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CAN THIS PLASTER ON THE LIP STOP OUR SNORING/APNOEAS?
A sensor that resembles a sticking plaster is being used as a new way to tackle snoring.
The device is stuck onto the patient’s top lip to monitor their breathing. When it detects a snore, it sends a short burst of sound, via a tiny earpiece, into the patient’s ear.
This stops the snoring without actually waking up the patient.
The device has been developed for sufferers of sleep apnoea, a condition thought to affect up to three million Britons at some point in their lives.
The new lip device, currently being tested on 125 people at the Mayo Clinic in the U.S., has been designed as a less cumbersome alternative to the masks.
It consists of a plastic pressure sensor fixed to the top lip before sleep. This is stuck on with an adhesive strip, like a plaster, and secured in place with a piece of elastic that runs around the back of the head.
The sensor measures air pressure as the patient exhales — a drop in pressure is a sign the patient is about to stop breathing. The sensor is connected to an iPod-sized control box, which constantly analyses the information it receives.
When it detects the patient is about to suffer an apnoea, it sends a short burst of sound to the earpiece. The device can emit hundreds of different sounds, and runs through them until it finds one that has the desired effect — a rise in air pressure that means the patient is exhaling and that the apnoea has been stopped.
The signal is designed not to wake the patient, but instead to slightly ‘startle’ the brain, rousing it enough for it to tighten the muscles surrounding the windpipe.
‘Our research shows that the patients are not woken and they have no memory of hearing the sounds the following morning,’ says Jim Moore, from the company Dymedix which makes the device. ‘They awake completely refreshed.’
Jim Horne, head of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough, says: ‘It is an interesting idea but more trials are needed to see how well it works.
‘The usual alternative, the nasal mask, actually prevents these apnoeas rather than detects them, as this new device seems to do. The latest masks are much more comfortable and acceptable than they used to be.’
The manufacturers say they hope to launch the device in Britain within 18 months.
Meanwhile, scientists believe that vitamin C jabs could be another new way to tackle sleep apnoea.
Researchers have discovered that a single injection of 500mg of the vitamin boosts blood flow to the muscles surrounding the airways, which may help treat the disorder.
Scientists at Justus-Liebig-University, Germany, studied ten patients with sleep apnoea and ten patients without.
They found those with sleep apnoea had restricted blood flow compared to the healthy patients.
Sleep apnoea was reduced in the patients with the condition following the jab, which the team believe may be due to the vitamin widening blood vessels.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tigers Fan on
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Yippee! Engineers and Techies forever! We rule, OK?
Bionic Man here I come! or should I lose weight and see if I still have OSA after eighteen months? Hmm! Bionic Man!
These two developments are really worth watching, I reckon!
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Permalink Reply by Graeme Joy on
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Hi All,
Great news about the lip pressure reader development in the US, many thanks Kath for keeping abreast of the information from around the world.
Still at the stage of fighting the mask at night and staying awake during the day, myself.
The idea of a simple silver bullet sounds great, although I am sure those of you that have been on the OSA path a lot longer than me may have heard about it all before?
Like a baby, to sleep through the night for say six or seven hours is all I want, although this particular baby is 61, weighs some 21 st and is over 6'2. A giant of a man brought to his knees by lack of sleep, how silly is that.
The sleep clinic has woke up and remembered me, and I had a recent check in / up at the beginning of the month (July) AND have an appointment the call back at the end of the month.
Seems since having the mask I have been having “heavy leakage” around the mouth, meaning it has not been maintaining the pressure, a new Mirage Quattro mask was issued for trial this month, so far so good from my point of view but as I do not yet understand the magic numbers (see post to Tigers Fan) so I have to wait for the clinic results at the end of the month.
The idea of a sticky plaster on the lower lip and an ear piece to react to snoring rather than a constant pressure mask to prevent it sounds great, but it will only ease the sleeping problems not the weight, diet or exercise needed to reduce these extra problems caused by the lack of sleep.
I really hope this proves to work particularly for the kids with OSA that I have seen on the photo gallery, they have the rest of their lives in front of them, a friend of mines grandson has just been diagnosed with OSA, he is only six. I have passed on the forums site so that his parents can access the information and support on-line here.
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Permalink Reply by RockRpsgt on
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i am not putting a whole lot of faith into this technology. Many times I have seen researcher ignore arousals or interruptions to sleep cycles in the overzealous pursuit to find a cure. In my eyes this device is doing the brain's part by causing an arousal to end the event. This would interrupt the sleep cycle and eventually cause the same symptoms of the apnea.
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Permalink Reply by Kath Hope on
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My pleasure Graeme, and it will be interesting to see if this comes to anything, as so often we've had so many dashed hopes! I must admit I'm skeptical, but you never know and time will tell.......
Pleased to hear you're persevering, and it will get better and as you start to feel better you'll know it's all worth it, and will become an 'expert', able to help other newbies.
Have a look on here at the discussion Paula started on cleaning the mask to help keep a good seal, and make sure your skin is totally free of all facial oils, soap, cleansers etc. Shout out if the problem rears it's ugly head again!
Let us know how you get on at the end of the month and keep up the good work :)
Graeme Joy said:Hi All,
Great news about the lip pressure reader development in the US, many thanks Kath for keeping abreast of the information from around the world.
Still at the stage of fighting the mask at night and staying awake during the day, myself.
The idea of a simple silver bullet sounds great, although I am sure those of you that have been on the OSA path a lot longer than me may have heard about it all before?
Like a baby, to sleep through the night for say six or seven hours is all I want, although this particular baby is 61, weighs some 21 st and is over 6'2. A giant of a man brought to his knees by lack of sleep, how silly is that.
The sleep clinic has woke up and remembered me, and I had a recent check in / up at the beginning of the month (July) AND have an appointment the call back at the end of the month.
Seems since having the mask I have been having “heavy leakage” around the mouth, meaning it has not been maintaining the pressure, a new Mirage Quattro mask was issued for trial this month, so far so good from my point of view but as I do not yet understand the magic numbers (see post to Tigers Fan) so I have to wait for the clinic results at the end of the month.
The idea of a sticky plaster on the lower lip and an ear piece to react to snoring rather than a constant pressure mask to prevent it sounds great, but it will only ease the sleeping problems not the weight, diet or exercise needed to reduce these extra problems caused by the lack of sleep.
I really hope this proves to work particularly for the kids with OSA that I have seen on the photo gallery, they have the rest of their lives in front of them, a friend of mines grandson has just been diagnosed with OSA, he is only six. I have passed on the forums site so that his parents can access the information and support on-line here.
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Graeme - we all have the rest of our lives in front of us - and there is no telling whether a child's 'rest of' is longer or shorter than mine. The tragedy, surely, is that their young years are afflicted by OSA. Hmm! it's a tragedy that my older years are afflicted with OSA, too!
But we have CPAP and each other, so all is well enough.
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