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+--- Thread: [Health] Can a VPAP machine make your lung lazy? (/Thread-Health-Can-a-VPAP-machine-make-your-lung-lazy)
Can a VPAP machine make your lung lazy? - emamm - 09-29-2012
Hello
I just wonder whether having the air blown into your lungs all night can possibly make your lungs lazy and dependent on the vpap and make it harder to breathe during the day? I have the feeling that this is happing to me. I feel short of breath after using the VPAP machine. Running is becoming increasily difficult.
Any thoughts?
Many thanks
Ed
RE: Can a VPAP machine make your lung lazy? - zonk - 09-29-2012
don,t think so. my machine just blow air and don,t breathe for me
see your doctor
RE: Can a VPAP machine make your lung lazy? - PaulaO2 - 09-29-2012
Time to see your doc. This is not sleep apnea related.
The pressure of the xPAP is no where near strong enough to actually breathe for you like a ventilator. Someone here hooked one up to a balloon. It got it just to the point of where the rubber would stretch but that was all.
http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-Can-a-CPAP-inflate-a-balloon
RE: Can a VPAP machine make your lung lazy? - Sleepster - 09-29-2012
(09-29-2012, 06:03 PM)emamm Wrote: I just wonder whether having the air blown into your lungs all night can possibly make your lungs lazy and dependent on the vpap and make it harder to breathe during the day? I have the feeling that this is happing to me. I feel short of breath after using the VPAP machine. Running is becoming increasily difficult.
For beginners a CPAP machine can make the muscles in your ribs a bit sore in the morning because you're breathing a lot more during the night. It goes away within a few weeks or so.
The shortness of breath while running is something you need to have looked at by a good doctor. It doesn't sound CPAP-related.
RE: Can a VPAP machine make your lung lazy? - emamm - 09-30-2012
Many thanks to you all. I will get an appointment asap.
Cheers
Ed
RE: Can a VPAP machine make your lung lazy? - IMaximus - 06-04-2016
I have this exact same problem. Except I had been using the CPAP for a couple of years before I started having the breathing problems. None of the doctors seem concerned about it and don't think that it's caused by the CPAP. However, I quit using the CPAP for a while and my breathing got better. It's very bothersome. I have to do diaphragmatic breathing exercises every day to retrain my lungs to breath properly. If I don't do the breathing exercises my lungs feel heavy and I start yawning excessively.
RE: Can a VPAP machine make your lung lazy? - player - 06-05-2016
Make sure you keep your tank, hose and mask really clean to prevent bacteria and other things from growing and then you breath them in.
RE: Can a VPAP machine make your lung lazy? - green wings - 06-06-2016
Hello, IMaximus.
I am trying to interpret what you said. Did you feel like your daytime breathing improved after you stopped CPAP but before you started doing the breathing exercises?
Also, do you have any airway obstructions (deviated septum, enlarged tonsils, for example) that affect your daytime breathing?
(06-04-2016, 11:29 PM)IMaximus Wrote: I have this exact same problem. Except I had been using the CPAP for a couple of years before I started having the breathing problems. None of the doctors seem concerned about it and don't think that it's caused by the CPAP. However, I quit using the CPAP for a while and my breathing got better. It's very bothersome. I have to do diaphragmatic breathing exercises every day to retrain my lungs to breath properly. If I don't do the breathing exercises my lungs feel heavy and I start yawning excessively.
RE: Can a VPAP machine make your lung lazy? - PaytonA - 06-07-2016
Not only is the CPAP pressure (even at 20 cm/H2O) not enough to blow up a balloon but by the time it reaches your lungs there have been pressure drops at various points in your airway. By the time that 20 cm/H2O reaches your lungs, it is much less than 20. Your lungs can not breathe on their own anyway. They must have help from your diaphragm and rib cage in order to draw air in.
Just my thoughts.
Best Regards,
PaytonA
RE: Can a VPAP machine make your lung lazy? - eseedhouse - 06-07-2016
(06-07-2016, 12:36 PM)PaytonA Wrote: Not only is the CPAP pressure (even at 20 cm/H2O) not enough to blow up a balloon but by the time it reaches your lungs there have been pressure drops at various points in your airway. By the time that 20 cm/H2O reaches your lungs, it is much less than 20. Your lungs can not breathe on their own anyway. They must have help from your diaphragm and rib cage in order to draw air in.
PaytonA
The lungs do not have muscles to expand and relax, they depend on the pressure or partial vacuum provided by the diaphragm and the chest wall muscles. Actually the higher pressure will make it (slightly) easier to breath in and (slightly) harder to breath out. 20 cm of H2O is only about 2% of normal ambient air pressure at sea level. So they will work 2% less to breath in and 2% harder to breath out, assuming you don't have EPR, which you probably do.
You might say that everybody's lungs are "lazy" because they do nothing to pull air in or expel it. That's done by the diaphragm and chest wall muscles. But you might better say they are not lazy at all because, in spite of having no muscles they are hard at work pulling oxygen into your blood stream and taking CO2 out of it. Actually I believe that all your blood vessels including those in the lung, do have muscles and if so so it's not quite true to say that your lungs have no muscles either.