Nerve stimulation implants are really exciting. I have sleep apnea, and while I take to CPAP therapy pretty well, I hate having to travel with the device and I hate its limitations. When we travel, I have to ensure there's an outlet somewhere near my bed; I can't camp without a massive battery pack for my CPAP; I can't go backpacking; and even cuddling my wife at night is a challenge because of the hose hanging off my head.

There's now a sleep apnea implant available, which also functions based on nerve stimulation, and is apparently quite effective. It's still a bit large, so not ideal for those of us who can deal with a CPAP, but in another 10 years maybe I can stop using my CPAP and just get a relatively straightforward surgical procedure every 5-10 years. I'd absolutely do it.

Also using CPAP and cuddling is a big problem for me as well. I have to sleep facing the opposite direction because the venthole in the nasal mask I can tolerate (F&P Eson 2) blows on her face.

I use a Resmed P30i, which I find really comfortable, but if either of the tubes on the side of my head get compressed, it gets noiser, or if the vent at the top of the head is too close to a surface, which means I now sleep in pretty specific positions to avoid disturbing my wife.

Still, better than keeping her up with my incessant snoring, I guess.

Check eBay for medistrom batteries. I can get 1 night for AirSense 10 (w/o humidity); 2 nights using resmed portable cpap & no issues backpacking with the portable cpap so long as I can get a periodic recharge.

Depending on how severe your sleep apnea is, there are oral appliances that can help with mild to moderate cases of sleep apnea. Could be an alternative to a CPAP machine. It’s like wearing a bulky retainer at night.

That said, you’ll want to go to a dentist who specializes in sleep apnea and is able to test / fit the oral appliance properly. (Source: father is dentist who specializes in TMJ pain and sleep apnea).

I've heard they're about $3,500USD and aren't covered by insurance. For something that I'm unsure would solve the problem, it seems a bit much. If it were 1/10th the price, I would just try it.

Seems like the 3d scanning my kids had for their braces, plus 3D printing could make it less expensive, at least for a prototype device to just try.

I should try that "tape over the mouth" thing to see if it helps, particularly as I'm super mild apnea, but I'm expecting it won't really work with my beard.

That is correct on both counts: they’re a bit pricey and insurance won’t cover an oral appliance for sleep apnea, which is unfortunate!

I do tape over the mouth every night. It’s worth a try! I also wear an oral appliance to prevent teeth clenching at night which was a game changer for me in terms of jaw muscle inflammation (due to clenching).

Mouth taping is one thing my dad (dentist) recommends for people who snore. While I don’t snore or have sleep apnea, I do feel like I get a more restful sleep.

This is so awesome - thanks for sharing this - my daughter also has epilepsy, but it is fortunately controlled by medication.

It seems that stimulating the vagus nerve resets something to default in the brainstem when a cascade event is about to occur - probably shuts down the errant signals from propagating to the entire brain ???.

Do you know which lobe in her brain it happens ??? (my daughter has left temporal lobe)

My child has Dravet syndrome so its quite major seizure activity and many different seizure types (tc, absence, focal, myoclonic). I think slightly more left lobe than right but its been a while since we had a full EEG. VNS is known to help with Dravet in enough cases that they were prepared to try the VNS.

The VNS can help stop seizures but also there's a sortof long-term effect from just having it firing every few minutes all the time, seems to re-train the brain in some way. I'm not sure if they really know how it works, just that it seems to help.

Another non-medication treatment that was very good for us was the ketogenic diet. Like, hardcore proper ketogenic diet, 4:1 ratio, prescribed and monitored by an NHS dietician. Every meal measured out by the gram. Its hard work but it did work very well. Its been properly researched - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16146451/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25524846/ - for Dravet syndrome at least, keto is as effective as the best AEDs with fewer side effects.

The effectiveness of the ketogenic diet for childhood epilepsy is the reason I thought I'd try the diet for myself - many people believe that it has some neuroprotective benefit in general.

