11-05-2017, 06:23 AM
My Theories on UARS (upper airway respiratory syndrome)
Being diagnosed this year with UARS and an OCD engineer, I spent the next 6 months experimenting with my CPAP and reading all I could find.
UARS is different from Apnea in that there is usually no "apnea" events in the sleep study. The individual generally suffers from a combination of hypopneas and RERA's. Basically, their throats don't close all the way and the problem is more struggling to breathe than not breathing.
At first this just seems to be a mild form of apnea. However, upon further research, they really differ a great deal. UARS sufferers usually have a structurally narrow throat. Weight really doesn't matter that much as it does in OSA patients. The other big difference is that people with OSA are often sound sleepers while is it common for UARS to be light sleepers. Thus the RERA's and hypopneas cause UARS people to have severe insomnia. However OSA people (not all) often sleep through the night not knowing there is a problem.
There is a debate whether UARS patients need more or less CPAP pressure than apnea patients.
Here is my theory
I believe that often the majority of the problem can be taken care of with light CPAP pressure. I discovered this much by accident when I turned my CPAP down from 12 which was keeping me up all night, to 5. That is a pretty big drop, but I noticed that my AHI actually improved or stayed the same. I e-mailed this to an ENT online who said he had a great deal of UARS patients that did better with light pressure. So, the question is why?
Some have argued that due to the structural narrow throat, it requires more pressure to open the airway than just pushing back relaxed muscles. This may be true, but we have to ask if the problem is really the narrow throat?
Since UARS patients are actually getting air through, the problem is not blockage, but a struggle to get enough air. RERAs are very common with UARS. If you have RERAS, you know that you are getting air in and in enough quantities to not cause an oxygen drop. However, in order to do so you are straining to get the air in to the point that it interrupts your sleep. Enter the CPAP. Whereas an OSA sufferer needs a certain pressure to force open the relaxed muscles. The same principle may not apply to UARS. Just using a light pressure may not open the airway anymore, but makes it easier to breath by forcing air through the narrow passage thus taking the strain off of breathing and thus reducing the RERA's.
Love to hear your thoughts.
UARS is different from Apnea in that there is usually no "apnea" events in the sleep study. The individual generally suffers from a combination of hypopneas and RERA's. Basically, their throats don't close all the way and the problem is more struggling to breathe than not breathing.
At first this just seems to be a mild form of apnea. However, upon further research, they really differ a great deal. UARS sufferers usually have a structurally narrow throat. Weight really doesn't matter that much as it does in OSA patients. The other big difference is that people with OSA are often sound sleepers while is it common for UARS to be light sleepers. Thus the RERA's and hypopneas cause UARS people to have severe insomnia. However OSA people (not all) often sleep through the night not knowing there is a problem.
There is a debate whether UARS patients need more or less CPAP pressure than apnea patients.
Here is my theory
I believe that often the majority of the problem can be taken care of with light CPAP pressure. I discovered this much by accident when I turned my CPAP down from 12 which was keeping me up all night, to 5. That is a pretty big drop, but I noticed that my AHI actually improved or stayed the same. I e-mailed this to an ENT online who said he had a great deal of UARS patients that did better with light pressure. So, the question is why?
Some have argued that due to the structural narrow throat, it requires more pressure to open the airway than just pushing back relaxed muscles. This may be true, but we have to ask if the problem is really the narrow throat?
Since UARS patients are actually getting air through, the problem is not blockage, but a struggle to get enough air. RERAs are very common with UARS. If you have RERAS, you know that you are getting air in and in enough quantities to not cause an oxygen drop. However, in order to do so you are straining to get the air in to the point that it interrupts your sleep. Enter the CPAP. Whereas an OSA sufferer needs a certain pressure to force open the relaxed muscles. The same principle may not apply to UARS. Just using a light pressure may not open the airway anymore, but makes it easier to breath by forcing air through the narrow passage thus taking the strain off of breathing and thus reducing the RERA's.
Love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for being so articulate on such a complicated topic. This is definitely a major bookmark for me.
