A low-energy diet based on the Cambridge weight plan was found to help patients with sleep apnea, researchers from the Korlinska Institute, Sweden reported in the BMJ (British Medical Journal). The low energy diet helped them lose weight; overweight is a common cause of this sleeping disorder.

Sleep apnea (UK: apnoea) is a common sleeping disorder in which there are unusual pauses in breathing during sleep, or moments of abnormally low breathing (hypopnea). Each breathing pause is called an apnea. These can last from just a couple of seconds to minutes. There may be between five and thirty apneas in an hour, and sometimes even more. Patients are diagnosed with a polysomnogram (sleep study), an overnight sleep test.

Sufferers find it hard to get restful sleep, and wake up feeling tired and exhausted. Patients have a higher risk of accidents, their quality of life may be undermined. There is also a greater chance of dying early.

Between 60% and 70% of sleep apnea patients are overweight/obese. The authors explained that prior studies had shown that losing weight can significantly improve symptoms.

Kari Johansson and team wanted to find out whether a low energy diet, combined with counseling to help maintain healthy weight control might benefit those with sleep apnea.

The authors had carried out a previous trial which was published in the same journal in 2009. That trial looked at the effects of a nine-week low-energy diet. This time they wanted to study the effects over a longer period – one year.

They recruited 63 males aged from 30 to 65 years. They had all been diagnosed with moderate to severe sleep apnea. Their BMIs (body mass indexes) were between 30 and 40.

58 of them completed a very low energy diet for nine weeks, followed by counseling, nutrition advice and exercise to help keep their weight down.

The Cambridge weight plan includes many different flavored replacements meals, such as bars, porridge, soups and shakes, all with the necessary vitamins and minerals for healthy weight loss.

Those who managed to lose weight during their nine-week diet managed to keep their weight down during the subsequent year. This medium-term weight loss significantly helped improve their sleep apnea symptoms. One year later 48% of them did not need continuous positive airway pressure any more. 10% of them experienced total remission of obstructive sleep apnea.

Those with the most severe symptoms when the study began experienced the greatest improvement, as did participants who had lost the most weight.

Link to paper

Written by Christian Nordqvist