What you should know about CPAP nasal masks

Nasal CPAP masks are one of the best options for effective sleep apnea therapy. The benefits of using a nasal model instead of a full-face masks are numerous, but, unfortunately, not many patients are educated on the subject. Nasal masks are specially suited to fit your individual therapy needs, especially if you:

• breath through your mouth at night;
• are a side sleeper;
• feel claustrophobic wearing a full-face mask;
• or just want to read / watch TV at bed before going to sleep.

Is a nasal CPAP mask better?

So why is it better to opt for a nasal CPAP mask instead of a standard full face CPAP mask? First, let’s look into what nasal and nasal pillows CPAP masks have to offer compared to full face models.

What are the advantages of nasal CPAP masks?

Nasal masks are designed to provide freedom of movement during sleep apnea therapy. They are perfect for both side and back sleepers. Therapy wise, studies have shown that nasal CPAP masks help patients achieve better adherence to their prescribed therapy, without discontinuing it.

The new-generation nasal masks are designed to offer unmatched levels of performance, comfort and thorough seal over older models.

 

NASAL MASKS FOR CPAP MACHINES

 

 

Why choose a nasal CPAP mask?

 

AIR PRESSURE

If your CPAP setting is 10 cmh20 and higher, then a nasal masks would likely be highly recommended by your doctor. However, please note that nasal CPAP masks are NOT recommended for mouth breathers or patients whose nasal passages are blocked.

 

NOSE BREATHING

A nasal mask is a specifically preferred choice of CPAP users who sleep with their mouth closed and can exhale through their nose. It is comfortable to wear, unobtrusive and easy to put on and off, while simultaneously providing a steady stream of pressurized air to the sleeper’s airways.

 

SIZE

The smaller size of nasal CPAP masks is often preferred over full face masks. Patients who find nasal pillows uncomfortable at higher pressures opt for nasal masks instead to achieve a more comfortable and effective therapy.

 

What are the main advantages of nasal masks compared to full-face masks: 

• patients feel significantly more free in bed;
• patients can turn in bed freely without risking seal bending or creaking;
• patients enjoy better intimacy with their partners due to lower mask profile and less parts;
• patient don’t feel trapped when we wearing a nasal mask;
• patients increase their rate of adherence to their prescribed therapy.

Nasal CPAP masks come in different shapes and sizes, so most people can find a mask that works for them.

Nasal masks are less bulky than full face masks, making them less claustrophobic. Nervertheless, some patients might not get used to the contact the mask makes with the bridge nose and the upper lip.

Nasal masks support higher pressure settings without causing discomfort. And they are offered in a variety of designs including For Him and For Her.

 

What is the difference between nasal masks and full face masks?

The main difference between nasal masks and full face masks is that nasal masks are put over the nose instead of on both the nose and the mouth. They are connected to the patient in the same way as full face masks; that is, through a tube connecting to the CPAP machine. The CPAP / BiPAP machine then in turn, pumps the pressurized air into the patient’s airways directly through the nasal opening of the mask.

 

NOTE: Nasal masks cover the patient’s nose and upper lip only. 

The new generation nasal masks  

The latest Resmed nasal mask come with many neat features worth stating. There are even models with over the head connection, such as the ResMed AirFit N30i . The N30i is an innovative nasal mask with huge advantages over standard models. 

 

Buy Resmed Airfit N30i

The AirFit N30i is revolutionary mask, providing significantly less pressure on the nose and the ability to toss and turn in bed.

Less facial marks and increased mobility

The use of the nasal masks significantly reduces the number of patient complaints reporting nasal irritation and limited mobility when using full face masks. In the case of the N30i, the revolutionary design creates a “complete solution” mask focused on adherence to the prescribed therapy. This mask is specifically composed of a minimal number of parts, and is comfortable and easy to use by patients.

 

Resmed N30i main advantages:

• Less facial marks,
• Increased line of sight
• Easy to put on and off;
• Affordable to maintain due to less parts
• Fits snugly against the face;
• One of the quietest nasal masks on the market;

Successful treatment of sleep apnea requires adherence to therapy 

Although effective, adherence to the sometimes life-saving CPAP therapy in most cases remains problematic. Especially for some patients who may not be accustomed to nasal masks. You can read about the severity of sleep apnea and its health effects here).

