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I have now been using my cpap machine for 2 months and i am getting used to it quite well but one of the downsides is that when removing my cpap mask in the morning i appear to be very wheezy and i also find i get breathless easily.

I have always had asthma but nothing to serious but for the past 2 months since i have used cpap i have had these asthma like symptoms.

I have a dehumidifier attached to my cpap machine but still i suffer from this problem and also have congestion it feels like i have a chest infection and i am coughing quite a bit to. I usualy cough up clear phlemg.

Is this a side effect of using cpap please does anyone else suffer these symptoms and if so could you give me some advice as to help me please.

I have been put on some medication to help relax my bronical tubes as my GP thinks it sounds like ahstma. I also so the asthma nurse last night who suggested i phone papworth sleep study centre for advice as that is where i was diagnosed. I have called them and i could only get as far as the answer machine.

I would like to know if the cpap is the cause which in turn means i might be able to stop the medication i have been given by my GP for the asthma diagnosis. i would of course consult him first before i would stop my medication.

Thanks for any help in this matter.

Mike Reed.

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CPAP makes your lungs work harder than they have for ages. To begin with, it's the same effect as getting fit and taking exercise so your body decides it needs to get fir, too. I want more oxygen, it says - and spring cleans your lungs. All the gunge that has accumulated at the bottom of your lungs from shallow breathing, is expressed. Bit like smokers who stop.

As you may guess, that is a non-medical explanation and as I understand it.

Thank you so much for your reply it has been very helpfull.

Tigers Fan said:

CPAP makes your lungs work harder than they have for ages. To begin with, it's the same effect as getting fit and taking exercise so your body decides it needs to get fir, too. I want more oxygen, it says - and spring cleans your lungs. All the gunge that has accumulated at the bottom of your lungs from shallow breathing, is expressed. Bit like smokers who stop.

As you may guess, that is a non-medical explanation and as I understand it.

What TF describes is exactly as it was for me in the early days, and actually made me feel even more tired at first.  However, once my body got used to it (incl lungs) the problem disappeared.  This was also helped by the fact that as my daytime energy increased I was able to do a lot more physical exercise, which further helped the lungs works like they'd not done in years.

Thank you for your post kath it makes me feel better when understand what i am talking about x

Kath Hope said:

What TF describes is exactly as it was for me in the early days, and actually made me feel even more tired at first.  However, once my body got used to it (incl lungs) the problem disappeared.  This was also helped by the fact that as my daytime energy increased I was able to do a lot more physical exercise, which further helped the lungs works like they'd not done in years.

Do you have any data supporting this? Im not challenging just curious.

Tigers Fan said:

CPAP makes your lungs work harder than they have for ages. To begin with, it's the same effect as getting fit and taking exercise so your body decides it needs to get fir, too. I want more oxygen, it says - and spring cleans your lungs. All the gunge that has accumulated at the bottom of your lungs from shallow breathing, is expressed. Bit like smokers who stop.

As you may guess, that is a non-medical explanation and as I understand it.


My sleep nurse said she sees this reaction fairly often and gave me the same explanation TF gave about the lungs having to work harder.  Do you see this in your patients when new to CPAP? If so do you agree with our thoughts Rock?
RockRpsgt said

Do you have any data supporting this? Im not challenging just curious.

Tigers Fan said:

CPAP makes your lungs work harder than they have for ages. To begin with, it's the same effect as getting fit and taking exercise so your body decides it needs to get fir, too. I want more oxygen, it says - and spring cleans your lungs. All the gunge that has accumulated at the bottom of your lungs from shallow breathing, is expressed. Bit like smokers who stop.

As you may guess, that is a non-medical explanation and as I understand it.

It makes sense that the lungs would have to work harder. My thoughts on the issue mean little without actual data to prove this. I am looking for hard evidence that this is going on as it could answer some long term questions. If anyone has any actual studies I would LOVE to see them. Once again plz do not take this as I am  challenging the info. I just want to see it.

