Poll: GERD and Sleep Apnea

[asleep@thewheel]

In the beginning stages of figuring this whole stomach correlation out.

I am off of coffee, a lot easier than I thought since I already am off of all of the wheat, soy, sugar, and dairy for the most part. I do indulge once in a while. It does suck not to get a jolt in the morning. Just did an adrenal test and am waiting on the results. I have a few more tests to do for the GI who I see later this week. I also read about half of the "sleep interrupted " book on my recent trip to steamy Florida where I hate to admit this but I thoroughly enjoyed my outdoor steam shower. I could breathe. I tested negative for all Floridian allergens. I guess there is a positive of being born in the tropics. I am very tempted to go pay Dr. Park a visit in NYC. Has anyone seen him?

It looks like I got the leaks under control still not so sure about the centrals. I am now at 10.2 on the low and 14.2 on the high. Getting there little by little. AHI of 2.7 basically no obstructives or hypnos.

"Don't Drink, Don't Smoke, what Can you DO?"

[TmjTerri]

I have severe complex sleep apnea and gerd and asthma! Everytime I have reflux when I am sleeping it causes an asthma attack. I must be inhaling acid into my lungs when I sleep. All I know is that my asthma attacks with gerd are bad, bad, bad and take along time to get it under control.

[larry63]

Actually, strangely enough, is that before CPAP therapy, I would perhaps once a week have reflux
bad enough that it would wake me out of sleep, and a few times I inhaled the reflux, causing
an infection that resulted in a deep lung infection that needed to be treated with antibiotics.

What is odd is that after CPAP, I have no such reflux problems at all. No, I am NOT saying that there is a causal relationship
here., because I stop and start meds all the time and change my eating habits all the time. But I thought I would through this
_one_ data point out there.

All I can say is that it would be interesting to hear from others who found that the start of CPAP therapy correlated with a decrease in
awakenings due to choking on reflux. My primary physician (in the US, so that that means the non-specialest doctor) said that xPAP would
_not_ be a cause of this, but I'm not so sure. I'm definitely still tired and extremely unfocussed, but at least I don't wake up in the middle of the night
anymore choking on reflux. So I have that going for me (no apologies for the Caddyshack reference).

L

[jonquiljo]

Does anybody have a recommendation for a GI Dr. in the bay Area, hopefully at Stanford since the docs at UCSF have unknowingly tried to kill me a few times already.

Dr. George Triadafilopolus at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. He was at Stanford for many years - but I don't think Stanford is the greatest place at all to go to anymore these days. "Dr. T" (as he is called, performed the "Barrx" radio-frequency ablation on my Baretts esophagus with dysplasia - yeah, I came close! I've been "clean" Baretts and dysplasia free for 4 1/2 years. If you get that bad and esophagus from GERD, a Nissen procedure will just hide the bad tissue. While some people have had luck with a Nissen surgery, many have not and they end up really messed up.

Anyway, Dr. T is the best and is highly thought of in the Bay Area. I drive all the way from Marin to see him - it's worth it. If you are still reading this forum - good luck.

[BlackSpinner]

Actually, strangely enough, is that before CPAP therapy, I would perhaps once a week have reflux
bad enough that it would wake me out of sleep,

This is common on this board.
It made a huge difference for me for my morning asthma. Now I get up and instead of coughing until I throw up I breathe like normal people, I work out in the mornings again, my throat doesn't feel sore constantly and all my asthma triggers are down.

[larry63]

Actually, strangely enough, is that before CPAP therapy, I would perhaps once a week have reflux
bad enough that it would wake me out of sleep,

This is common on this board.
It made a huge difference for me for my morning asthma. Now I get up and instead of coughing until I throw up I breathe like normal people, I work out in the mornings again, my throat doesn't feel sore constantly and all my asthma triggers are down.

So weird. Is it just coincidence you think? My dr. says that xPAP can't possibly reduce reflux, and when I searched on the nets, I couldn't find and studies to that affect.

Normally, when something coincides with something else, I chalk it up to coincidence, but in this case, my reflux _really_ calmed down when starting xPAP.
Not that I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth, but the question is why? Someone wrote about xPAP relaxing the valve in the esouphagus, but I think that with reflux, the problem is actually the opposite - that the valve doesn't close when it should, hence all the nasty acid stuff shooting back up when you sleep.

Anyway, overthinking things today... Got to try to wake up and get outside....

Larry

[jonquiljo]

I don't think it's directly related at all - i.e. - GERD and OSA. I think they are two separate conditions (I hate it when they call them "disorders" - it makes me feel defective).