 Useful tips for successful CPAP therapy

Always remind yourself that you are undergoing home sleep apnea treatment to protect your health and prevent the serious health risks untreated sleep apnea goes hand in hand with.

Talk to your partner and encourage them to share their thoughts and possible concerns about your therapy. Learn about the many benefits of CPAP therapy. In most cases, it is a therapy that saves lives. And, please, talk to your doctor doctor if you have difficulty using your mask.

Why some patients fail to adhere to CPAP therapy? 

Many patients–requiring CPAP therapy to lead a normal life without the debilitating symptoms–fail to adhere to their therapy program and discontinue treatment prematurely. The reasons for this are various. Some patient for example feel somewhat uncomfortable with a large, full face mask. They can’t get used to it easily and give up. And the apnea appears again and again.

 

What are the disadvantages of sleeping with a nasal CPAP mask?

Although being the most preferred option for a mask, nasal models do have their drawbacks. Here are the main disadvantages of using a nasal sleep apnea mask:

 

• They are not the most appropriate type of mask for patients who breathe mouth during sleep;
• It is not recommended for patients suffering from sinusitis or a chronic condition that causes nasal congestion.

Choose a full face mask if:

• You breathe through your mouth while you sleep;
• Your therapy requires higher air pressure;
• You have allergies or other conditions that prevent you from breathing through your nose;
• You sleep on your back.

How to choose the right nasal mask?

Follow these golden rules before purchasing a nasal mask

• Know your size and pick accordingly;
• Choose a mask that is suitable for favorite sleep position;
•  Choose a masks that is easy to maintain (there are easy to find replacement parts for it.

Driving with Obstructive Sleep Apnea in the UK: Everything You Need to Know

If you live in the UK, you must tell the DVLA if you have obstructive sleep apnea syndrome or obstructive sleep apnea that affects your ability to drive safely. If you don’t, you can be fined up to £1,000 or, even worse, prosecuted if you cause an accident because of your condition. So be sure to consult with your physician if you’re not sure whether your OSA can affect your driving or not.

You and nobody else is responsible for deciding if you’re fit to drive or not. You might have sleep apnea or suffer from insomnia, or have a newborn that doesn’t stop crying at night. The reason is irrelevant. If you feel tired or sleepy during the day, to the point where it might affect your driving, then you MUST not drive. If you are told not to drive — by your GP, sleep doctor, or other medical professional — then you definitely must not drive. 

 

How to notify the DVLA?

The best way to notify the DVLA about having a medical condition that interferes with your driving is in writing instead of by telephone or e-mail.

What is excessive sleepiness and how it relates to driving?

As defined by the DVLA, the term “excessive sleepiness” should be interpreted as:

• Excessive sleepiness likely to have an adverse effect on driving.

The term “drowsiness” should be interpreted also as excessive sleepiness.

Car and Motorcycle Drivers

1) If you are diagnosed with mild, moderate or severe OSA, without excessive sleepiness:

• You may continue to drive as normal
• You are not required to notify the DVLA.

2) If you are diagnosed with mild OSA with excessive sleepiness:

• You must not drive until your excessive sleepiness is under control.
• If your excessive sleepiness cannot be controlled within 3 months you must notify the DVLA.

3) If you have moderate or severe OSA with excessive sleepiness:

• You must not drive until your sleep clinic has confirmed that:- Your OSA is under control;
  – Your sleepiness is no longer excessive;
  – You are complying with CPAP treatment.
• You must notify the DVLA and send them your medical information proving that your symptoms are under control.
• If your driving license has already been revoked, you can apply for it to be restored.

You must not drive until OSA has been diagnosed and the Sleep Clinic that diagnosed you has confirmed that your excessive sleepiness is being satisfactorily put under control by your prescribed treatment.

If you have mild OSA, you only need to notify the DVLA if your excessive sleepiness cannot be controlled within 3 months after beginning of treatment.

Bus and lorry (and taxi) drivers

If you have been diagnosed with mild, moderate or severe OSA but you don’t experience excessive sleepiness:

• You may continue to drive. You do not need to notify the DVLA.

If you have been diagnosed with mild OSA and are experiencing excessive sleepiness:

• You must not drive. At least not until your excessive sleepiness symptom has been successfully controlled.

