Target Audience:

This lecture is designed for healthcare professionals, including sleep medicine specialists, primary care physicians, obesity medicine physicians, and others, who are interested in the evolving role of medical weight loss in sleep apnea management. As GLP-1 receptor agonists and other metabolic treatments gain prominence, understanding their impact on sleep-disordered breathing is critical for optimizing sleep health.

Learning Objectives:

– Understand the link between obesity and sleep apnea and why weight management is a cornerstone of treatment.
– Review the latest evidence on GLP-1 receptor agonists (and other NEW medical weight loss drugs) and their effects on sleep architecture, hypoxic burden, and apnea-hypopnea index (AHI).
– Explore real-world clinical applications of medical weight loss in sleep apnea management, including patient selection and expected outcomes.
– Discuss the potential for reducing CPAP dependence through weight loss interventions and how to set realistic expectations for patients.
– Examine future directions in sleep apnea treatment, including combination approaches that integrate pharmacotherapy, behavioral interventions, and traditional therapies.