Do throat exercises cure sleep apnea?

[49er]

Excellent topic, and it deserves much more attention and investigation.

Poster Todso gave a url of an interesting abstract on the topic, and here (apparently) is an online blog that presents the actual exercises.

http://www.sleep-apnea-guide.com/oropha ... cises.html

On a related note, I do some similar exercises to these about 4 x week (for 5 minutes). My experience is that I have significantly lower ahi readings when I consistently do the exercises. However, with an "n" of only one, and self-reporting of observations (think potential for treatment bias here), this is only suggestive info (the confidence level is modest).

Again, great topic!

.

Great site captain, I am certainly going to put some effort into doing them. Heck, there is plenty of treatment bias in so called mainstream studies so I am not worried about your disclaimers. But all jokes aside, point well taken.

49er

[Country4ever]

I totally understand, 49er! I, too, get very overwhelmed and need things that are tried and true. And the more desperate we get, the faster we need help.
I'm afraid I have lost faith in most doctors. I have spent years going to many doctors.......most of whom didn't really know what they were doing.
Good luck to you too!

[Woody]

Has anyone else here tried this ? I don't expect anything like a cure but would like to be able to lower
my pressure just a little bit.

[HerbM]

Research Question: Do fat opera singers have a reduced incidences of obstructive sleep apnea?


Seriously, I can vouch for ONE ASPECT of Buteyko Breathing (sp?).

You can (help) open congested nostrils using the "Controlled Pause"

http://www.buteykoclinic.com/test-your-breathing.php

1. Take a small, silent breath in and a small, silent breath out.
2. Hold your nose with your fingers to prevent air from entering your lungs.
3. Count how many seconds until you feel the first signs of air hunger.
4. At the first sign of air hunger, you will also feel the first involuntary movements of your breathing muscles. Your tummy may jerk. The area around your neck may contract.
5. Your inhalation at the end of the breath should be calm.
6. Release your nose and breathe in through it

Repeat with a few deep nasal breaths between each iteration.

Key points:

You MUST do the end breaths (after the breath hold" THROUGH YOUR NOSTRILS and (I believe) you need this to be calm for maximum effetiveness.

Your breath hold may need to be upwards of 20-30 seconds (which healthy people can accomplish.

If you can extend the breath hold AND remain calm enough to only start breathing through you nose you may clear markedly on the first iteration.

If you don't get completely clear on the first, just repeat the process. (3 times is usually my max necessary.)


This works. The rest of Buteyko Breathing may be total hooie, but this part works.

BTW: It's something just unpleasant enough, especially when I am stuff up, that I don't really want to do it and will have to make a very conscious decision to follow through.

[Julie]

Not disputing what you said, but to me it's a lot easier just to reach for a Kleenex!

[HerbM]

Sorry, but even though it is funny, the Kleenex only removes the actual blockage (maybe.)

The Breathing technique opens the passages, and THEN you reach for the Kleenex to clean out if needed.

Actually you use the Kleenex before and after because you must have a LITTLE passage of air to do the technique properly -- finishing with nasal ONLY breaths.

[It's my suspicion (unproven) that the mechanism is some sort of survival mechanism the body uses when CO2 levels go up and only nasal breathing follows -- anti-asphyxiation mechanism of some sort, producing some natural decongestant. ]

[andy5805]

Wonder if a singing along to a little bit of metal would help much?

The kind that makes you want to grab a stringed axe, max the distortion, crank the volume, drop the tuning, play some furiously chaotic power chords and let out a deep blood-curdling, guttural therapeutic growl until the neighbors get the local constabulary to come knocking down your door..

Or there is always Opera... or anything else that requires at least a bit of vocal power. might be cheaper on door repairs and easier on the voice in the long run.

I've noticed a few articles on google about singing to strengthen throat muscles in people with OSA.

I'm a metal head, and pre therapy era I decided I was going to cure myself via means of my car stereo and my journey to work - I hated losing time as well as sleep so I can tell you exactly how much practice I got as it's 30 minutes each way, so I sung at the top of my voice, uninhibited and probably terrible safe in the knowledge that the powerful stereo I put in went louder and the worse I could fear was the looks on the faces of other drivers who were just driving...

I went from slayer to cannibal corpse to crue , none of it worked, then I tried skid row thinking here's a guy who sings so high he's got to get me out of it, again, very noticeable exercised feel on jaws/throat, no real benefit in sleep - so max score for effort, zero score for results

there's something really funny giving the whole death metal growl George Fisher style e.g. the bit after "this one's for all you ladies out there" for those in the know while people in cars lipread you and make shocked faces

I did feel it and I did leave the whole situation thinking "it may be possible " if I sing for longer or get one of those digeridoos - and it probably is, - but in the time I have, it definitely isn't, so I bought a Bipap machine

does this guy have sleep apnoea?


cheers
Andy

[Snufkin]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19234106

The tl;dr is that the exercises had a pretty substantial effect on sleep quality, compared to a placebo-exercise group.

They used a ton of different exercises (for a 30 min/day regimen), taken from speech- and swallowing therapy techniques, without trying to sort out which ones were effective.

But an accompanying commentary concludes that two exercises in particular were most likely to have made the difference: forceful balloon-blowing; and pressing the whole tongue to the roof of the mouth with a kind of tongue-sucking action.

Each of these was only performed for a few minutes a day.

[49er]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19234106

The tl;dr is that the exercises had a pretty substantial effect on sleep quality, compared to a placebo-exercise group.

They used a ton of different exercises (for a 30 min/day regimen), taken from speech- and swallowing therapy techniques, without trying to sort out which ones were effective.

But an accompanying commentary concludes that two exercises in particular were most likely to have made the difference: forceful balloon-blowing; and pressing the whole tongue to the roof of the mouth with a kind of tongue-sucking action.

Each of these was only performed for a few minutes a day.

Oh, I love blowing balloons. I will give this a shot to see what happens.

49er

PS - I never followed up previously even though I said I would.

[Mogy]

Has anyone else here tried this ? I don't expect anything like a cure but would like to be able to lower
my pressure just a little bit.

Hi Woody,
I know this an old thread but I noticed that you recently posted about exercise to try to reduce the pressure you need to control your sleep apnea.
I have been doing these exercises fairly religiously since Jan.
I believe they helped me reduce my AHI. Last year I was diagnosed with an AHI of 19.5
I then lost a bunch of weight and got my untreated AHI down to 13.5
In Jan I started the throat exercises, cardio exercises and was recently retested. My AHI is now down to about 5.
I will continue with the program with expectations of getting my AHI lower.

[Goofproof]

What XPAP do you use to collect the data.... Jim Another unread post from the way back machine.

[Woody]

Mogy I may just try those 2 exercises. About 6 months ago I had
a fall and stopped exercising for a few months. Although I didn't
gain any weight my Dreamstation Auto just wouldn't provide enough
pressure for me and I had to go on Bipap, Well after a slow start I
got back into an exercise program about 4 weeks ago and already
I see my pressure is a little lower .

[Mogy]

Woody,
The 2 exercises mentioned by snufkin were not part of the ones I have been doing up till now but they look like they are easy.
I plan to add them to my routine.
Good luck with your exercise program and be careful.

Goofproof,
I don't use an xPAP to determine my untreated AHI. I get a requisition from my doctor for a HST.
The one I have been using is the Resmed Apnealink Air.