humidification and asthma

I'm new to cpap, oct.2016 and new to this forum. I have read what I could find on humidification and its effects. My impression of its effects on asthma are that it varies from person to person. My guess is that I should be experimenting on increasing/decreasing the setting on my machine to find what works best for me. Am I correct in that assumption? I'm currently on a setting of 2 (out of a possible 5). Is that a generally low setting for someone with asthma? Should I expect to have a more positive effect if I increase the humidification? My wife has volunteered to make me a hose cozy because I have been awakened by rain out and the gurgles from the hose. I have since re-positioned the location of my machine after having read other posts on gurgle. And the reason I lowered the humidity setting from a 5 was also based on other posts about rainout. Thank you SleepyHead for making that possible.
Thanks in advance for feed back.

You are on the right track. Welcome to our merry band.
You might want to try a hose cozy, or ask Santa for a heated hose.

Not only is it very individual but it changes with the seasons.

Take full control because only YOU really care about your therapy.

thanks for the feedback. I've already learned something. I work with kids at church on Sundays and as my wife has told me kids are carriers of EVERYTHING. I now get 2-3 cases of bronchitis a year. At my age pneumonia is now a concern for me. From Blackspinners response I see that I will now need re-visit the mask that was issued to me in the beginning, without instructions. I had a real hard time getting it not to leak. And in my ignorance I thought that tightening the straps was the way to fix that. I went from that to a nose pillow which is working for me a lot better. I was wondering what I was going to do when I have cold, and my nose is running like a hose. I guess I will need to try and make it work for when I'm sick. Chunkyfrog; I want to try the easiest, least expensive solution to the rain out problem before I go to a heated hose. My wife got enough material for both of our hoses for less than $2 ... thanks again

I have learned I need to keep dips out of my hose to prevent rain out. I route my hose over the head board of my bed. That way, I can keep the hose from sagging and any water that condenses runs back to the water chamber. When we travel, I take a Hose Boss with me and use that to control the hose while I sleep.

Movingon, in addition to your cpap stuff, you should ask your doc to evaluate you for acid reflux. Acid reflux can result in post-nasal drip which is not always that noticeable by those with asthma. The post-nasal drip issue increases your risk of bronchitis. I used to get bronchitis at least annually, which often led to pnemonia, but have not had a single case of it in 5 years now since I started on acid reflux med. I mention this only because a lot of doctors don't know about this connection.

I don't wear a full face mask, so have no suggestions OTHER THAN if all else fails, consider a mask liner.

so much stuff out there for cpap users! SewTired; as for acid reflux been there done that. About ten years ago I was dealing with acid reflux, got something from the doctor, took it for about a year and my symptoms cleared up. I now know what it feels like and what to look for, and what I can and cannot do to avoid it. I don't think that it is an issue for me right now. The reason I posted in the first place was to get some feed back from people who have asthma and use a cpap. I'm wondering if a higher humidity setting will generally have a positive effect on asthma symptoms or will it generally make it worse. It was posted earlier that asthma symptoms will vary from season to season, I get that, I just want to get an idea on the effects of humidification itself, good or bad. And if I do try a higher humidity setting then I'm going to have to deal with the consequences of that change, hence the hose cozy my wife is making for us.
Thanks

Hello,
I am another asthmatic on cpap. I've been using cpap since July and I will do my best to address your questions from my own experience.

Speaking in generalities, air that is "extreme" in some way can trigger asthma symptoms, eg. very cold, very dry, whatever. I find that when my lung have an issue with mucus in the airways, that more humidity is a very good thing. The max setting is what I use then. For long-term usage, if you can't tell what makes your airways more or less twitchy, you may want to use a peak flow meter to get data on which settings are more agreeable to your lungs.

i personally sleep on my back due to medical problems with my shoulders. So I barely move while sleeping, and it works great for me to keep large sections of the hose under the covers with me, which prevents rainout. Actually, the reason I use an unheated tube is asthma-related, just a btw kind of thing... I wanted a larger tubing diameter to decrease the air pressure resistance, so that I could exhale with less effort at the lowest pressure setting (for falling asleep).

Good luck to you.

Thanks emmagoldman44 for responding.
I have to agree with you about "extremes". Your right, I have to remember that something may be good up to a point, but too much of anything can turn out to be bad. I am still very much in the "shake down" phase of this cpap thing. I used to sleep on my side, I miss being able to do that. I have been sleeping on my back,mostly because of the problems I was having with the face mask I was issued in the beginning and also because I'm still "afraid" of causing more leak problems. Which brings up another question, is it possible to side sleep with the nasal mask I'm using now ? I know that everybody's experience with cpap are going to be different, I'm just trying to get an idea of what strategies other people have tried and had success with. I haven't, as yet, started using the search function available here, but I do plan on searching more for answers to specific questions. Right now I'm just being kind of lazy, and dipping my foot into this forum.
thanks

I am also asthmatic and use maximum moisture when sleeping. I have found the warm, moist air helps, especially when I have my annual bronchitis attack like I am now. I use a climateline hose and a hose cover. I never have problems with rain out when at home or when using the Hose Boss. The first time I went on the road, I didn't have the Hose Boss, yet, and I could not adequately control the position of the hose. I woke up several times a night with rain out in the hose that was causing a gurgling sound. It sounded like it was coming from a hollow pipe with a lot of echo in it.

The trick to side sleeping is to sleep at the edge of the pillow. Some people have taken bread knives to foam pillows to make that space for the mask better.

Thanks Blackspinner, I'll keep that in mind when I'm ready to start experimenting.

nuther question, I went into the settings screen on my device (thanks apnea board) to look at what there was to play around with. My asthma has been acting up lately, because of the weather, or the dogs, or God only knows what. In the settings I saw that I have the option of choosing either c-flex or a-flex. And that the "pressure?" settings are at 13 and 20. Here's the question; What is a-flex and c-flex, and is there a difference? I know that there is a setting that I can adjust to make epap lower, would that help? Because my asthma has been acting up, despite my best efforts, I have been having that tight feeling in my chest! More effort is required to take in a breath.
Thanks
did some looking around and found an answer(I think) in CPAP Basics #15. My Chinese is kind of rusty and I'm clearly going to have to read the posts several times before they start making any kind of sense to me. Something that has already been boiled down would still be appreciated.

Movingon, I also have asthma. My doc finally told me no more church nursery I was getting every respiratory bug that was going around.

The humidifier is a godsend to me. Just try different levels and see how you like them, it's all up to how comfortable you feel. I find if it's too low it's really drying, if it's too high the air feels thick and heavy and it bothers me.

One thing I've found very helpful is to use a fine filter along with the coarse filter in my machine. I'm not sure what machine you have or what filters it uses, but with the PR System One this gives me a whole night with filtered air and I find that helps a lot during allergy season.

thanks sewsleepy.
I think that may have been on my wife's mind when she mentioned it to me. That thought has also crossed my mind, time will tell. I don't want to do that... just yet. Been doing some MORE reading and I think I'm starting to get a better picture of what a-flex and c-flex are, (thanks Pugsy), and thanks google. I just don't get why respironics would offer two seemingly similar comfort options on the same machine, is there a subtle difference I'm not seeing?
thanks

edit: I originally started this thread for answers to my question about humidification and asthma. Thanks to all those who responded. I think I know now what I'm going to do in that regard. I can see from my most recent post that I'm drifting from the original question. Time to move on. I believe in closing a thread once it has served its purpose , but I don't know how to close a thread in this forum, time for more reading.
Once again, thanks for the help:)