UARS – Other Options
Besides the available ways of using obstructive sleep apnea treatment methods to treat UARS, there are a few untested ways of treatment.
As mentioned in the UARS and OSA articles that acid reflux of the throat is almost always present, treatment for LPRD is a logical step. Some (but not all) patients find significant improvement in some of their symptoms.
Weight gain was also mentioned as an aggravator of UARS symptoms. Proper diet and exercise is essential. Unfortunately, because of the hormonal issues that aggravate weight gain with this condition and the fatigue as a result of this condition, not many people can exercise optimally. Whatever you can do to keep your weight down or lose weight will be helpful.
A series of tongue exercises was developed by a speech pathologist for snoring. The purpose of these exercises is to strengthen the tongue muscles to prevent collapse at night during sleep. I found her program interesting, and so I contacted her. We are about to enroll patients in this research protocol, which involves three arms: one group doing tongue exercises only, another taking acid reflux medications only, and the third doing both. Click here to find out more details.
Stress, whether internal (as in UARS), or external (emotional, psychological or physical), all result in the same physiological response. This process leads to the long list of events discussed in the main UARS page. As many people are aware, stress lowers your appetite, or can give you diarrhea. It makes sense that anything to reduce stress, whether exercising, yoga or meditation can help to alleviate this process.
I mentioned sleep position as a possible aggravator of sleep-related breathing arousals. Make an effort to sleep exclusively on your side or stomach, minimizing the back position. For some people, their UARS symptoms are suddenly activated when they have some sort of physical injury such as a shoulder or hip injury, which forces then to suddenly sleep on their backs, when they previously preferred not to. In this case, take care of the physical problem, an re-start sleeping in your most comfortable position.
Steven Y. Park, M.D.
Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery
(212) 315-9058
