How I overcame aerophagia

The morning after my titration study I woke up with severe aerophagia. I was lucky it was a slow day at work and I can close my office door, or I'd have had to take the day off. Very loud "releases of gas" all morning.

It did get better than that, but I've had lots of problems since, sometimes painful, very painful in the morning and lots of "releases". Sometimes I'd go in to work late due to the pain and/or embarrassment.

I spoke to my alternative doctor and he suggested I be rigorous about using enzyme capsules, use them with every meal. I did this and. . .

IT WORKED!!!!!!

I can't believe the difference. I've done this for at least four weeks, and no aerophagia. I really thought it was the cpap machine, but it turns out that it was the cpap machine in combination with some digestion problems. I think would not have noticed the digestion problems that much, but the cpap made it so much worse.

The details: I get an enzyme formula with a broad spectrum of enzymes. It is important to have all of them in the capsule. They handle fiber, dairy, meat, beans, etc. The least expensive brand I've found is NOW foods Plant Enzymes. (Now sells other enzymes but are not so complete) It's very important to get one that has all these different enzymes. I take one or two with the first bite of each meal. I do this religiously. Also, I avoid the formulae that have betaine HCL as this makes my acid reflux much worse. Most of them seem to have this except the one my alternative doctor carries and the NOW formula.

I know that others have had these problems and wanted to share the solution I have found. It's worth a try since the capsules aren't all that expensive. I get mine online at iherb or vitacost and they are even cheaper.

I haven't been around cpaptalk much, but do check sometimes. I am eternally grateful for all the good help I got here.

Update: I recently passed the 3000 hour mark on my main machine. I am going to check out the new Mirage LT mask tomorrow. I'm hoping it will work for me like the Headrest, only better. I just don't like the pantyhose tights on my face in the summer.

I've been gardening a lot this summer and have found a use for the leftover part of the pantyhose tights (non-leg part): cut in strips and use them as ties for staking your tomatoes.

Hi Rosemary,
I'm glad to hear from you - and it good to know you have the energy to garden.

I once hear that mosquitoes dislike the smell of tomato vines, and that one way of keeping them away is to stick some of the tomato branches and leaves if a jar in your window.

O.

I would be interested in knowing what happens if you stop your enzyme stuff.

I have had several cases of aerophagia that stopped on its own.

If I had happened to take something at the time, could I have concluded that the pills were responsible for the cessation? NO!

There is no basis at all for the gas-x and other products to affect aaerophagia since the air is not metabolic gasses and no basis for them to be defrothicated into a single big bubble.
This is already the case with swallowed air.
If, by chance and coincidentally, you have a condition that is benefitted by the pills, then you will show improvement in THAT condition, but not the aerophagia which can self resolve.

Cause and effect are sometimes confusing.

Hi Rosemary,

It's been a long time, it's nice to see you back on the forum, I've missed your posts!

Would you mind giving me/us the exact name and link for the Enzyme that YOU use? I've shopped at VitaCost before.

We also have our Tomatoes growing along side our squash and a few peppers, we do this regiously every year and love it, ain't nothing like a home grown tomato and homemade salsa, yum...

Don't stay away so long next time, happy gardening and take care.

SleepyNoMore

They have some pills at GNC called Cleanse or something like that, it is just capsules of fiber but they work.

I hear if you eat yogart regularly it does the same thing.

Personally, I follow the Blazing Saddles diet for it and just eat lots of beans and burritos

RosemaryB wrote: ..........
I spoke to my alternative doctor and he suggested I be rigorous about using enzyme capsules, use them with every meal. I did this and. . .

IT WORKED!!!!!!

............. I really thought it was the cpap machine, but it turns out that it was the cpap machine in combination with some digestion problems. I think would not have noticed the digestion problems that much, but the cpap made it so much worse.

I appreciate TomJax's comments and do not believe that enzyme tablets (or yogurt) will remedy a case of aerophagia that is solely caused by cpap.

However, as Rosemary points out, she believes her aerophagia was caused by both digestive problems and cpap. There is a good chance that removing one or the other of these causes could lessen the aerophagia so much that it is no longer considered a problem.

At least for men, is a little farting in airy open places considered a problem? Nooo.

Anonymous wrote:Hi Rosemary,

It's been a long time, it's nice to see you back on the forum, I've missed your posts!

Would you mind giving me/us the exact name and link for the Enzyme that YOU use? I've shopped at VitaCost before.

We also have our Tomatoes growing along side our squash and a few peppers, we do this regiously every year and love it, ain't nothing like a home grown tomato and homemade salsa, yum...

Don't stay away so long next time, happy gardening and take care.

SleepyNoMore

Hi SleepyNoMore. Here's the link on iherb.com. I couldn't find it on Vitacost, so maybe I misremembered, I use both companies.
http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.asp ... d=726&at=0

Yes, like Rooster says, I thinking that the enzymes keep me from getting gas during the day which then got much worse at night. The cpap just made a rather embarrassing situation more embarrassing and sometimes excruciatingly painful too. It turned that daytime gas into aerophagia. If I stop taking the enzymes, the daytime gas starts to come back, so I just keep taking them. The funny thing is that, though I seemed to have more gas than I liked during the day, I didn't think of it as a big problem, so I didn't associate the two (aerophagia and daytime gas).

