Can Using a Bipap Reduce or Elimate Asthma?

[bakerboy]

I have been on my bipap for about six weeks, I still was not feeling any positive effect until about five days ago. The pressure on machine was adjusted to 17/10 which made me feel better. I have had serious asthma for over thirty years, I take Advair, Singulair and Zyxtec. One night I forget to take all of the medicines and was surprised to find my asthma and allergies were not bothering me in the morning and I was breathing very well. For five days I have not taken any of these meds and my asthma and allergies seems to have be gone away.


Could the bipap provided this wondful benefit?

I also require much less sleep and only wake up two or three times a night.


Thanks for your thoughts

[Guest]

Hi Bakerboy,

Moby here.

My asthma is not severe, and since I started Cpap I hardly notice it. I think I had a constant low grade sinus/ post-nasal infection which has cleared up with the Cpap, maybe the asthma was exacerbated by the infection.

Great to hear about your improved health.

Regards

Di

[SleepySandy]

I don't have asthma, so this could be completely off base.

Here's my theory:

When you have apneas, you are getting less air into your lungs. Could this make your asthma worse?

With CPAP you are reducing your apneas, therefore getting more air into your lungs.

Could this be what's helping?

[Snoredog]

some people do better, some do worse.

I think having the filtered air of the machine helps lower the triggers for asthma. If yours got better with cpap, I would consider a conventional HEPA filter in your house, you'll do a lot less dusting.

My suggestion: IQ or BlueAire

[Catherinefic]

Or maybe you suffered from Laryngopharyngeal reflux and it was causing little gastric aspiration then inflammation and asthma. Cpap sort of supressed reflux and inflammation is smaller. It seems logical since around 80% people with asthma suffer from gerd/lpr at the same time. What do you think?

[-tim]

I found the same thing but after a year of cpap use, my allergies are getting worse but not as bad as they were a year ago.
If you find it gets worse as your filter gets dirty, you might find the amount of junk you breath in at night has decreased. Also at night you're breathing in a fair amount of dust mite dust and that is a major trigger. Since the air your breathing comes from a spot a few feet away from the dust mite heaven, you will be breathing in far fewer of them.

You may want to look into hypoallergenic filters for you machine. They work much better but need to be replaced more often.

[Xney]

Breathing filtered, warm, moist air can be pretty good for asthma, but you have to see how it is in the long term

Also as others have mentioned, reflux type things can be helped by xPAP

[chunkyfrog]

The protocol for a diagnosis of asthma is complex, involving family history and a great many questions & tests.
The process seems to be largely deductive in nature.
I am not aware of a definitive test, outside of a post-mortem (not anybody's first choice, I'm sure).
A co-worker was mis-diagnosed with asthma--she finally got a correct diagnosis of something else--
AFTER all the asthma meds just didn't work for her. Many other conditions mimic asthma--
Sometimes the drugs help, sometimes not. Asthma is a huge cash cow for Big Pharma.
See a specialist if you suspect you are being milked by mistake.

[ozze_dollar]

Just be careful as your asthma can come back with a bang. Keep your reliever meds on hand in case of an attack.

[Java]

I have noticed I don't need my rescue inhaler (Albuterol) as often since starting CPAP. I still have asthma, but I have noticed improvement.

[archangle]

I think a lot of things can trigger asthma. It wouldn't surprise me if untreated apnea made asthma worse for some people. Don't panic attacks sometimes trigger asthma? Filtered warm air might reduce irritation that can trigger an attack.

Even if it doesn't "help" asthma, CPAP may reduce the triggers for attacks.