Anyone try provent?

I like to pop in here occastionally and see if anyone has success with provent therapy?

I unfortunately never tolerated cpap.

Anyone know if aetna covers provent?

Also, I read that "Each one has a small hole that is covered with a fine mesh-like material. It lets you breathe in normally, but when you breathe out it adds resistance to pressurize your airway and hold it open."

Would this be referring to just airway in the nose/nasal area or also the throat? I have no problems breathing thru my nose, so if this only helps clear the nose, than it's definitely not for me.

Looking fwd to input here. Thanks.

If there are any other new therapies available, please share. I am tired of suffering from my osa and no matter how much I try to use cpap, it ends up on the floor in the night.

If you use the search box at the top left hand side with "provent" you will find many entries on it.

Most people don't like it and it does end up being expensive. Some people use it only for travel or camping.

I used it when I had an MRI. I have problems breathing while lying down. I think it did help but I am not sure I would have been able to go to sleep with it. It is hard to exhale and I think that is what is supposed to keep your airway open.

If you would like to state your problems tolerating you cpap you would probably get some good advice here.

Not for all the herbal tea in Boulder!

I have just received the Aug 2013 issue of Consumer Reports on Health. A special report in it is about Sleep Disorders and Treatment.
They have there this on Provent (Nasal valve therapy). I was surprised to read there that "A little more than half of its users may gain relief from sleep apnea". Well, there must be something beneficial with it.



I am reproducing here less than a quarter of the report length. Please don't copy it b/c of copyrights.

I thought the majority of events were caused by vacuum during inhalation?

Being someone who likes to try things just to spice things up in an otherwise very boring cpap therapy life...I did get a chance to try the Provent plugs.

I have to be able to breathe clearly and fully in and out through my nose....that's just what I have to do to be comfortable.
I had a problem during the exhale phase of breathing with the Provent. The whole idea is the restriction on exhale causing a back pressure of sorts in the airway to hold the airway open...so it's a pretty stiff exhale resistance.
I wasn't able to go to sleep. Not nearly comfortable enough with the breathing.

So it isn't all that easy to get use to and it isn't all that easy to learn how to stick the damn things on (you will waste a lot of them before you figure it out) and since I didn't have a truckload of them to play with and no desire to spend the money to give it more of a try since I am okay using the xpap machine...didn't pursue it any further.

If I was unable to tolerate cpap therapy at all...or if I was going to be in a place or position where I couldn't use my machine for a prolonged period of time then I would probably give it more of an effort to try to adjust.
It's going to take time and practice to get it figured out.

It's going to work the best for people with mild to low moderate OSA and probably not optimally with someone with severe OSA but if someone can't use cpap machine for any reason....then heck...any reduction in the OSA events is better than no reduction if you don't do anything.
I think "success" is measured on a 50 to 60 % reduction in apnea events. Decent enough I suppose if your AHI is maybe in the 20s.
For me with AHI of over 50...cutting it in half would not be so great but it would still be better than nothing and having 50 AHI in REM. For some people, from what I have read, apparently they do have a marked improvement in their daytime symptoms and like them. Of course it doesn't work for everyone but then again...that can be said about just about anything related to cpap too.

Given my own personal issue with the exhale part of Provent...I probably would be more apt to try the Winx system before I would put much effort in trying to use the Provent if I couldn't use CPAP, but that's me and my own preferences and needs.
So each person is going to have to make their own personal evaluation of how they want to do things.
I am pretty much miserable if I can't breathe easily through my nose and fortunately I rarely have times where I can't. At least I have that in my favor.

For me it would be far from ideal but sometimes we all don't get "ideal" and have to make compromises. Some reduction in apnea events is better than no reduction and if the choice is no therapy vs one of the alternative therapies that may or may not be totally effective then I would at least try for some reduction in the apnea events. I would figure I would have nothing to lose and might as well try it.

Fizzled wrote:I thought the majority of events were caused by vacuum during inhalation?

Check this:

http://www.sleepdt.com/provent-nasal-ep ... -believer/

I think that I could try the Provent, if it's working for me, without doing a sleep study with it, by using my CPAP. I could stick a couple of those Provents in my nose, reduce the pressure on my S9 Autoset to let's say the minimum pressure of 4 cm in CPAP mode, no EPR, and use my regular nasal SoftGel chamber mask. I wonder how the S9 would react to it?