Hi Rosemary, great to see you!!

Beano.......... all natural enzymes....works great! (Not just for beans either!! lolol...)

Thanks, SleepyNoMore and Joyce. It's good to be back, even though briefly. Due to other responsibilities, I have stopped using the internet as much as I once did, but I'll check back in occasionally.

I'm still trying to get family, friends, acquaintances (and sometimes strangers) tested if I think they need it, then I refer them here. This website is a national treasure!

Hi,

I'm very new to this web-site and very new to my Bipap machine! I have

experienced horrible gas pains in my stomach after I started using this

machine. I did not know what it was or how to fix it!!! Also horrible

bloating...So, please let me get this right...will the enzyme pills take

away the pain in my stomach?


Thanks for sharing...~Celes~

celes wrote: .............So, please let me get this right...will the enzyme pills take

away the pain in my stomach?

If your aerophagia is caused by CPAP solely, they will not help.

If you have trouble digesting food due to your body not producing enough enzymes, then enzyme pills work well.

Our problem is not digestion. Our problem is air pressure leaking through the esophogeal spincters into the stomach and blowing it up like a balloon. It also gets to the intestines in time.

Three years on the hose and I have not been able to solve the problem.

One thing to think about is the effect of sleeping position on aerophagia. Here is what it is in my case:

-Back - No aerophagia
-Stomach - Uncomfortable aerophagia
-Right side - Uncomfortable aerophagia
-Left side - Severe aerophagia

Unfortunately, I cannot sleep on my back because I have positional sleep apnea and it is most severe on my back.

P.S. Did you have aerophagia before you started CPAP?

I had aerophagia in the early weeks of my CPAP treatment, but not anymore. I have to say also that my pressures are not high, but around 8-9. I found that just by pushing my chin out away from my body instead of tucking it in when I sleep seems to help me a lot. It took some doing to make myself sleep that way, because I naturally wanted to tuck in when I slept, but I know that I do not have any problem with aerophagia now 5 years later.

I hope that any of you who suffer with aerophagia will find an easy solution that works for you. I see it as one more challenge to overcome with CPAP, but it can be done.

Karen

I didn't know for sure that aerophagia even existed until I read it here on the forum. But I knew my CPAP machine was responsible for the excessive gas. Being a large woman, excessive gas is *very* embarassing.

But I've lost 20 lbs recently and have made a huge change in my diet. The aerophagia is non-existant now.. and I rarely pass gas anymore either.
If you are interested in the weight loss + diet changes - bestweightloss.ca is my blog

I did want to point out that my aerophagia was pretty minor compared to other descriptions here - I only had occassional abdominal pain. I also always sleep on my back, I can't sleep any other way now.

So what I'm saying is, take a serious look at your diet. What if a simple diet change helps? What if? If I had known what I know now, I'd have done this YEARS ago.

I do not see a traditional doctor anymore. Though I'm sure I will need to when I need to renew/change my cpap prescription. I find doctors are nothing more than pill pushers that pad their own pockets with financial gain from pharmaceuticals before actually giving a damn about patients. I'm tired of waiting 2-3 hours to see a doctor for 3 mins or less. My homeopath sees me at the specific time I set the appointment for. And I can talk about as much as I want or need to - not the usual 2-3 things and no more or make another appointment the doctors of today insist upon.

And best of all, I am pharmaceutical free. I take NO medications any more and I am over the top ecstatic about it. I used to pop pain killers and exist on anti-depressants - for over 10 years in fact. And now, when I have a headache, I drink more water - not pop a pain killer.

ldylarke ,

There are at least two types of "pressurized gas". One is a byproduct of eating/drinking and digestion. The major gasses produced are nitrogen, carbon dioxide and, in smaller quantities, hydrogen and methane.

When we speak of aerophagia, we are talking about pressurized room air. It is inadvertenly pumped by the CPAP process through both esophogeal sphincters into the digestive system.

So the question back to you is, was your gas a product of eating/drinking/digestion or merely a product of CPAP? Or both?

You changed your diet and the gas was eliminated. So this could indicate that your gas was a product of eating/drinking/digestion.

But there was also another variable changed. You lost weight. Losing weight changes the anatomy which might have prevented pressurized air from the CPAP entering the digestive system.

Congratulations on the weight loss and welcome to the Hose Head Club,

I thought I answered the "was it gas or was it aerophagia" question. I say both. I sleep on my back with my upper body elevated (pillow between the matresses actually) and that may alleviate the aerophagia issue. It sure makes it easier for me to sleep at all, that's for sure. And yes, it's an issue for my DH, so we have 2 single beds put together - works for us.

I know I have experienced aerophagia - the stomach pressure and pain when I woke up was very apparent. Perhaps that's how/why I find sleeping in an elevated postion helped. Who knows? But it works for me.

My diet changed and I lost weight - it elimiated both problems for me.

Thanks for the welcome and the response I hope every comment here helps someone else.