Muscle Tone to Improve Apnea (OSA)

[catherinec]

Hi friends,

Thanks for taking the time to help.

Q: Has anyone used muscle tone exercises to improve their apnea? Has it worked? What did you try/how long/ did it last?

Thanks!

C

[icyura10]

I used duckduckgo.com to search using "muscle tone exercises to improve their apnea"

there are several hits that may answer your questions

[trish6hundred]

Hi catherinec,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Hang in there for more answers to your question and good luck to you.

[Dreams of Green]

Hi friends,

Thanks for taking the time to help.

Q: Has anyone used muscle tone exercises to improve their apnea? Has it worked? What did you try/how long/ did it last?

There is no harm in trying such exercises but anyone with serious apnea needs to treat it with a cpap machine and not even consider going off it unless a sleep test proves it's no longer present.

There are a number of sites that are run by nothing more than charlatans claiming all types of research exists on these - so please be careful. I hate even linking to them, but here is [commercial website link removed] that tries to look like it's a medical site, but it's actually a snake oil salesman trying to sell bogus cures.

So by all means try them, but I think the only treatment likely to help is losing weight. And even that is by no means a guarantee, many thing people have apnea. But it may very well help.

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[storywizard]

Hi catherine...

I have moderate OSA, thought I would try alternative methods to ease the Apnea symptoms.
I tried and still use throat and singing exercises, they have helped reduce the snoring, and I no longer gag while asleep, I do still snore however and still have symptoms of OSA after two years of these exercises., so I still use CPAP.

Recently I have been trying the breathing exercises commonly called Buteyko breathing. They are based on the theory of over breathing, that is we only need a certain amount of air, and most of us are taking in too much. (My translation of the theory..:-)
Too early to say if I am any different, just a month into using them.

What I will say is that any of these methods is worth a shot, but the main thing to bear in mind is that OSA is a nasty disease. I made the mistake of thinking I could quickly change many years of symptoms...nearly had a heart attack...that woke me up.

What ever you try please don't ignore CPAP as the base treatment, you may get lucky and find something works, but don't hurt your body anymore than it is already...

Take care,
Storywizard

[bspengler]

My GP advised me to try ASATE for AHI improvements. Did any one try this or something alike before? Did it help?
What is your experience on use of resonance vibrations on your throat muscles?

[Mogy]

Hi bspengler,
Looks like the ASATE is kind of like a high-tech didgeridoo. I haven't seen anybody that has tried it.
There are a couple of us that are experimenting with the Didgeridoo and hoping/expecting some positive outcome.
The study they conducted with the didgeridoo was to practice for 4 months, then retest. I am only at 6 weeks, so I plan to take a retest Feb/Mar.

[Sleep2Snore]

There was a group of people tried a lot of things here from singing (has to be a certain way) exercises to the body and exercises to the neck and throat area even playing the didgeridoo, the only thing that helped was the singing (so I heard) but no one could master the didgeridoo so I have no idea if it might work or not, but it is based on breathing techniques.
I didn't join the group as it was when I couldn't go.
I think a lot of them dropped out in no time as they were having to travel quite a bit to get there.
How much it helped I have no idea.
I have not heard anything about this group for a few years now, so I think they might have folded.

[bspengler]

yes. Asate will probably create a resonance that will vibrate the throat tissue. This is meant to strengthen the muscle. This means any pipe with the good length that creates a resonance in the throat should do.