A theory about dry mouth

So on Auto 80, your mouth is still dry? Have you turned it up more?

SleepingUgly wrote:So on Auto 80, your mouth is still dry? Have you turned it up more?

No, but I'll try that tonight.

Luc wrote:

ozij wrote:...The reason you mouth dries is that air blows into your mouth - even when you tape -- sometimes more, sometimes less, and its the air movement that dries our tissues faster than out salivary glands can humidify them. Think of the drying effect of a fan - ....

This explanations sounds the most reasonable to me. I too suffer from dry mouth. Sometimes it's so dry it actually hurts and it wakes me up. I do not have any medical conditions, no meds etc. And I do not mouth breath! So why is my mouth dry?From the fanning effect caused by the air flow. The wind comes into my mouth through the air ways and throat and has no place to go... so it twirls around on itself like a vortex. This actually increases its speed and drying effect. A mini huricane constantly blowing in my closed mouth! This explanation however goes against the diagram. I don't beleive the toungue closes off the airway.

Yes, I think Ozij's explanation is more plausible than the tongue closing off the airway, especially since I sleep on my side. So with that in mind, now I'm wondering what would work to alleviate this--more humidity, more heat? Lower pressure? More or less EPR? I will experiment further, and report back.

FWIW I only get dry mouth with a nasal mask + taping only when the GERD is acting up. (or perhaps when i've had a few too many drinks ). I get dry mouth really bad with a FFM.

echo wrote: (or perhaps when i've had a few too many drinks

This article, http://doctorstevenpark.com/index.php?s=hangover , may interest you. In it Dr. Park says,

As far as I know, there’s no scientific proof that drinking alcohol causes significant dehydration.

roster wrote:As far as I know, there’s no scientific proof that drinking alcohol causes significant dehydration.

No but it DOES make the reflux worse. soooooo.... Anyway I agree with what he's saying. But I still have wicked thirst the next day if I drink too much.

On the other hand alcohol is a diuretic according to two docs at least (though not the only factor in the famed "hangover"): http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/ ... /54-60.pdf

nice hijacking

roster wrote:

echo wrote: (or perhaps when i've had a few too many drinks

This article, http://doctorstevenpark.com/index.php?s=hangover , may interest you. In it Dr. Park says,

As far as I know, there’s no scientific proof that drinking alcohol causes significant dehydration.

Odd that Dr Park makes a qualified statement by saying significant... and then... he states that "many people complain of dry throats" ...

It seems counter-intuitive and may be the basis for his own study to say the alcohol... does dehydrate.
I'm not going to look it up (perhaps you could Roster... since you bring it up) but I don't believe everything that Dr's seem to say in an ad... when they don't back it up with scientific proof to confirm.
He doesn't say it doesn't happen... just that there is no scientific proof.

I believe is is common knowledge that alcohol dehydrates...

Nord

Nord, I did research on this quite often in my youth - many nights of what we called "cotton mouth" and no doubt the alcohol caused it.

Through what mechanism is another question. Did the alcohol cause apnea which then caused reflexive mouthbreathing which led to cotton mouth? It took a lot of fluids the next morning and some time to end the dry mouth.

Today if I am congested and breathing through the mouth in my FFM much of the night, I will have dry mouth the next morning which is quickly and easily remedied with one drink of water. This leads me to believe the youthful experiments included alcohol dehydration.

But it doesn't matter so much to me now as I restrict alcohol to moderate amounts at lunch and avoid it entirely in the evenings due to sleep apnea.