Water in lungs due to humidifier?

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
SuessC

Re: Water in lungs due to humidifier?

Post by SuessC » Mon May 08, 2017 12:52 pm

WOW! This site is helpful. I just started using a CPAP. I have developed a cough. It's nothing serious but you can't cough and breath with the CPAP (I have just the nose pillows). As the day goes on, those symptoms go away. I'm trying not to get frustrated but it's a little discouraging. I appreciate all these posts. Thank you!

User avatar
Julie
Posts: 19898
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2006 12:58 pm

Re: Water in lungs due to humidifier?

Post by Julie » Mon May 08, 2017 2:52 pm

If you're coughing, it could be due to either a too-high or too-low humidifier setting - something you'll have to experiment with. Some people never need it at all because of the climate where they live, others need it set high for the same reason. It's unlikely that pillows vs another type of mask are causing you to cough however, but if you use Lisinopril medicine for anything, it's known to cause coughing as well. I would have told you to see a doctor of course, but you said the cough goes away within hours of using the Cpap. You could have some seasonal or other allergy as well (not to Cpap) but need to investigate that on your own.

User avatar
chunkyfrog
Posts: 34377
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:10 pm
Location: Nebraska--I am sworn to keep the secret of this paradise.

Re: Water in lungs due to humidifier?

Post by chunkyfrog » Mon May 08, 2017 3:17 pm

I wonder if the OP was a SMOKER . . .
Tobacco smoke damages (kills) cilia in the air passages.
Cilia move excess moisture and foreign material from the lungs up to
where it can either be swallowed in your sleep or coughed out while you are awake.
Without cilia, you can drown in your own mucus. Cpap cannot fix that.

_________________
Mask: AirFit™ P10 For Her Nasal Pillow CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Airsense 10 Autoset for Her

Mikeeboy
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 12, 2019 10:51 am

Re: Water in lungs due to humidifier?

Post by Mikeeboy » Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:05 am

I live in a desert, and humidity is a must. If I go a night without humidity, or run out of water my sinuses run all day, about 5 handkerchiefs worth, and the problem lasts 10 hours or more. So knowing all that, I had it cranked up to the max. Little did I realize I was accumulating fluid in my lungs, causing me to have a choking cough multiple times through the day, especially after eating. It sounded like someone with heart failure, you know, deep and wet and mucousy. This went on for years; of course I addressed this with my doctors and they chalked it up to allergies and prescribed Dymista (not cheap) Dymista didn't help the fluid in my lungs but it helped my sinuses. Long story short, one day a few months ago I thought "What if it is the CPAP causing the problem, so I turned the humidity setting down. The cough was gone the next day!!! So believe me, you can load up on humidity and cause a cough. I have a partially paralyzed right diaphragm as well as some heart issues, and at 72 years old there's enough going on to make me vulnerable. I suggest those who need humidity, turn it to the lowest setting that makes you comfortable, there is no need to inhale more moisture than you need.

User avatar
palerider
Posts: 32300
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 5:43 pm
Location: Dallas(ish).

Re: Water in lungs due to humidifier?

Post by palerider » Tue Mar 12, 2019 12:43 pm

Mikeeboy wrote:
Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:05 am
So believe me, you can load up on humidity and cause a cough.
Not for normal people, no.

The lungs are normally extremely humid, witness anytime it's cold out and all that humidity from the lungs is coming out in your breath.

If your theory were correct, then anytime it was raining, (100% relative humidity, more than the CPAP can produce) everybody would be walking around coughing.

_________________
Mask: Bleep DreamPort CPAP Mask Solution
Additional Comments: S9 VPAP Auto
Get OSCAR

Accounts to put on the foe list: dataq1, clownbell, gearchange, lynninnj, mper!?, DreamDiver, Geer1, almostadoctor, sleepgeek, ajack, stom, mogy, D.H., They often post misleading, timewasting stuff.

Mikeeboy
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 12, 2019 10:51 am

Re: Water in lungs due to humidifier?

Post by Mikeeboy » Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:12 pm

Reply to palerider- Relative humidity is related to temperature, and with a heated humidifier and hose our machines are pumping the contents of the reservoir ON TOP OF ROOM HUMIDITY into our lungs; I say this because my reservoir is empty/nearly so even when it is raining outside. Even with high room humidity, we are adding more moisture to the air that is pumped into our lungs under pressure. So if the lungs are normally moist this would add to it yes? Otherwise where does it go? I also have a high pressure (19 from the Bipap) which also may have some effect different than most. In any event, it is absolutely a fact that reducing the humidity had an IMMEDIATE EFFECT and resolved a multi-year problem, perhaps there is another reason, but this thread asked the question -"Water in the lungs due to humidifier" and this is what happened to me. BTW- I know if you get water down the wrong pipe you cough. I know that people can drown. So excess moisture in your lungs would, I believe, cause a cough. Thanks for the reply.

