Aerophagia returned after weightloss
I've been using my Resmed Airsense 10 with nasal pillows for 6 months. I use a chin strap to prevent mouth breathing along with an anti-snore pillow and MyFit pillow. This combo had been keeping the aerophagia at bay until a couple of weeks ago. The only change I can think of is that I have lost 40 lbs during this same time period. I'm sharing my OSCAR screenshot from 2 mights ago. Last night the aerophagia was even worse but don't currently have access to the SD card to share that data. Welcome any insights on the data. Overwhelmed with trying to interpret what I'm seeing, too new to this.
RE: Aerophagia returned after weightloss
You have a high leak rate which looks like a combination of mask movement and mouth breathing, or your jaw/mouth is simply dropping open while sleeping. This could be contributing to your swallowing of air.
The weight loss is a plus, but a lot folk don't realize that the weight loss occurs in your face too, thus affecting your mask fit. Work on your mask fit and pillow size. Sometimes going up a size or down a size makes a difference.
I don't really like chin straps as most pull your jaw back instead of up. Be aware of that.
In addition, the flow limitation is high. I think if you raised your minimum pressure a little and used more EPR, this may correct the FL, and in turn the Reras and Hypopnea too.
Raise your minimum pressure to 7cm with and EPR set at 3. Although, most times the maximum pressure doesn't matter, but since you don't seem to rise above 14, you can try a narrower pressure range by capping the max at 15cm.
RE: Aerophagia returned after weightloss
I too experienced aerophagia after weight loss a few months back. I had not experienced aerophagia in 15 years of cpap therapy until I rapidly lost 10 pounds weight.
From advice here and other sources I adjusted my Min 12 Max 20 settings downward. It helped and advice was much appreciated. It was by accident reading about cpap therapy that I learned about aerophagia. I was also experiencing severe acid reflux at the time and the aerophagia seemed to be aggravating it.
During the adjustments and by monitoring OSCAR reports I was able to bring down the pressures and maintain therapy. Now at Min 8 Max 14, I am getting therapy and the aerophagia has ceased. I also gained the 10 pounds back, but not sure if the weight loss had caused aerophagia or not.
Best of luck. There are some very knowledgeable people here for cpap issues and they have helped me greatly.
I only give suggestions from experience as a fellow CPAP user, not professional advice.
02-22-2023, 07:49 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-22-2023, 07:52 PM by lshinaberry.)
RE: Aerophagia returned after weightloss
Thank you for the insights. I’ll give the changes to settings a shot and report back. Thanks also for the reminder about mask fit! Seems so obvious a thing but I hadn’t thought of it.
Glad you found a solution- gives me some hope. The reflux with aerophagia is making me so uncomfortable!
RE: Aerophagia returned after weightloss
Here's last night's data. NO AEROPHAGIA and leaks reduced - YAY!!! but AHI is higher than usual.
Changes made: no chin strap*, removed more filling from bed pillow to lay flatter, snugged up mask straps, machine settings for min, max and EPR changed as suggested
Did not change: anti-snoring pillow under chin, same size nasal pillows.
Is there some fine-tuning I can try to get the AHI back down?
@OpalRose you are such a great help! thank you!
* turns out I don't need it if I'm laying flatter and have the machine settings adjusted!