But now after some time has passed I no longer believe it makes sense to do that, until these benefits for non-epileptic people have actually been demonstrated. It's not an easy diet to follow and if you follow it to the degree required for epilepsy therapy, you're restricting your protein quite a bit.

Wow, I had no idea that the science around the vagus nerve had progressed so far that we actually have implants that can be used in humans. Amazing. I'm so happy it helps your child.

I was really skeptical that any of these nerve stimulation devices would work over a decade ago when the hype first started growing around them (among biotech investors, not the public). It just sounded way too good to be true but since then there have been a number of devices treating migraines and seizures that were previously intractable.

Really happy to be proven wrong!

> Can you provide more info about nerve stimulation devices treating migraines ?

Note that vagus nerve implants were approved by FDA in 1997

Thanks for sharing. I'm considering VNS but frankly I'm terrified of complications and recovery time.

Operation was in-and-out of hospital in one day. Then had a big cellophane-like bandage on neck and shoulder area that had to be kept clean and air-tight for 2 weeks. It was a good bandage though, just had to patch it up occasionally with new layers of cellophane-stuff. Main possible complication would be infection (worse case is that device then has to be removed) or some people have side effect where it feels like their throat is ticked and they cough when device activates. We didn't have any problems.

Then once its all healed they turn the device using nfc wand thing and then slowly increase the power bit by bit over several months. There are various timing and frequency settings that can be experimented with.

This is really interesting!

I have struggled with an issue during meditation for several years now. I get to a certain point and it feels like my body/mind is going to relax, but instead I get this intense rising feeling up into the back of my throat, followed by an itching sensation that causes me to cough, and break out of the moment. Extremely frustrating!!

I wonder what is going on with my vagus nerve.

i wonder about how white are your kids because https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanin and more than that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromelanin ?

but I'm at best a random internet stranger; at worse a foolish consparanoid crank?

also, this age of rampant EM radiation signals all over the place; which are light, and melanin is a pigment, it interacts with light... why do I have questions that are considered taboos? all I get is endless frustration

What a strange agitation in your comment.

Melanin absorbtion spectrum is easy to search for and the data shows that its interaction with EM spectrum below UV and visible light (freq-wise) is basically zero.

Radio frequencies at “home” energies don’t interact with us, so you can take the tinfoil hat off ;). Things change when you stand right in front of an industrial microwave antenna, but only there and that has nothing to do with pigments.

the eyes are em-radiation receivers! and emitters but pretty much everything emits

lol, -4 so dead and buried. I did say I ask about taboos and time and time again I'm shown this to be the case (dripping frustration)

strange is what I am because when I speak my mind, people react accordingly

Your question makes no sense in the context of epilepsy. I genuinely have no idea what you are talking about

You're getting downvoted because what you're saying doesn't make any logical sense, not because of any "taboos".

Here's a silly question: does your child feel the nerve stimulation when it happens?

Thats a good question not a silly one. They don't have the communication skills to tell me but they dont seem to be aware of it. Apparently some people experience it as a tingling sensation in throat or neck.

i wonder why the battery cant be charged wirelessly

Interesting idea. Current battery in the device (I looked it up) is:

Chemistry: Lithium carbon monofluoride

Voltage: 3.3 V, open circuit

Rated capacity: 1 Amp-hour

Self-discharge rate: <1% per year

Its a tiny non-rechargeable battery presumably carefully picked for safety and very slow usage over several years.

I suppose the main barrier to wireless charging of implant batteries would be heat - wireless charging generates heat. And when something goes wrong with wireless charging it can generate a lot of heat. So I guess its risky? But then surgery to change a battery is also a significant risk.

Also I guess someone would have to go through the long process with the FDA of getting it all approved, whereas (at a guess) people designing implants try and use already-proven components and techniques where they can to make approval more likely.

Could also just be a battery lifetime issue? 8 years is a long time. If they made it rechargeable, they might still need to replace it every 8 years anyway just for safety.

Heat would be an issue but if you do it a little bit at a time might be ok.

I've read that removing gluten from diets is apparently a way to reduce or stop seizures. Did you try this? Any information to share?