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CPAP and diarehea or intestinol discormfort

Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 6:11 pm
by swcompassionate
Has anyone noticed when first starting on nasal pillow mask or CPAP that they have diarrhea in the middle of the night. I am not sure if I just woke up really anxious and that caused the problem or if it was something I ate last night. I did not eat late but I did eat some THAI food, no spice though but a lot of ginger. CPAP or food related? What do you think?

Re: CPAP and diarehea or intestinol discormfort

Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 7:05 pm
by rippersmom
swcompassionate wrote:Has anyone noticed when first starting on nasal pillow mask or CPAP that they have diarrhea in the middle of the night. I am not sure if I just woke up really anxious and that caused the problem or if it was something I ate last night. I did not eat late but I did eat some THAI food, no spice though but a lot of ginger. CPAP or food related? What do you think?
Food related If you swallow a lot of air, you'll probably get the "toots" but not the "runs".

Rippersmom

Re: CPAP and diarehea or intestinol discormfort

Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 7:12 pm
by Kiralynx
swcompassionate wrote:Has anyone noticed when first starting on nasal pillow mask or CPAP that they have diarrhea in the middle of the night. I am not sure if I just woke up really anxious and that caused the problem or if it was something I ate last night. I did not eat late but I did eat some THAI food, no spice though but a lot of ginger. CPAP or food related? What do you think?
Do a search on "aerophagia", and that will tell you more than you wanted to know about gas issues and CPAP!

Ginger is actually good for nausea and motion sickness and for a raft of other gut ailments. See

http://www.naturalherbsguide.com/ginger.html

However, many traditional Thai recipes include ingredients that could be a problem, depending on your situation.

Re: CPAP and diarehea or intestinol discormfort

Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 7:45 pm
by tdm5032c
Yes! Since starting CPAP, I have had terrible gas and indegestion. I have had to take GAS-X before bed and in the morning to get rid of mine and feel better. If I don't take it in the morning, I feel like my stomach is full of air all day. Some post on this have said that GAS-X won't help, but it sure does for me. I have also started taking a natural plant enzyme that is supposed to help too. There was a post on here about that too. Hopefully that will help over the long term and I won't have to always take the GAS-X.

Tracy

Re: CPAP and diarehea or intestinol discormfort

Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 10:02 pm
by Julie
But basically, Cpap (or OSA) is not related to diarrhea as urination might be.

Re: CPAP and diarehea or intestinol discormfort

Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 10:06 pm
by swcompassionate
Thanks for the help.

Re: CPAP and diarehea or intestinol discormfort

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 7:26 am
by Doubtful T
Yes. Of 5 nights on machine (first 3 on apap, last 2 on cpap), I've had loose bowels the next morning twice, and last night had severe D. in middle of night. Not food related, I believe, as I eat bland diet. The D. episode came night after rep increased air pressure from 14 to 16 (said he made mistake re Dr's script).

Have you resolved this problem? I'm afraid to hook up tonight! tom

swcompassionate wrote:Has anyone noticed when first starting on nasal pillow mask or CPAP that they have diarrhea in the middle of the night. I am not sure if I just woke up really anxious and that caused the problem or if it was something I ate last night. I did not eat late but I did eat some THAI food, no spice though but a lot of ginger. CPAP or food related? What do you think?

Re: CPAP and diarehea or intestinol discormfort

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:14 am
by Julie
The thing is, once you're on Cpap your 02 levels will be better and all your systems may improve where they might have been stagnant beforehand! I would be careful about things like ginger and other spices though, because while it's good for certain intestinal problems, it can also really contribute to GERD (reflux), which is tends to go along with OSA in an awful lot of us, so try to keep it down to a dull roar, especially anywhere near to bedtime. In fact, a lot of us have stopped drinking coffee, having chocolate and spicy things altogether to try and keep reflux down.

Re: CPAP and diarehea or intestinol discormfort

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:30 am
by snuginarug
OSA affects every system in the body. Our body systems respond in different ways to the increased oxygen flow. I have never heard of diarrhea, but it seems that it logically could be affected by this big change in the functioning of your system. It could be food related, but it also could be CPAP related. I think in either case, the problem should clear up fairly quickly. Either the food related problem clears your digestive tract, or the body adjusts to CPAP and all that extra oxygen. If it does not, it's time to see your doctor. Prolonged diarrhea is serious, and could indicate any number of things, some of which are quite dangerous. Not to scare you, as most diarrhea problems are more annoying than anything else. But better safe than sorry.

Hope you feel better soon!