Higher pressure causing air swallowing and then intestinal discomfort and diarrhea

[AlwaysTired2018]

Sorry for the long subject line. I am using a Dream Station with heated humidifier, and an Amara View full face mask. I was started on 6 cm up to 20 variable, but wasn't doing well with that setting, so the doc changed my setting to 8 fixed, and added home oxygen to use with my CPAP. Right away I started swallowing a lot of air at that setting, and that caused me to have a lot of intestinal discomfort, and then diarrhea. I used the search engine to see if there was anything I could do to fix the problem. My research did show this to be a common problem at higher pressure settings. Although there is no way for me to stop swallowing air, my research led me to parsley, which was said to help with gas, intestinal discomfort, and diarrhea. Both dried and fresh were said to work, and I had a lot of dried parsley in my pantry, so I gave it a try and started adding a good bit of it to every meal. Although it didn't totally eliminate the problem, it brought it down to a manageable level, and relieved the pain part as well. I was surprised and thrilled at how well it worked for me.

If any of you are suffering from such problems from higher pressure settings of your CPAP/BPAP systems, give parsley a try. It's non-toxic, cheap, easy to keep on hand in the dry form, and can be added to all sorts of food without messing with the flavor of the dish, as it doesn't have much flavor of it's own. It also doesn't need a prescription, and shouldn't conflict with any meds you may be on. It's also easy to add to foods, as you can just shake dried parsley on anything you want.     

[Sleeprider]

You really need to take control of your therapy with knowledge of your apnea event rate (AHI) and that probably means using some software like #Sleepyhead. A CPAP pressure of 8 is not particularly high, but we have had members with similar problems that were able to reduce pressures to 6 or less and still get very good results (low apnea) and relieve their discomfort. If we know you are able to monitor your therapy efficacy, then suggesting you try lower pressure makes sense.

Interesting that you found parsley helped with your problem. It is pretty common for sufferers of aerophagia to adapt to CPAP with time, and for that problem to diminish on its own. Not that I am skeptical of parsley as an aide for aerophagia (I am), but some of your relief may also be adaptation as we have seen with many other members.