If, within the span of three months, your excessive sleepiness symptom cannot be controlled you must notify the DVLA.

If you have been diagnosed with moderate or severe OSA and are experiencing excessive sleepiness:

• You must not drive until your sleep clinic has confirmed to you that your OSA is under control, your sleepiness is no longer excessive, and you are complying with CPAP theraoy;
• You must notify the DVLA. The DVLA will ask for medical confirmation that will prove that your symptoms are controlled. If your driving license has already been revoked, you can apply for a renewal.

If you are experiencing excessive sleepiness and OSA is suspected:

• You must not drive until your condition has been diagnosed and the Sleep Clinic that diagnosed you has confirmed that your excessive sleepiness is being satisfactorily controlled by prescribed treatment.

If you have been diagnosed with mild OSA, you only need to notify the DVLA if your excessive sleepiness cannot be controlled within three months.

If you are noticing that you are experiencing excessive sleepiness on a daily basis, do not drive!

• Seek an appointment with your GP;
• Ask your doctor to refer you to a Sleep Clinic;
• Download and complete the Epworth Sleepiness Scale Score Form to understand how severe your sleepiness is;
• Bring the results to the Sleep Clinic and get diagnoses for Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

If you are diagnosed with Sleep Apnea, the Sleep Clinic that diagnoses you needs to provide a clear and precise answer if you need to inform in written form the DVLA or not.

 

The Resmed Airsense 11 CPAP Machines in now available in the UK.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a debilitating condition causing severe pauses in breathing during sleep by partially or completely blocking the upper airways. Both partial and complete forms of apnea impact the sleeper’s oxygen intake, which in turn leads to a range of serious side symptoms and complications. There are three types of sleep apnea—obstructive, central, and mixed apnea. Today we will focus on the most widespread type—obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA. This article will discuss the risk of sleep apnea when a present genetic pattern is determined, the genetic impact on sleep apnea symptoms displayed by a subject in a risk group and how the disorder affect heart disease, hypertension and other most common side effects of OSA.

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Ask any OSA sufferer about sleep apnea symptoms and they will produce a list of these, including interrupted sleep and frequent awakenings to severe daytime sleepiness or fatigue, and, of course, the usual suspect—loud snoring interrupted by gasping sounds. Beneath the tip of the iceberg of OSA signs is an underlying bulk of health complications that the sleeper might not even suspect they are exposed to.

Among these health complications are low blood oxygen levels (hypoxemia), high blood pressure (hypertension), insulin resistance, Alzheimer’s disease and more. The disorder leads to a higher risk of stroke and heart failure, impairs your memory and ability to focus, causes morning headaches, sexual dysfunction and depression. All of the above are caused by what may seem like a simple upper-airway blockage happening at night.

 

Related articles:

What is sleep apnea and how is it treated?

Catch up on the latest CPAP devices for Positive Airway Pressure therapy 

Sleep apnea: frequently asked questions with answers

Does sleep apnea run in the family?

The short answer to this question is: Yes, obstructive sleep apnea is partly hereditary and may run in the family. But this is the overly simplified answer. Unfortunately, nothing about sleep apnea is simple.

OSA is a condition that may be inheritable from first degree family members. For example, children can inherit from their parents their facial features, anatomical characteristics of the upper airway muscles, high body-mass index and tongue size. The anatomy of the tongue may be passed through in family history and lead to developing OSA as the tongue affects the apneic collapse of the soft tissues in the upper-airway during sleep.

The longer answer to this important query, however, needs to be grounded on scientific examination and genetics studies providing  concrete results. This is what this article will explain today—the scientific approach to examining the correlation between OSA and genetics, and how exactly that relates to the broader field of study on sleep disorders up until 2020.

Inheritance across age groups and populations

Sleep disorders are present in all age groups and populations, with a strong evidence of genetic inheritance in disorders like narcolepsy and restless leg syndrome. In the case of obstructive sleep apnea the inheritance pattern is still to be defined. And while the genetic etiology of sleep apnea remains rather unclear, sustainable progress in regard to establishing a relationship between apnea and our genes has been made in recent years, with plenty of scientific data to back that up.

