc. was incorporated.
- I am now nearly 40 years old.
- I could never tolerate the CPAP. (If you can tolerate it, please use it as prescribed, as it is likely saving your life).
- The really expensive bed to elevate my torso hadn’t done much.
- Neither the mouth guard nor the tonsillectomy and UPPP worked either.
…
- The first version of this post had the complete solution embedded, however:
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THE IMPACT TO MY LIFE HAS BEEN NOTHING SHORT OF A MIRACLE, AND IT LITERALLY OCCURED OVERNIGHT:
- I AM NO LONGER SEVERELY IRRITABLE AND MY PATIENCE HAS IMPROVED DRAMATICALLY: It was like a switch was turned off.
- I NO LONGER HAVE SEVERE NIGHTTIME SLEEPINESS: After dinner, I have 4 extra hours to be productive. Over the next 20 years, that would amount to 7,300 extra quality wakeful hours I can spend with my daughter and my wife or do anything else productive. That’s 304 extra days or almost a full year. I used to sleep for 8 – 10 hours routines. Now I need 6 – 8 hours and I have energy to last through the full day (most days).
- I NO LONGER HAVE SEVERE BRAIN FOG: I’ve always been smart. I am much smarter now. I think more clearly. I think more quickly. I can accomplish more than I ever thought possible.
- I NO LONGER HAVE EXPLOSIVE SNORING: I still snore in my upright position, but my wife suggests that I no longer wake up gasping for air. She spent the first four years of our daughter’s life sleeping with our daughter in a separate room. She can now sleep in the same room as me.
- I NO LONGER HAVE DAYTIME SLEEPINESS: I no longer need caffeine. I also no longer crave sweet things and sugary drinks. I used to not be able to drink water. Now I am completely comfortable asking for and drinking water.
- I NO LONGER HAVE SYMPTOMS ON WAKING: I no longer wake up with the psuedo-cough associated with a brain trying to recover from lack of oxygen.
- I NO LONGER HAVE A HIGH RESTING HEART RATE: My resting heart rate would go up to 100 or more as my body struggled to supply oxygen to my brain. Now, my resting heart rate is 60 beats per minute, which is extremely normal.
- I CAN EXERCISE: My wife and I signed up to hike Machu Picchu in June of 2020. We have been training relatively regularly, except now with COVID-19 canceling our plans we have ratcheted back on the intensity of our training. HOWEVER, I have never been healthier AND exercise does not seem like it is out of reach given my energy levels.
- I CAN TAKE LONG DRIVES: I can now drive without caffeine in my hand or the need to slap myself on the face!
- I CAN SPEND EVENINGS WITH MY 4-YEAR OLD, CEANA, and HOLD CONVERSATIONS WITH MY WIFE, MICHELLE
- WHEREAS BEFORE THE THOUGHT OF A SECOND CHILD WAS OUT OF THE QUESTION DUE TO SEVERE LACK OF ENERGY, WE ARE NOW CONSIDERING ADOPTING #2!