Dr. Dylan Petkus reviews Nabil’s sleep apnea story from drowsy driving and moderate sleep apnea to better sleep and all-day energy and clarity.
00:00
Dylan Petkus, MD
Hey, everyone. This is Dr. Dylan Petkus here. And I’m super excited to be able to share another inspiring story of someone who was dealing and struggling with sleep apnea and is now on the other side of where we were just chatting before we started recording. He had some great sleep last night. So we want to be able to help show you that a lot more is possible than you may have been told initially. So I want to introduce to you my dear old friend and client Nabil here. So, Nabil, say hi to the millions or I mean dozens of people watching this.
00:41
Nabil
Hi, everyone.
00:43
Dylan Petkus, MD
Hello, hello.
00:44
Dylan Petkus, MD
And I mean just to kind of kick us off, you want to introduce yourself a little bit or a fun fact? Let’s start with a fun fact.
00:51
Dylan Petkus, MD
Or just introduce yourself.
00:52
Dylan Petkus, MD
Whatever, whatever feels best for you.
00:54
Nabil
My name, my name is Nabil. I’m an engineer. I founded and started my own company. We have about 30 employees here. We do a lot of projects all over the world and across the United States. So we really, we are good at what we do. So having said that, I really had sleep apnea, I didn’t believe it because when somebody told me I have apnea, I didn’t believe it because I don’t. I’m not out of breath. And my wife said, I don’t snore loudly. She said, but a little bit I snore. So I didn’t believe it until I have two tests that showed I have apnea. Then I was looking for a solution. They told me the CPAP machine is a solution.
01:47
Nabil
And I hid that machine because I saw it in other friends of mine and I made up my mind, I am not going to wear it. So I did buy the mouth piece that you put in your mouth and it didn’t work very well. So I was looking for another solution when I ran to Dr. Dylan on Facebook. Of course, Facebook has good and bad products, so I was really suspicious.
02:14
Dylan Petkus, MD
I would be suspicious too. I mean, look at me.
02:21
Nabil
But since Dr. Dylan, he was really my only hope. I know now I do know. And now I have sleep apnea and I’m not going to wear, my mind will not wear the CPAP machine. So even though I was suspicious, I had to go with the program so I can see if it works or not. And we have.
02:40
Dylan Petkus, MD
Let’s not ruin it. Let’s not ruin it. Let’s not ruin the surprise. Even though I think people understand. I mean, I wouldn’t, you know, but that’s the, that’s the preview here. So let’s kind of back up a little bit into sort of individual pieces here. So one question I always like to ask people, because a lot of people have this moment in their journey where they’re like, wow, this is an actual problem. This is not just because sometimes if you have kids or maybe you ever gotten a puppy, sometimes you’re like, I didn’t sleep well. All right, whatever. You get through it. But then sleep apnea, there’s a point where you sort of appreciate this is a problem. So,when did you start to notice that for you, what were you feeling?
03:20
Dylan Petkus, MD
Whether it was fatigue or brain fog or, you know, like maybe family members were saying something. What were those warning signs for you when you first started out?
03:29
Nabil
Yeah, the warning sign really started when I wake up at middle of the night. Like, I start to sleep at 8:30 or 9pm, and by 12:30am, I wake up. And when I wake up, it’s very hard to go back to sleep, Dr. Dylan. So sometimes I do for an hour or two, but most of the time I can’t. And I used to take that liquid melatonin, and you put it under your tongue and it just. It’s just miserable. And I had to read for an hour and a half, before I can hit an hour of sleep. Interrupted sleep. So at that time, I tried different food, by the way. Yes. I tried eating just a snack before I go to bed. An hour from bed, two hours from bed, change the diet. Nothing worked. So I surrendered and I came to.
04:20
Dylan Petkus, MD
You and showed up there. So you tried a lot of the dietary things. And then the one thing I wanted to highlight is you had a sleep study done, given the option of a CPAP. And I know at one point in time you sent us your initial sleep study. Do you remember what your numbers were on that initial study?
