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Presure Messing With Lungs?
#1
Presure Messing With Lungs?
I have been finding myself short of breath lately. It's like my lungs are not working on the first 1/4 of my breath. I have been using an A10 Auto set at 11 to 16. I think the pressure is messing with my lungs. I don't smoke, and I have been doing some active cycling daily. But after a meal, or just generally, something is different with my lungs. It seems OK when I use the machine. I think the pressure is flattening my alveoli.

Any advice? I will be contacting my doctor tomorrow.
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#2
RE: Presure Messing With Lungs?
Yep. If your doc tells you a cpap machine is " is flattening your alveoli" find a new doc fast.
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#3
RE: Presure Messing With Lungs?
(09-21-2015, 12:06 AM)player Wrote: I have been finding myself short of breath lately. It's like my lungs are not working on the first 1/4 of my breath. I have been using an A10 Auto set at 11 to 16. I think the pressure is messing with my lungs. I don't smoke, and I have been doing some active cycling daily. But after a meal, or just generally, something is different with my lungs. It seems OK when I use the machine. I think the pressure is flattening my alveoli.

Any advice? I will be contacting my doctor tomorrow.

Maybe you are fighting off a lung infection or contamination of some sort?

A couple months ago I was fast walking in the neighborhood for exercise and I walked unawares through a small swarm of tiny fruit flies or something.

Anyway, I realized I had been breathing through my mouth and had inhaled a few, and my lungs didn't feel quite right for several weeks.

About back to normal now, but I am more careful to breathe only through my nose when outdoors.

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#4
RE: Presure Messing With Lungs?
I never would have thought I could be suffering from a fruit fly infestation. Smile









.
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#5
RE: Presure Messing With Lungs?
Hi Player,
Sounds like you might have an unrelated problem.
If anything the CPAP therapy helps clean things out.
You might have picked up some flavor of bronchitis or some other nasty.

CPAP does not generate enough pressure to harm you, it cant even inflate a kid's toy balloon,
That takes over 34 cm to do that! (I measured it myself)

"The most dangerous part of CPAP therapy is that you might pull the machine down on your head one night"
(one reason why everyone says to place your machine on a LOW side table. )

Smile
"With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable." - Thomas Foxwell Buxton

Cool
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#6
RE: Presure Messing With Lungs?
I am thinking the tiny air sacs are delicate, and giving them a constant ballooning may over time change things.
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#7
RE: Presure Messing With Lungs?
No, this is well researched, not enough pressure to do much of anything, although some PAP users report mild asthma symptoms when starting out, which may be alleviated by changing the humidity settings on your device. This usually settles after a while. However, discomfort in breathing can be a sign of other problems, so do check with your GP. The greater chance is this is simply a settling in period, or your are keeping more phlegm in than normal, but infection, bacterial or fungal growth or even cardiac problems can be felt by breathing discomfort, so better safe than sorry. About the only real risk from CPAP to your lungs, aside from the above mentioned asthma, is fungal or bacterial infection from contaminated devices, often in the tank or hose, or clumps of pollen or dust drawn in through an unfiltered or improperly filtered device.
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#8
RE: Presure Messing With Lungs?
Thank you DocWils. How do they tell if it's bacteria or fungal and what do they do about it?

How long is the break in period?










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#9
RE: Presure Messing With Lungs?
My Dad smoked for 25 or so years but quit maybe 15 years ago. He was just diagnosed with COPD. He for sure has OSA and I've been trying to get him to go to the sleep Doc for a while. While researching I found that some COPD patients get prescribed CPAP treatment despite not being diagnosed with OSA as it helps improve lung function.
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#10
RE: Presure Messing With Lungs?
(09-21-2015, 09:58 PM)player Wrote: Thank you DocWils. How do they tell if it's bacteria or fungal and what do they do about it?

How long is the break in period?
.

Biopsies, samples of sputum, x-rays, the works. Depends on what the doc is chasing down, which will be based on symptoms and testing.

Break-in period varies with each person - I had a sort of asthma for much of the first year, and it slowly subsided over year two. Adjusting the humidity levels helped as well, as did going to a heated hose in the winter. Some people have this mild asthma like symptom for far longer, usually it has to do with a few factors - how moist the air is, how high the pressure (higher pressure can, but may not, push mucous from the nose down into the lungs and restrict aspiration at night, much the same way it happens when you have a cold), too dry or too moist air will have a knock on effect in the lungs, there is often a period where the body is retraining itself to deal with the new conditions after being used to an utterly different set of conditions for years, there are just so many factors. Even your chest muscles will be working differently at night than they used to, and this will have a daytime residual feeling. If your doc finds nothing, and I hope that is the case, then just write it down to break-in blues and fiddle with your settings to fine tune the environmental factors until you start to feel better breathing during the day.

Also, you are now used to breathing deeper at night than before, and it can feel like an odd breathlessness at the top and/or bottom of the breath during the day. That is just air exchange in a lung that is adjusting to processing air differently. I would suggest finding a voice trainer, acting or singing, and taking some classes, to help you learn to use your lungs and chest muscles well. Yoga breathing helps as well.
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