Saturday, May 2, 2009

throat exercises for sleep apnea

It seems like I learn something new about sleep apnea and various treatments for it every day. I read somewhere about using throat exercises to help with sleep apnea. My first reaction was that its bull but I thought I would do a little research anyway.

The first site that I looked at was a dental site where they described various “mouth exercises” such as puckering your lips and smiling for an extended time. Another was sticking your tongue out (there were several involving the tongue). The last group of exercises had the sleep apnea patient singing. I haven’t tried any of them yet.

I plan on doing a little more research and then try a few of them for a short period of time and then do a follow up post.

Feel free to comment and subscribe to my RSS Feed

thanks

4 comments:

  1. David, just what do you have to lose by doing some free throat exercises to improve sleep apnea. It certainly beats using a cpap machine. You can try these whilst still doing a little more research and be pleasantly surprised how much it helps. And you need a bit more than a short period of time. Don't be so negative.

    ReplyDelete
  2. David,

    A recent study showed that it was definitely helpful for some sleep apnea sufferers. Here's the link: http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/179/10/962

    There's also a speech pathologist that offers exercises specifically for snoring and sleep apnea. http://www.ijustwanttosleep.com

    For years, I've been recommending signing or wind instruments for my patients.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wonder if there is a connection between sleep apnea and people who are just quiet/shy. Or if super talkers are less at risk. Let us know if the throat exercises work!

    ReplyDelete