04:40
Nabil
In the initial test, it was a medium apnea case. So that was, you know, there is light and medium and severe. I was in the middle.
04:54
Dylan Petkus, MD
Gotcha. Gotcha. You make it sound like it’s something you order at Starbucks.
04:59
Nabil
I swear to God.
05:00
Dylan Petkus, MD
I’ll have the venti apnea, please. So you were. That would be Moderate. Moderate there. So 15.
05:06
Nabil
Moderate. I’m sorry. Yes, yes, yes.
05:09
Dylan Petkus, MD
I know. None of those are words that really do it justice, because mild can feel bad, moderate can feel bad. Severe almost always feels really bad. So for you, what were those? I guess, like, yes, you were waking up at the night, but, like, during the day, whether maybe you were losing steam at work or you got home when you were just like?
05:28
Nabil
Yes.
05:30
Dylan Petkus, MD
What were those other deficits for you?
05:33
Nabil
The deficit is definitely that I am physically at work, but mentally is not there. See, there is no focus. I’m just trying to push everything away from me, but I’m physically there. So the focus is not there. The good thinking is not there. All these good things are not there. But really what pushed me over the edge is driving. Because I used to not do what I’m driving, and I just get up again, and you say, fool, did I hit somebody? Did I hit the incoming car? And that really was a matter of life and death. So I stopped the driving on the highway. Only in town. And if you have somebody else, I let somebody else drive because that was very serious until I got improved in your program, Dr. Dylan. And now I drive just normal. No problem.
06:28
Dylan Petkus, MD
Yes. We got you a chauffeur as part of the program together works.
06:33
Nabil
Yes, I am my own chauffeur now.
06:39
Dylan Petkus, MD
That’s funny. Funny. Okay, but like. But in all seriousness, because this is something that a lot of people do shake off where, like, they’re, you know, they’re driving, they get drowsy, and people are like, oh, I’ll just chew sunflower seeds or have the like. But that’s like a big deal. Like when you’re. You’re dozing off. So that’s where you were. And then you found us on Facebook. Kind of getting to that point of the story. You’re a little skeptical. But when you were, like, looking at us or like, whether I forget what you may have seen, whether it was like a, you said on Facebook, so maybe like an ad or something. What. What did you see and like, what kind of were like, okay, I think there’s something more here. What were some of those positive signs?
07:22
Nabil
Yeah, when I face the problem, Dr. Dylan, I. I try everything. So I tried. Started by the mouse piece. Didn’t work, by the way. More than one type of mouth piece. It’s not only one type. And. And I know that CPAP machines out. I’m not gonna wear it because magnetic field and because aqua is weird and all these things. So you were really. Oh, there is something also you put on your head and under your chin and all these things. Yes. Didn’t work either because it make it worse. It kind of close your airways as well. I mean, when you push here, in my mind, it will close the airway. Will make it worse. So when I. When I was looking at Facebook and I saw your ad, I said, okay, I’m going to give it a try.
08:14
Nabil
And when kind of I sensed that there is no medicine, I said wait a minute now, what’s going on? There is no solution without medicine, to be honest with you, that’s also my mind. So I said okay, I’m going to give it a try. And since you were my only hope at the moment to be honest with you, I said okay, give this one a try. So from suspicious I started suspicious, to be honest with you. But later things really turn into the good and I start to see good results in about five weeks.
08:52
Dylan Petkus, MD
Yeah, that’s what I was going to ask next. What were those five week result marks where you’re like okay, things are moving the right direction. This was the right decision when I…
09:05
Nabil
Stopped the sun, night, don’t wake up at night. I couldn’t believe it, I really couldn’t believe it that in about five weeks without medicine, remember now I expected to see medicine or surgery in this airway here or something. And only with the tongue exercise and the breathing. I start to have some nights now continuous sleep for six hours or sometimes six and a half. It didn’t happen every day, every night, to be honest with you. But I said wait a minute now things are working. So that’s when I started to believe in the program.
