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CPAP Machines - problems & side effects
Like most medical therapies, CPAP therapy does have a few side effects unfortunately and this post will cover the three common side effects, and things we can do to help alleviate those side effects.
Aerophagia
Aerophagia is a fancy term for air building up in your tummy.
So, with aerophagia, instead of the air from the therapy going down into our lungs, it’s basically going down our esophagus and into our stomach, building up in our stomach and it can be quite uncomfortable.
So, what’s causing this? Well, it’s normally caused by incorrect pressure levels, so if your pressure’s accessibly high, and it’s overwhelming your body’s natural ability to breathe that air into the lungs, that can cause it alternatively if the pressure’s too low and we’re still having apnea those moments where you are having apnea and doing that, (gasping) that gasping can cause that air to travel down our esophagus into our tummy also.
Another condition that can cause aerophagia is congestion, if you really congested up in your sinuses, that can cause us to mouth breathe (breathing in loudly) and suck air in through our mouth and that combined with the positive airway pressure can also lead to aerophagia as well. Now, with the mouth breathing, if you are wearing a nasal mask and you’re supposed to be breathing just through your nose, but over nighttime you start breathing through your mouth as well, then that can also cause that air to travel down into our stomach. Exhalation problems can also cause aerophagia, so if you’re struggling to breathe out against the pressure there because the pressure is too high or you’re just body’s not quite used to it yet, that can lead to you bringing that air into your stomach as well.
Solution
So, what are some of the solutions? Well, firstly we need to have a look at air pressure settings and air pressure relief settings, so, we need to fine tune this a little bit. If you are on a high pressure consider dropping the pressure down a little bit to see if that helps alleviate it and also try putting up the pressure relief settings on your device, so, that’s that exhalation relief that you get. Secondly, we wanna have a look at our mask, if you’re on a nasal mask, maybe consider trying a full face mask cause there might be a chance that you’re actually mouth breathing over nighttime and that’s causing the air to go down into your stomach. Next, you can look at adjusting your sleep position, okay, and sleeping on a little bit of an angle upwards, so a 30 to 40 degree angle should help improve that as well and lastly, we can try what’s called a BiPAP machine which is a machine that is a lot easier to use compared to your standard positive airway pressure devices.
Dry Nose & Throat
Now, what’s happening here is basically all that air flow is just drying out your upper airway, it’s really quite simple. So, the CPAP machines do have humidifiers, so it’s really important that we learn how to adjust those humidification levels and our heated tube levels, if we have a heated tube. So, if we’re dry in the throat and the nose, obviously we wanna add more moisture to the air which normally means increasing the humidity levels and also normally increasing the heater tube level as well especially if we’re in a cold climate but you really need to sort of tinker with those settings and make sure that they’re working as optimal as possible, if we are getting dry nose and throat.Another thing you might wanna look at is preheating your humidifier, so that’s actually making sure the water that’s in your chamber is nice and hot before you start using the therapy.
We also might wanna look at the mask we’re wearing, so, if we are wearing a nasal mask and we’re breathing through our mouth over nighttime, that is gonna cause a lot of dryness cause that air will be shooting out of our mouth. Next, if you don’t have a heater tube consider going out and buying a aftermarket heater tube or a heater tube if your machine can take a heater tube system, heater tubes are great, they’re the way to go, so make sure you look at that.
Dry, sore eyes
The last side effects we’ll have a talk about is dry sore eyes and this is normally caused by mask leaks, so instead of the mask sealing well there’s air leaking out and over the course of a night, it’s causing our eyes to dry out and overwhelming the eye’s natural ability to stay nice and moist and lubricated. So, what can we do? Well, I think the first thing you wanna look at is how you’re obviously adjusting your mask and maybe do what I call a mask seal test before you actually go to sleep.
So, that’s actually running your machine at a higher pressure while you adjust it so that when you fall asleep and you have your ramp period or the machine ramps up automatically to adjust for your sleep apnea, you know you’ve already kind of got it set for a higher pressure.
Secondly, we wanna be obviously cleaning our mask, making sure that seal is nice and fresh and that we’re replacing it like at the recommended rate or near about which is probably, you know, two to three times a year. The longer you have that mask seal, the more it’s gonna start to leak over time, that’s basically how it works and obviously your head gear and other mask components as well. So, make sure your mask is always kept nice and fresh that you’re adjusting it correctly and that you’re running that mask seal test. You can also look at getting some mask liners, which are like a material liners that go sort of underneath your mask and then your mask is on the top of them, there’s a few just Google CPAP mask liners and there’ll be heaps that pop up there for you as well.