We have already exhausted the topic of risk factors in OSA cases, such as middle age, obesity and gender. The approach to establishing heterogneity and etiology in regards to OSA rests on scientific evidence acquired from documented studies with thousands of volunteering participants across all ages and gender, many of which suggest that the genetic component of OSA in the range of anything between 0 and 40%, while the rest remains in the graph secondary factors.

Inheritance pattern in first-degree relatives

The genetic predisposition in developing sleep apnea still remains largely undefined, in spite of the thousands of conducted studies during the last three decades. Today the inheritance patterns in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) point to a relation between first-degree relatives with OSA and the presence of the disorder in siblings and children, where the risk of developing apnea is around 50% and greater.

As multifunctional sleep disorder OSA does have a heritable dimension researched primarily through field synopsis and genetic association examination of focus groups of participants. Conducting genetic association OSA studies aims at identifying odds ratios while exploring the connection between population-based and family-based testing. The results try to find an inheritance pattern of OSA by utilizing the existent findings in the developing field of OSA genetics through complex genotyping methods and broad genetic testing.

Genetic sleep apnea testing

Genetic sleep apnea testing analyzes alterations in chromosomes, genes, or proteins in OSA sufferers in order to confirm or exclude a genetic predisposition to the disorder. This type of testing examines the possibility that the patient developed OSA partly due to genetic passing. The methodology utilized in genetic testing is based on gene, chromosomal and biochemical gene tests.

• Gene tests examine the possible variations and mutations in the lengths of DNA that could cause the disorder;
• Chromosomal tests examine long lengths of DNA or chromosomes in an effort to detect major genetic alterations that could lead to the disorder;
• Biochemical gene tests, examine how proteins behave and if they could change the DNA and lead to OSA.

Genetics of neck circumference and OSA explained

The relationship between neck circumference, general obesity and OSA is one of the most well-documented ones to this date. Nine in ten  sleep apnea tests asks the same question: ‘Is your neck circumference greater than 17 inches (men) / 16 inches (women)’?

Obesity index, soft palatal length and palate-to-spine angle are constantly studied through research to drive a meaningful correlation between these factors and obstructive sleep apnea. Studies have found that the link between anatomical features and OSA is not as important a factor as neck circumference.

The OSA inheritance factor in obese children

The genetic predisposition and general cause for developing obstructive sleep apnea in children relies on a variety of different factors–both anatomic and neuromuscular. Susceptibility to obstructive sleep apnea in children has proven extremely difficult and is still reliant on future studies and technological advancement. So far studies have shown that children can inherit their parent’s facial anatomy, such as large tonsils and large overbite and chin, which are factors for developing OSA.

Understanding the genetic risk factors as the first step to OSA prevention

In order to encourage early diagnosis and prevention, predictive models in genetic and phenotypic studies need to be established beyond the only suggestive framework of the current results. Steps in OSA prevention can help reduce morbidity and hesitance in the public’s approach to obstructive sleep apnea early diagnosis and treatment by educating the most genetically exposed groups of the population about the risks. The ultimate goal is to reach a proven prescriptive framework that would steer prevention and underline the benefits of early lifestyle changes reducing the chance of developing the disorder in the first place.

Why is it so difficult to understand if OSA is inherited or not?

Just like any other field of study focused on underpinning sleep disorders, genetics research of OSA is focused on early recognition and meaningful results that would increase public awareness about apnea. Until this happens, the genetic foundation of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) still needs to be established. The difficulty in effectively studying if OSA is hereditary comes from the fact that, so far, physiological metrics across a sufficient range of genetic and phenotypic markers and participants is too costly and invasive to acquire.

The problem with the majority of genome-wide association studies trying to touch upon this extremely challenging topic is that they still remain suggestive instead of conclusive, and that most of them have not been consistently replicated.

The future of OSA genetics studies

Even with large numbers of patients taking participation in OSA studies, coverage across a wide gene region is problematic in regards to obtaining a solid statistical framework in regards to sleep apnea and its genetics origins—especially results that are robust to alternative genetic models. Genetic studies in OSA up to 2020 only find a small non-overlapping relation, without covering enough gene variants to identify a more solid ground for a positive association between the human gene and OSA. Such associations are still subject to variables posing a significant challenge to the global concern that is OSA.

 

Continue reading Is Sleep Apnea Hereditary: The Genetic Pattern in OSA