I have had and still do have GERD during the day - albeit it is much more controlled with the advent of PPI meds (Nexium, Prevacid, etc.) since the beginning of the millennium. I used to have GERD that would wake me up at night when I would reflux so badly it burned my throat. Stopping all food at least 6 hours before sleep helped that a lot but did not eliminate it. In the 3 weeks I have been using CPAP - I have not had a single episode! And this is the kind of thing you remember - and can tell for a day or so that it has happened as your throat is burned!

I think that if you have GERD along with OSA, you tend to reflux more often in your sleep. When you struggle for air, you involuntarily reflux up stomach acid. My case was an obvious one - most are likely more subtle and go unnoticed. To try to correlate GERD and OSA is difficult because statistics can take us often to the wrong places. For instance people with OSA tend to be heavier, etc. (not all) and therefore it may be eating patterns, etc. It could be a million things, but what I am saying is that it is most likely a casual relationship - not direct.

So weird. Is it just coincidence you think? My dr. says that xPAP can't possibly reduce reflux, and when I searched on the nets, I couldn't find and studies to that affect.

Your Dr is wrong, at least in part! Your Dr is trying to make statistics tell him the whole story. I bet there are a lot of us that have struggled and gasped for air violently enough so that our whole bodies are involved and affected. A lot more than reflux can be triggered if you struggle hard enough! GERD generally involves the relaxation of the sphincter between the esophagus and the stomach. People with GERD tend not to have a very "tight seal". So it's easy for the stomach acid to just come up. That's why it's good to tilt your bed with your head higher when you have GERD. So when your Dr. says that CPAP cannot reduce reflux he is partially correct in that one condition has no effect on the other. But it is also true that you have a condition with GERD that can be minimized when you sleep by controlling involuntary movements. CPAP will do that, especially when it comes to struggling for air.

[Junebug999]

There is something called "the vacuum effect" I learned about it on Dr. Park's website...it's where you gasp so hard you bring up stomach contents....I gave myself pneumonia once....in 2009 and it happened again this july but did not have pneumonia this time, but bronchitis....both times i had laid down after a heavy meal.....now I sit up 3-4 hours after eating ANYthing....i'm waiting for my diagnosis on the apnea this thursday.....had my sleep study on 9/6....everything is wait wait wait

[BlackSpinner]

So weird. Is it just coincidence you think? My dr. says that xPAP can't possibly reduce reflux, and when I searched on the nets, I couldn't find and studies to that affect.

Normally, when something coincides with something else, I chalk it up to coincidence, but in this case, my reflux _really_ calmed down when starting xPAP.

Well when I have stressful events in my life it acts up too - like when my building caught fire or I lost my job or the kids make stupid life decisions . So I would think struggling to breathe at night just might be stressful enough to cause incidents.

[jskinner]

My dr. says that xPAP can't possibly reduce reflux

He is wrong. CPAP sometimes reduces reflux. Once you reduce the apnea you reduce the sucking of acid up into your throat.

[chenpangpang]

happy
Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft Office 2007

[chenpangpang]

Hope that helps someone else. I would be curious to hear if anyone else tries it and what they think.
Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft Office 2007

[chenpangpang]

It is most certainly NOT cucoo.
Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft Office 2007

[needzzzzs]

I've known I had GERD for almost 20 years.

I also have a hiatal hernia, which contributes to the GERD, and I've known about that since I was in my early 20s.

Debbie

GERD and Sleep Apnea often seem to be comorbidities of each other. I know lots has been posted about GERD in the past but since I didn't know I had it I never paid any attention to it.

I've been thinking about GERD and wondering what the relationship is to SDB. I have wondered about a number of possibilities:

1. The sleep apnea causes the GERD. Could the repeated apneas somehow cause the sphincter to stop working correctly?

2. The CPAP treatment causes the GERD. Since CPAP splints open the airway it would seem possible that it could also splint open the esophagus allowing stomach acid to come up and injure the throat? I personally wonder if this is what happened to me. I had no problem with GERD until I started using the Oracle mask. Maybe the drying effect of the Oracle mask on the throat could also be a factor?

3. Maybe GERD and Apnea have an underlying root cause? They both seem to be failures of muscle systems in the airway.

[aznh]

just an fyi- gastric reflux is more common at night for everyone ( sleep apnea or not). I can't remember all the reasons, I know one had to do with the horizontal position makes it easier for acid to come up into the esophagus, but I also believe we have more stomach acid at night- can't remember why . (I should know this stuff- I'm an RN- but getting old!) That is one reason that antacid meds are often given in the evening. My first reaction to your theory was- that it was ridiculous- air isn't going to be going down your esophagus. However, on thinking about it a little longer it is very possible, just like when giving CPR- air often goes into the stomach. I'm not sure how that would increase reflux, it would certainly make a person vomit if enough air went into their stomach. Interesting theory. By the way, there was one more possibility that you might want to have listed, not officially diagnosed with GERD, but sure you have it.