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Sleep apnea pill shows striking success in large clinical trial

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Re: Sleep apnea pill shows striking success in large clinical trial

#91
Sleep apnea is a structural issue, either soft or bone. CPAP helps, but it doesn't address the root cause. Fixing it is a matter of airway geometry, with many obstructions along the way. Bodybuilders or wrestlers, otherwise in good health, can suffer from OSA because of too much muscle in their neck.

You may not know it, but your tongue may be tied. It is one of many possibilities causing OSA.

I made this: Do I have tongue tie? Self assessment https://do-i-have-tongue-tie.vercel.app/

Didgeridoo playing as alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome: randomised controlled trial https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1360393/

Myofunctional Therapy to Treat Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4402674/

Jawhacks on Youtube, discussing Airway health https://www.youtube.com/@JawHacks/search?query=sleep%20apnea

Re: Sleep apnea pill shows striking success in large clinical trial

#92

Atomoxetine can have some super nasty side effects, and I wouldn't be surprised if it only works for some people. It's a fickle drug in my experience.

This comment needs to be higher. Atomoxetine is also known as Strattera and is prescribed for ADHD.

I tried it for less than a week and had to stop because there were VERY painful side effects _down there_.

I’m also a CPAP user and I’d 100% keep using it rather than go back on atomoxetine.

Re: Sleep apnea pill shows striking success in large clinical trial

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My CPAP provides 3 massive life changing benefits: - a proper night's sleep - moisture that ensures I don't wake up with a massive sinus headache that destroys my morning - letting my partner have a proper night's sleep Any one of the 3 would be worth the minor inconveniences of a CPAP.

> letting my partner have a proper night's sleep I’m interested in this: how’s the CPAP noise perceived by the partners? I don’t snore and usually wake up quickly when doing the "apnea noise", stopping before waking her up. In the meantime I read that CPAP produce a a constant sound + an inconstant sound from the air coming in and out. She needs quietness to sleep and disturbing her sleep refrained me to try it out.…

A new Resmed machine is inaudible to my ears. But after 1-2 years, all 3 of mine has developed some kind of noise.

I recently found an online service that repaired one of mine, and it's quiet now.

There is also mask noise. If my nostril mask slips out a bit, there will be noise. Not too big a deal.

One fix that I think would work for most people is a white noise machine. It's briefly annoying, but after a while (a few nights at most is my personal guess) you stop noticing it, and it drowns out other noise.

Re: Sleep apnea pill shows striking success in large clinical trial

#94
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a common issue. If you breathe through your mouth at night, it's often because you can't get enough air because your airway is compromised. Once you add PAP, that problem goes away, and many people can revert to nasal breathing. There is an adjustment period, turbinates can swell up from the extra airflow, and it might be uncomfortable for a while. And some people have such awful septum deviations that they're b…

I assumed that my need for CPAP was mostly because I'm old and overweight. But I've always been a mouth breather even when I wasn't overweight, so it seems it could be more than my weight issues.

Untreated sleep apnea is often a cause of overweight. Being obese can contribute to sleep apnea, but unless you're extremely obese, it's rarely the cause.

Re: Sleep apnea pill shows striking success in large clinical trial

#95
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried them, but if you have facial hair they don't stick well and come off too easily. Instead, I've been using 3M micropore tape - just the right amount of adhesive, my skin feels fine, and cheap too. It works well to stop me breathing through my mouth.

What process do you use for taping, full mouth, full mouth with slits, "soul patch" strip in the middle?

I tried slits, but unfortunately that didn't work for me - has to be the full mouth. It's far from ideal, but it's that or CPAP, or no sleep...

Re: Sleep apnea pill shows striking success in large clinical trial

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My CPAP provides 3 massive life changing benefits: - a proper night's sleep - moisture that ensures I don't wake up with a massive sinus headache that destroys my morning - letting my partner have a proper night's sleep Any one of the 3 would be worth the minor inconveniences of a CPAP.

> letting my partner have a proper night's sleep I’m interested in this: how’s the CPAP noise perceived by the partners? I don’t snore and usually wake up quickly when doing the "apnea noise", stopping before waking her up. In the meantime I read that CPAP produce a a constant sound + an inconstant sound from the air coming in and out. She needs quietness to sleep and disturbing her sleep refrained me to try it out.…

My wife has been on a CPAP since before we got married almost twelve years ago. It’s extremely quiet—I can’t usually hear it at all.

Re: Sleep apnea pill shows striking success in large clinical trial

#97

Sleep apnea is a structural issue, either soft or bone. CPAP helps, but it doesn't address the root cause. Fixing it is a matter of airway geometry, with many obstructions along the way. Bodybuilders or wrestlers, otherwise in good health, can suffer from OSA because of too much muscle in their neck. You may not know it, but your tongue may be tied. It is one of many possibilities causing OSA. I made this: Do I have…

You're right, and Inspiratory Muscle Training is an easier alternative to playing didgeridoo, and it's very important to mention Mandibular Advancement Devices and soft cervical collars(since neck-jaw position matters, this is a big part of why apnea is worse on your back), but the thing is- it's unlikely to be enough.

Ultimately, to REALLY fix Sleep Disordered Breathing, usually you want maxillomandibular advancement - to move your jaws forward, which physically enlarges your pharyngeal airway which is where the actual collapse happens. Collapse that shouldn't be able to reach the point of increased airway resistance with a skeletally sound airway.

Many people also have nasal breathing issues, and while this can be caused by a deviated septum or severe turbinate hypertrophy,usually nasal throughout correlates with the cross-section of the nasal cavity, which is most effectively addressed by bone-borne(not tooth-based!) palatal expansion.

Re: Sleep apnea pill shows striking success in large clinical trial

#98
post #7

I swear CPAP wouldn't get such a bad rep if the media would stop using pictures of men with obscenely large full face masks. The most commonly used CPAP mask is probably the minimalist Resmed P10 [1]. It looks a lot less intimidating than a bulky full face mask. And in most cases, full face masks aren't needed (no sources to cite, but titrating to the correct pressure allows most people to breathe through their noses…

The problem with CPAP is that 40% of patients don't tolerate it even for the 4h/night defined as treatment compliance, while most of the rest use it less than the full duration of the night, with studies demonstrating that treatment compliance depends on efficacy.

And this is for traditional OSA in men - people with Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome(mostly identical mechanism as OSA, less oxygen desaturation, more arousals, slightly different symptoms) which is how SDB tends to manifest in women and younger people, the problem is way, way harder. In a community I used to hang out in, I'd say maybe 1 person in 10 actually benefitted from CPAP/BiPAP more than it hurt their sleep quality.

Re: Sleep apnea pill shows striking success in large clinical trial

#99
post #12
post #6

[flagged]

You're not wrong, in that this is proper tongue posture. But that's not going to cure sleep apnea. Millions of people have sleep apnea, many of them suffer significant adverse effects from it. Silly little aphorisms like this really aren't helpful to these people.

I didn't have full blown apnea diagnosed, but I did have very bad snoring and mouth breathing, resulting in poor sleep and issues functioning during the day (I even got into two car accidents due to microsleep). I feel like it's good advice, since my life has been transformed by working on my tongue posture. Unfortunately I didn't learn about it earlier, since I was mouth breathing in childhood and have a very small recessed jaw because of it. The base of my tongue would just always fall behind and close my throat, my head posture was always forward.
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