What Is Obstructive Sleep Apnea?
Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition where the airway becomes blocked during sleep, leading to repeated breathing interruptions. These interruptions can cause loud snoring, daytime fatigue, and other health issues that can affect both your physical and mental health.
Because your body keeps being woken up (sometimes hundreds of times a night) to restart your breathing, you never reach a deep or restful stage of sleep. This constant disruption of your sleep can lead to trouble focusing, mood swings, memory problems, and irritability during the day. Prolonged lack of proper sleep can increase your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and insulin resistance, which can lead to type 2 diabetes. In severe cases, obstructive sleep apnea can even elevate your risk of experiencing a sudden cardiac event.
What Causes Obstructive Sleep Apnea?
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) reports that not all OSA cases are due to excess weight, so Zepbound may not be a suitable treatment for everyone.
In addition to obesity, sleep apnea can be caused by anatomical features like a narrow airway, large tonsils, or a big tongue that can block airflow during sleep. Aging can also cause throat muscles to weaken and lead to OSA. Men are more susceptible to developing sleep apnea than women, but the risk goes up for women after menopause.
Other conditions like family history, smoking, alcohol, and the use of sedatives can irritate and inflame your airways or relax your throat muscles too much, making it easier for the airway to collapse. Allergy or structural nasal congestion can make breathing at night harder, and certain medical conditions like hypothyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), or a history of stroke can also raise the risk of developing sleep apnea.
The FDA-Approved Zepbound For Sleep Apnea
In December 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Zepbound (tirzepatide) as the first prescription medication for the treatment of moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in adults with obesity.
How Does Zepbound Help With Sleep Apnea?
Zepbound is a prescription medication that was approved in November 2023 for the treatment of obesity in adults. It is administered by subcutaneous injection once a week, and the dose is gradually increased over a six-month period. It belongs to a group of medications that are known as GLP-1 agonists, which means it mimics the GLP-1 and GIP hormones that naturally occur in your body.
Your natural hormones (glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) are responsible for regulating your appetite and metabolism.
Zepbound helps suppress your appetite, controls food cravings, and streamlines your metabolism so you can lose weight. Since excess weight is the biggest risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea, maintaining a healthy weight can alleviate the severity or eliminate the condition.
Clinical Trial Showed Zepbound For Sleep Apnea Can Lead To Remission
The FDA approved Zepbound for treating obstructive sleep apnea based on a large medical study called SURMOUNT-OSA. This study included 469 adults who had both moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea and obesity. The individuals in the study were split into two groups:
- Those using a breathing machine called PAP therapy;
- Those who were not receiving PAP therapy.
For one year, everyone in the study took either Zepbound (at a dose of 10 or 15 milligrams) or a placebo, which is an inactive substance that will not affect the outcome of the study.
The Results Of Zepbound On Sleep Apnea
Zepbound helped reduce breathing interruptions during sleep, measured by AHI. The Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) measures how many times a person stops breathing (apnea) or has shallow breathing (hypopnea) during each hour of sleep. The higher the AHI number, the more severe the sleep apnea. The study found that:
- In people not using PAP therapy, Zepbound reduced AHI by 25 events per hour, compared to only 5 with the placebo;
- In people using PAP therapy, Zepbound reduced AHI by 29 events per hour, compared to 6 with the placebo.
After One Year on Zepbound
- 42% of participants in the non-PAP group saw their sleep apnea improve to mild or go into total remission, compared to 16% in the placebo group;
- 50% of participants in the PAP group reached remission or mild sleep apnea, compared to 14% with placebo.
Weight Loss Results
- Individuals using Zepbound lost an average of 18–20% of their body weight (about 45–50 pounds);
- Individuals taking the placebo lost about 2% of their body weight (around 4–6 pounds).
Does Zepbound For Sleep Apnea Cause Side Effects?
Zepbound works with your own natural hormones to optimize your metabolism and causes common side effects including nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, and abdominal discomfort. More serious risks involve pancreatitis, gallbladder problems, low blood sugar, kidney issues, and potential thyroid tumors.
Zepbound should not be used by individuals with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer or those with MEN-2 (multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2).
Zepbound Can Help You Lose Weight
Zepbound (tirzepatide) offers individuals struggling with obesity an effective medical intervention that does not involve invasive surgery.
MySlimMed can grant you access to Zepbound (tirzepatide), and Dr. Angelina Postoev and the experienced MySlimMed team are here to support you every step of the way. They offer personalized guidance and give you the tools you need to take control of your weight and improve your health. If you have weight-related conditions like sleep apnea, Zepbound may be able to help you eliminate or reduce your sleeping problems.
Contact MySlimMed today to learn more about proven weight loss medications that can help you improve your health and quality of life. Set up your consultation today!
