Breathe Right helps lower AHI?

[footballgirl13]

I have had GREAT results from breathe rite strips, I'm never without them. If I lay on my left side my right nostril completely collapes and cpap or no cpap I can't breathe out of that side unless I have a breathe rite strip on. They have been a God send for me.

I don't know about breathe rite strips lowering AHI as my numbers vary but I do know that without them I'm only breathing out of one nostril and that can't be good.
I guess breathe rite strips don't work for everyone but I love them.

Yeah, I read about 2 months ago that this issue with one side of the nose collapsing is a human thing. Lay on right side, left side of nose collapses - naturally. The same is true for other side of nose. Lay on left, right is closed. I didn't know this. I also read that it is natural for humans to have breathe out of on nostril during the day, and it switches every few hours. I read it on a alternative medicine or buddhist or yoga website. But doing so (breathing out of one nostril) does not help when going to sleep. I seem to be getting used to the feel of the strip below my nasal mask. And my AHI went down from 5.0 to 4.2. So I guess AHI does go up and down from night to night.

[ChicagoGranny]

Lay on right side, left side of nose collapses - naturally. The same is true for other side of nose. Lay on left, right is closed. I

Do you have that reversed? I believe fluids collect, due to gravity, in the "downside" nostril and cause a type of congestion.

[Pugsy]

It's not uncommon for the AHI to vary from night to night even if we don't change a thing. Saturday night my AHI was 3.47 (which is actually rather uncommonly high for me now) and last night it was 0.34 which is probably where it normally wants to run..
For some reason I had an ugly little cluster of OAs and hyponeas Saturday night during one small sleep segment. It happens...don't know why and not worth worrying over.

I suspect that some of your AHI is Central/Clear Airway events and probably related to awake/semi awake breathing CAs getting flagged and as you start sleeping better those CA events are reducing and that's perhaps why the AHI is dropping.
Until you use the software there is no way to know for sure though.
It could also simply be your body getting used to the therapy...when I first started bilevel therapy my AHI reduced by 50% without my changing anything over a period of about 8 weeks. I was using the software though to see what the AHI was made up of and it was primarily OAs and hyponeas and reduced from around 4.0 to a little less than 2.0 without any changes in pressure.

It's real important that you know the event category breakdown of your AHI if you want to be able to full evaluate the AHI.

[tan]

Breathe right strips are a total joke and a waste of money!!

False. Not everyone can benefit from it, yes. But, this is generally a false statement.

[chunkyfrog]

I use one when I have a stuffy nose, then I don't have to deal with the misery of a full face mask.
Happy nose, happy frog.

[footballgirl13]

Lay on right side, left side of nose collapses - naturally. The same is true for other side of nose. Lay on left, right is closed. I

Do you have that reversed? I believe fluids collect, due to gravity, in the "downside" nostril and cause a type of congestion.

Opps. I guess I wasn't aware of what I was typing that day! Yes I meant to say I sleep on left side and right nostril is blocked. I don't know why this is, but I did learn of this a few months back.

[footballgirl13]

I'm not really sure if AHI can go up and down normally from night to night without using any Nasal strip -
but for me I have noticed a difference most nights when I do wear one. For the most part when I use no breathe right strip - my AHI is around 7.0 all the way up to 8.5.

I put one on and my AHI goes down to 5.5 or 5.0 or 4.5 But last night I used a breathe right and my AHI went down to 3.7.
There was one night where I didn't use the breathe right and I didn't expect this result. I was expecting my AHI to be up again to 7.0 or 7.8 and my AHI was 5.5 with no breathe right strip. Perhaps my brain is having less centrals. It's a nice thought. I don't want to use the software yet since I've only had the data card in my machine for three nights.

I'm not sure what this new energy is between 7-10am, but I really like it. Even if an AHI from 7.8 down to 3.7 is not all that great - I feel a difference.
And before I had a really good sleep study I had no idea my AHI without CPAP was 18.1

I guess my math is correct here:
Take the total number of apneas (30)
divide that by the total minutes asleep (or with the mask on) (450)
and multiple that by 60.

I get this 30/450 = .066
.06 * 60 = 4 AHI

27/450 = .06
.06 * 60 = 3.6

or 25/450= .05
.05 * 60 = 3.3 AHI