With my 55 CU FT bottle of O2 with a regulator that can go well past 15 LPM and a non-rebreather mask (not the recommended one from this site yet), I tried the O2 therapy for the first time this morning with no success. My first thought is my technique is wrong, or perhaps my expectations are wrong. Here is what I was expecting:

• To take full breaths, rapidly and deeply, and exhale all of that air quickly; speed should be similar to hyperventilation
  
• Flow rate should be high enough to breathe comfortably
  
• Bag on the mask should inflate to facilitate full breath
  

My results were thus:

• I could take maybe half a breath at 20 L/m before I was sucking the O2 "through a straw"
  
• I never felt like I was suffocating, but my lungs never felt fully inflated either
  
• I observed that the bag never had time to fully inflate between breaths
  

Some baseline information that might be helpful: I'm 35, 6'1", with excellent lung capacity and physical fitness.

Am I doing it right? I'm trying to follow the documentation on the oxygen info section of the site, but maybe I'm misinterpreting the instructions. Am I just too low on the flow? Or should I adopt a different breathing cadence that allows that bag to fill?

hi tundra....the basic idea is to find the breathing method that works best for you to abort a hit. slow deep breathing at lower lpm than for most worked best for me, breathe and hold at times also, or some combination of. couldn't hyperventilate but that is reported as most successful method for many. the actual lpm is really meaningless....once you get a script or use welding O2 you breath at whatever lpm/psi works FOR YOU.  crank to whatever keeps the bag full and allows for your preferred technique without any restriction (no straw!)...could be 25 or even higher. we're all different.....

Tundra,

My best method is 15 LPM.
Allow the bag to fully inflate (this refers to the bag available here).
Inhale your full lung capacity.
Hold your breath until the bag reflate fully.
Release breath and repeat.

If Cluster Headaches are caused by a dilated artery pressing on the Vagus Nerve (and I believe it is), then absorption of as much oxygen, as quickly as possible, will help that artery to constrict, taking the pressure off the nerve, thus relieving the pain.

So the “holding” method allows the lungs absorb as much oxygen into the bloodstream as possible.

Anyway, that method works for me, and as Jon says, everyone finds their own method.

Let us know how you get on.

Peter.

Hi tundra, I found hyperventilating @ 15lpm would knock it out in about 10mins.

Cheers Hoppy