09:42
Dylan Petkus, MD
Gotcha. So the things were making some big headway there and then also not everyone does this because I mean just it’s not always super easy to get a sleep study all the time. But you actually had one. When was it? Was it week eight or was it sometime in the later half?
09:59
Nabil
Yeah, in the year 2022. I had them in house system but the system was sophisticated. So it has a strap around my chest to measure my breathing. It has oxygen things on my finger and it even has something in my nose to see my breathing. So it’s kind of a sophisticated one. And the result, when it came, did you say medium? Medium.
10:27
Dylan Petkus, MD
So you’re at moderate?
10:28
Nabil
Moderate, yes, moderate things. I denied it. I just, it’s just said no, I don’t snore, I, I don’t have a problem in breathing. So I kind of denied the result. But when I get more honestly unable to sleep again, then I start to say a better wise up.
10:53
Dylan Petkus, MD
Gotcha.
10:53
Nabil
And also I read an article that if I have an apnea and I didn’t solve it, I’ll have seven years to live with the threat of course of heart disease and high blood pressure, probably cancer because my body does not detoxify during night because if I don’t sleep it does not detoxify. So I knew that a lot of serious diseases could happen. That’s why I was really looking for a solution.
11:24
Dylan Petkus, MD
Yep, that’s what we got. You are on a much better track, the live longer track. And kind of circling back to the.
11:31
Dylan Petkus, MD
Sleep study you got.
11:32
Dylan Petkus, MD
Do you remember the results on the second one?
11:35
Nabil
Yes, the second one, to be honest with you, that was in the lab, in the sleeping doctor lab. And I slept for six hours. That’s again after five, six weeks after I met you. And when I woke up, they said, you have improved from the status I have for moderate to light apnea. And I was really pleased with that. In just six weeks, again, he did not ask me to take medicine. I did not go for surgery or I did not wear that CPAP machine. So for me, that was victory. I can solve that problem without that dreadful machine or surgery. So that was great.
12:24
Dylan Petkus, MD
Awesome. Awesome. So from moderate to mild in a very short amount of time.
12:31
Dylan Petkus, MD
Everybody, this is Dr. Dylan Petkus here going over the sleep studies that we’ve mentioned. So I’ve blotted out or whited out some identifying things here that would be too personal to share. But here we have the before and kind of after. The second one on the bottom is like six weeks into the program, so I wouldn’t call that a true after, but this demonstrates what’s possible in a very short amount of time. So Nabil had this one at the top just before starting the program at 16 was his AHI number. That would give you a moderate. If that’s between 15 and 30, it doesn’t feel moderate. Feels awful for a lot of people like we’ve been describing in this conversation. So that was at 16, six weeks later.
13:18
Dylan Petkus, MD
And I’ll be honest, I’ll throw Nabil under the bus just a little bit because I love him. I wouldn’t say he was doing everything okay, a good percentage. He was putting in work, the breathing exercise and everything. But there’s a lot more to be doing around that. But nonetheless, being able to get down to an AHI of 8.4 per hour. So that’s cutting it in half, which is not uncommon to see this. And in fact, we see a lot bigger reductions because usually people will get a sleep study at the end of our 12 week program or even a month or so beyond that to see how things are going. And it’s just not super easy to get a sleep study multiple times per year. But sometimes you do.
14:08
Dylan Petkus, MD
And most times we see, you know, a 60, 70, 80, 90% reduction or all the way till basically to one to two events per hour, which is essentially nothing less than five, means you don’t have sleep apnea. Now, even looking at these curves, before we get back to the video, just to nerd out a little bit, the one at the top here, look how much more up and down that is. And big variations and big dips, like into the 80s. I think that would be 82% there. If we look at this curve, that is not the case. It’s a lot smoother. There are, you know, a few bumps here and there, but nothing dips down as low as the curve above there. So there you go. There’s at the beginning of the program, and then six weeks. So there you go.
