Provent Nasal Apnea treatment

[roster]

Do you know if there are any studies on the health benefit of lowering AHI from say 60 to 30? Does dropping arousals from once a minute to once every two minutes benefit the patient. It's still pretty disrupted sleep.

I would not even bother with it. Halving my AHI is not acceptable.

There are some very important things about Provent, IMO.

First, maybe a few patients (from the data one could assume it might be those with mild OSA) will be completely cured by a Provent device. Would that not be very nice for them to be able to give up the trouble and inconvenience of CPAP?

Second, this shows that people are willing to invest millions of dollars of their own money into treatments for OSA. That is wonderful because someday an easy, cheap, 100% effective alternative to CPAP might be developed. And the "spark" for the idea might come out of work done on the Provent device.

What is that story about Thomas Edison trying 125 different materials for his lightbulb element before having success with tungsten? What if he had been discouraged and quit somewhere along the line of 124 "failures"?

We would be typing post on forums in the dark!

(Disclaimer: Dark, in this context, does not refer to skin color.)

[rada]

I wanted to ask about Provent. I see that on cpaptalk.com two threads, at least, have been started on the topic, the one here and a more recent one. But this one is longer and more varied so I decided to give a whirl here. I've not posted in some months, but I continue to struggle with my APAP. When I met my new sleep doctor for the first time about a month ago, he suggested Provent. He wrote a prescription for the 10 day trial, I paid the $15, and the nasal strips (that's what Provent might be called) arrived a couple days ago. I tried it for the first time last night but had a bad night. I like the idea of not needing the APAP, but I don't like breathing through my mouth and found exhaling through the nose with the Provent in place uncomfortable. The maker of Provent and my sleep doctor both warned me that getting accustomed to Provent might take days. I am wondering how anyone else might be finding the Provent experience and more particularly whether anyone has any advice about how to make the initial attempts successful.
To give you my own latest thoughts on the matter: last night I tried it cold-turkey. When I have the time and energy, probably not tonight, I might make a bigger experiment. For data collection and feedback, I might reconnect my pulse-oximeter and infrared webcam. For added therapy and to avoid mouth breathing, I might complement the Provent with my Mandibular Advancement Device and chin strap.
Sleep apnea is a constant noose around my neck, and I wish something simple like a nasal strip would treat it adequately. Better yet, might someone find a cure.
Thank you, Roy

[roster]

rada,

If you exhale through your mouth, the pressure that Provent is supposed to provide is lost and Provent is useless.

What about taping your mouth?

[xj220c]

Although I have not tried Provent, I can at least say that these guys know what they're doing.

I've had the pleasure of meeting their founder and talking with him about device design (albeit in another area). He is an extremely smart guy with excellent academic credentials and his company has serious medical and financial resources at its disposal.

I really can't comment on the product itself - and I have to express my doubts on it's efficacy as others in this thread have. That said I'd have no qualms about giving it a try if my doc ever thought it would be appropriate for me.

Cheers,
XJ.

[rada]

Thanks to Rooster and XJ for the feedback.
I understand that the mechanism of Provent is to splint the airway on exhale via the obstruction provided by the nasal strip. However, when I first use it, as I gather the experience is for other people too, the barrier to nasal exhalation is enough that my breathing went into a kind of panic mode that got quickly progressively worse and made feel it necessary to either breathe through the mouth or remove the nasal strip. Ventus, the maker of Provent, thus advises to breathe through the mouth till one gets to sleep and Ventus contends that one then might start breathing through the nose. A contributor on another cpaptalk thread on Provent claimed that in sleep the breathing becomes more relaxed and then the barrier to exhalation through the nose is tolerable with nasal exhale and that's what Ventus claims. Like I said earlier, I had a bad night with it last night, my first night. I woke several times needing to go to the bathroom and with a dry mouth from what I assume were major apneas and also mouth breathing. So I agree with Rooster that I should try to keep the mouth blocked after I fall asleep and that's why I'm considering to use my chin strap and also my oral appliance but to also collect more monitoring data next time (but not tonight because I'm too tired for the hassle).
As regards XJ's comment that Ventus is a quality entity, I have no direct experience. However, my doctor who recommended it for me given that I remain inadequately compliant with all other therapies is himself doing a clinical trial on Provent and impresses me as a top-notch sleep doctor too. He said that I might try the 10-day deal and that if I found it helped, then he and I could discuss what we wanted to do next -- whether we'd like to study my use of it to see whether it really helps or not and so on.
Roy

[roster]

I remain inadequately compliant with all other therapies

You are reporting mouth breathing problems with Provent and your profile says you use a nasal mask with CPAP. Have you ever looked into whether you are mouth breathing with CPAP and that is the source of your compliance problems with CPAP?

Mouth breathing is a very common problem.

[SleepTechulous]

No clinical data, no specs, equals voodoo, doo doo, or something similar.
Media coverage being substituted for good science.
Same tactic used by a couple of heavily advertised hearing aid companies that are about 20 years behind the ones people actually wear.
Consumers, like sheep being led to--aww, that's just WRONG.

Once again I agree. What is the matter with me today?

[roster]

No clinical data, no specs, equals voodoo, doo doo, or something similar.
Media coverage being substituted for good science.
Same tactic used by a couple of heavily advertised hearing aid companies that are about 20 years behind the ones people actually wear.
Consumers, like sheep being led to--aww, that's just WRONG.

Once again I agree. What is the matter with me today?

Statements of ignorance and personal bias. There is clinical data. The FDA has approved Provent.

[SleepTechulous]

They also approve weight lifting 'bulk up' drugs made from 100% rice powder. If I didn't know better I'd think all you needed to get FDA approved was... money.

[SleepTechulous]

The FDA approved DDT as well didn't they. I wonder why they did that.

[SleepTechulous]

Strange that my post in this thread is deleted as well. I wonder how that can happen.

[SleepTechulous]

I posted in this thread as well but suddenly, it is gone. Very strange.

[SleepTechulous]

I posted in this thread as well but suddenly, it is gone. Very strange.

[SleepTechulous]

I posted in this thread as well but suddenly, it is gone. Very strange.

[roster]

I posted in this thread as well but suddenly, it is gone. Very strange.

Looks like someone is deleting all of your posts.