Would you be willing to discuss a condition I was recently diagnosed with called "o*esity hypoventilation syndrome"? My pulmonologist tried to refer me to an "o*esity specialist" and I shut that down immediately.
I'm having severe shortness of breath upon even mild exertion (but only exertion) and likely have sleep apnea as well. She basically explained to me, using her hands and arms to illustrate, how having extra abdominal adipose tissue makes it difficult for the diaphragm to function as it should. The "solution" is IWL but I'm not convinced that works and would rather focus on healthy, sustainable habits instead, like increasing my activity level.
It's so freakin' hard to deal with doctors as a fat person and I didn't have the spoons to challenge her.
I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. As always, I'm not a doctor and I'm not giving medical advice. Here is what I found with some quick research into this.
. Hypoventilation syndrome is a real thing that can have many causes and happens to people of all sizes. When it happens to someone who is higher-weight there is a tendency to blame the patient's weight (in theory, the diagnosis of “obesity hypoventilation syndrome” can only be given after ruling out any other reasons, in practice that doesn’t always happen) and assume weight loss is the solution.
This is problematic both because there may be another reason for the symptoms and because weight loss rarely works long-term (including with the new weight loss drugs) and often ends with people regaining more weight than they lost (which, if the belief is that size is the issue, would actually exacerbate the problem).
If it were me, I would ask what a practitioner would recommend for patients of lower weights with this diagnosis. I would also make sure that any needed oxygen support is NOT delayed for a weight loss attempt but is begun immediately when needed. I would also ask questions about whether increasing strength/respiratory therapy might be helpful.
Here is some further information - though content note for weight stigma including stigmatizing terms.
Would you be willing to discuss a condition I was recently diagnosed with called "o*esity hypoventilation syndrome"? My pulmonologist tried to refer me to an "o*esity specialist" and I shut that down immediately.
I'm having severe shortness of breath upon even mild exertion (but only exertion) and likely have sleep apnea as well. She basically explained to me, using her hands and arms to illustrate, how having extra abdominal adipose tissue makes it difficult for the diaphragm to function as it should. The "solution" is IWL but I'm not convinced that works and would rather focus on healthy, sustainable habits instead, like increasing my activity level.
It's so freakin' hard to deal with doctors as a fat person and I didn't have the spoons to challenge her.
I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. As always, I'm not a doctor and I'm not giving medical advice. Here is what I found with some quick research into this.
. Hypoventilation syndrome is a real thing that can have many causes and happens to people of all sizes. When it happens to someone who is higher-weight there is a tendency to blame the patient's weight (in theory, the diagnosis of “obesity hypoventilation syndrome” can only be given after ruling out any other reasons, in practice that doesn’t always happen) and assume weight loss is the solution.
This is problematic both because there may be another reason for the symptoms and because weight loss rarely works long-term (including with the new weight loss drugs) and often ends with people regaining more weight than they lost (which, if the belief is that size is the issue, would actually exacerbate the problem).
If it were me, I would ask what a practitioner would recommend for patients of lower weights with this diagnosis. I would also make sure that any needed oxygen support is NOT delayed for a weight loss attempt but is begun immediately when needed. I would also ask questions about whether increasing strength/respiratory therapy might be helpful.
Here is some further information - though content note for weight stigma including stigmatizing terms.
There's some research about it here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2885790/
BMJ Best Practice also has some good information on this: https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-us/1153