14:53
Dylan Petkus, MD
There’s the beginning of the program at 16, six weeks in at eight. And like I said, just being able to correlate how people are doing and what that would look like on a sleep study, I would very likely assume that Nabil will be somewhere between one to three events per hour. So there you go. And enjoy the rest of the video.
15:13
Dylan Petkus, MD
And then for you, when you’re able to make that shift, what were the changes you saw in, your sleep? Cause I remember when we first talked, I think we set a goal. You said, Dr. Petkus, I would be so happy with, like, five hours of sleep. Something like that. I’m talking about eight over here. And you’re like, just give me five. Yes, yes. What were those big changes? I think you were at, three, four pretty consistently. And then you said you were at six. So, like, what were some of those changes? Let’s just start with that. Like, the hours of sleep, the quality, how you feel during the day, what have been some of those big, noticeable improvements you’ve noticed?
15:54
Nabil
To be honest with you, the biggest improvement for me is that I don’t fall asleep when I’m driving. That was really an issue for me. And the other issue, I stopped worrying about the disease I’m gonna get from not sleeping. For the work to be answered, Definitely, I’ve become better at work, but I have staff here to take care of things. When I’m slacking off, they can take care of things for me. But driving and not worrying about the disease. And if I solve my apnea, I’m going to live longer, which is for all the people, is very important. I mean, when a person is young, who cares? But I’m 69 and a half years old, so living a little bit longer is very important to me. Definitely not waking up at night. That was really great.
16:48
Nabil
And achieving between six and a half and seven hours right now. That’s my average. My average score from my Garmin watch is about 77. Quality of sleep. So that’s something really I couldn’t dream of in that very short time. So I’m just grateful to you, Dr. Dylan, and Dr. Molly.
17:11
Dylan Petkus, MD
All right, so then. So you made those, you know, big strides, being able to go from, four hours a night and like, falling asleep at the wheel to six, seven and a half. And being able to drive well, being able to be more physically there, but also mentally present and obviously also having the worry of this off your shoulders, not having to, you know, worry about a CPAP and everything else that goes along with it. So where you are right now, if you had to say something or, you know, give some good advice to Nabil when you were scrolling through Facebook and you saw this thing or, you know, maybe we’re watching a video, what. What would you say to him then?
17:49
Nabil
I say I was. It was a lucky day, to be honest with you, Dr. Dylan, to meet with you, because to be honest, I didn’t see it on the computer. I saw you on Facebook. And I’m not on Facebook on my phone very often. That’s doesn’t happen very often because I like biggest, bigger screens. It was definitely a lucky day for me to meet you. And definitely I’m a different person. I’m in a better mood, I sleep better, I feel healthier, and I can drive on a highway again.
18:16
Dylan Petkus, MD
So it’s always a plus.
18:18
Nabil
But. But honestly, mainly I don’t have any disease, to be honest with you. Thank God. And lack of sleep was the nagging issue that I was trying to solve, and helped me to solve it. And I’m grateful to you, Dr. Molly, and also Lisa, to be honest with you, who, whenever I slack off, she gave me a call. So Nabil did not follow your portfolio or that table? Yes. So I. And I’m grateful to her, by the way. She put me right on track several times. Your method, Dr. Dylan, is unique. It’s smart, it makes sense. You are the only one I’m aware of that does it this way, to be honest with you, no medicine, no surgery, no CPAP machine. I love it. Just wonderful. I couldn’t believe it in the beginning, but now I am a witness.
19:11
Nabil
I am evidence of your wonderful system.
19:14
Dylan Petkus, MD
Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for working it, even if Lisa has to chase you down. But that’s part of it. That’s part of what people sign up for is being chased by Lisa. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. It’s for everyone to be able to know. Like you said, no medicine, no surgery, no CPAP. But here we are.
19:32
Dylan Petkus, MD
Awesome.
19:32
Dylan Petkus, MD
Well, thanks for joining us, Nabil. We’ll wrap up here. And for everyone out there, there’s your inspiration, where there’s a lot more that’s possible. Just got to be able to take action, show up, put in the work, and who knows, maybe you’ll be on a video like this, too.