 

http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/content/172/1/114.full.pdf

The fact that one of the ways by which CPAP mediates its

effect on the upper airway is via changes in lung volume remains

controversial, however, and is not supported by all previous

literature.

 

Several methodologic issues need to be addressed. First, it is

possible that factors such as sex, body mass index, or AHI could

influence the effect of lung volume on the upper airway. A

separate analysis of the effect of an increase in lung volume in

men only (n

11) and women only (n 6) demonstrated a

significant effect in both sexes (respectively, p

0.001 and p

0.001). However, the sample size doesn’t allow us to study body

mass index or AHI as covariates. Second, we chose to titrate

CPAP to eliminate flow limitation, as previously performed by

other investigators (31, 32), rather than assessing AHI at varying

lung volumes across an entire night. Either would likely yield

valid results. However, many factors contribute to AHI (i.e.,

cycle frequency) of which upper airway collapsibility is only

one; therefore, we believe the minimal CPAP level required to

prevent flow limitation is probably a better measure. Third,

when the CPAP level is titrated down (after lung volume was

increased), it could be argued that (

CPAP levels and (

2) that a hysteresis of the upper airway could

also allow us to lower CPAP level without observing flow

limitation. However, because we always incremented the CPAP

level once flow limitation was observed, substantial muscle recruitment

was unlikely and hysteresis of the upper airway should

not be a problem. Fourth, decreasing lung volume was difficult

as rising upper airway resistance often led to arousal.

This explains

the considerable variability in lung volume decrement in

our subjects (range, 550–1,043 ml) because some tolerated this

better than others. Moreover only 8 of the 17 subjects were

studied with a decrease and an increase in lung volume. However,

these eight subjects were not different compared with the

others (sex, AHI, body mass index), and we therefore chose to

report these data together. Finally, it could be argued that our

results may be the consequence of a direct effect of the iron

lung pressure on the neck and upper airway. However, we took

special care to prevent any pressure on the neck as described

in

Methods in the online supplement. We therefore believe our

results to be a product of changing lung volume and not a result

of direct pressure around the neck.

1) upper airway muscle

In conclusion, these results demonstrate that lung volume

has an important effect on upper airway collapsibility and suggest

that it may be one of the mechanisms by which CPAP prevents

upper airway obstruction in patients with sleep apnea. Further

work will be required to explore the therapeutic potential of

lung volume manipulation.

Some interesting stuff here thanks Rock, and for the record, I didn't think for a minute you were challenging our comments.  Pity we don't know of any hard and fast evidence, but it is quite common so perhaps there'll be some soon.

RockRpsgt said:

It makes sense that the lungs would have to work harder. My thoughts on the issue mean little without actual data to prove this. I am looking for hard evidence that this is going on as it could answer some long term questions. If anyone has any actual studies I would LOVE to see them. Once again plz do not take this as I am  challenging the info. I just want to see it.

 

http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/content/172/1/114.full.pdf

The fact that one of the ways by which CPAP mediates its

effect on the upper airway is via changes in lung volume remains

controversial, however, and is not supported by all previous

literature.

 

Sorry I didn't get back to your original query, Rock - just opened the thread for the first time since I posted.

No, I don't have any evidence, I'm afaid. All I know is that many newbies complain of this - and aching chests - and that it goes away after a while. Typical OSA sufferers include folk who don't exercise as much as they might, thus include folk who breathe shallowly, thus who might well get the symptoms we're talking about when suddenly they start breathing into the bottom of their lungs whilst on CPAP. Chest muscles and lungs get 'fitter' with new breathing regime and symptoms fade and disappear.

That's an engineers understanding of human physiology. Why don't cars drive well after prolonged use in town? They get all clogged up and restricted. A good burn on the motorway soon has them purring ar full power again - or sitting on the hard shoulder awaiting a tow!

Stanford University supposedly did a huge long term Cpap study. The results of which are a cia secret for some reason.

 

Interesting that you compared a car engine to the bio engine of the human form. I completely agree. I put midgrade in my car by the way.

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