User avatar
chunkyfrog
Posts: 34377
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:10 pm
Location: Nebraska--I am sworn to keep the secret of this paradise.

Re: Water in lungs due to humidifier?

Post by chunkyfrog » Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:59 pm

There is also the drying effect of moving air.
This is why the unheated setting on a clothes/hair dryer works--though more slowly.
It is also why most of us will get very dried out without humidification on our cpap.
Moisture needs are different for everybody.
Find your own Goldilocks setting--and enjoy it.
None at all could be right FOR YOU.
Just not for me, Palerider, or whoever.

_________________
Mask: AirFit™ P10 For Her Nasal Pillow CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Airsense 10 Autoset for Her

User avatar
palerider
Posts: 32300
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 5:43 pm
Location: Dallas(ish).

Re: Water in lungs due to humidifier?

Post by palerider » Tue Mar 12, 2019 3:03 pm

Mikeeboy wrote:
Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:12 pm
Reply to palerider- Relative humidity is related to temperature,
Obviously, by definition.
Mikeeboy wrote:
Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:12 pm
and with a heated humidifier and hose our machines are pumping the contents of the reservoir ON TOP OF ROOM HUMIDITY into our lungs;
Yes, they have built in hygrometers so they know how much humidity to add. I believe that in 'auto' mode, they're set to deliver around 85% relative humidity in the airstream. That's still less than when it's raining out (100% relative).
Mikeeboy wrote:
Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:12 pm
I say this because my reservoir is empty/nearly so even when it is raining outside.
Outside. Not inside.
Mikeeboy wrote:
Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:12 pm
Even with high room humidity,
Room humidity is typically 30-50% relative. Mine's 33% at the moment. (I just checked the hygrometer).
Mikeeboy wrote:
Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:12 pm
we are adding more moisture to the air that is pumped into our lungs under pressure.
You don't understand how CPAPs work if you think that they are "pumping air into our lungs". CPAPs provide a gentle pressure to hold the airway open so that we can pull air into our lungs, just like we breathe normally without the CPAP.
Mikeeboy wrote:
Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:12 pm
So if the lungs are normally moist this would add to it yes? Otherwise where does it go?
Right back out, with your exhaled breath.

What added humidity does is make some people's nasal cavity more more most, and (for them) soothed, and reduces the amount of moisture that has to come out of your blood stream to keep your lungs moist. Lungs are very wet normally. look it up. "Although about 80% of the lung is made up of water, gas-exchanging air spaces are protected by various barriers and drains. " -- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC137228/
Mikeeboy wrote:
Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:12 pm
I also have a high pressure (19 from the Bipap) which also may have some effect different than most. In any event, it is absolutely a fact that reducing the humidity had an IMMEDIATE EFFECT and resolved a multi-year problem, perhaps there is another reason, but this thread asked the question -"Water in the lungs due to humidifier" and this is what happened to me. BTW- I know if you get water down the wrong pipe you cough. I know that people can drown. So excess moisture in your lungs would, I believe, cause a cough. Thanks for the reply.
I'm glad that you found something that works for you. However, whatever you were doing at night isn't going to be something that's going to cause you to have
Mikeeboy wrote:
Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:05 am
a choking cough multiple times through the day, especially after eating. It sounded like someone with heart failure, you know, deep and wet and mucousy.
Of course, you're free to think whatever you want to think.

_________________
Mask: Bleep DreamPort CPAP Mask Solution
Additional Comments: S9 VPAP Auto
Get OSCAR

Accounts to put on the foe list: dataq1, clownbell, gearchange, lynninnj, mper!?, DreamDiver, Geer1, almostadoctor, sleepgeek, ajack, stom, mogy, D.H., They often post misleading, timewasting stuff.

User avatar
chunkyfrog
Posts: 34377
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:10 pm
Location: Nebraska--I am sworn to keep the secret of this paradise.

Re: Water in lungs due to humidifier?

Post by chunkyfrog » Tue Mar 12, 2019 3:43 pm

Maybe you should see a doctor.
Heart failure is treatable--if caught early.
Otherwise, rather grim.

_________________
Mask: AirFit™ P10 For Her Nasal Pillow CPAP Mask with Headgear
Additional Comments: Airsense 10 Autoset for Her

User avatar
turbo
Posts: 125
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2019 6:05 pm
Location: SoCal

Re: Water in lungs due to humidifier?

Post by turbo » Tue Mar 12, 2019 6:16 pm

chunkufrog is right. Check with your doc. Only thing I can think of is shallow breathing
“I know what I wrote, I was there when I wrote it.” JOHN BELUSHI