Acid Reflux And Sleep Apnea

[roster]

Recently a study was completed in Germany that found acid reflux symptoms develop in people that suffer sleep apnea three times more often than in normally healthy people. http://www.theacidrefluxonline.com/unde ... pnea.hmtl/

[Julie]

Haven't read the link, but it sounds about right from what you said, and in fact I thought it might even be more than that.

[roster]

Haven't read the link, but it sounds about right from what you said, and in fact I thought it might even be more than that.

Julie,

In respect to acid reflux, they compared two groups of people, those with sleep apnea and those without sleep apnea.

You and I know that there are a huge number of people in the second group who have undiagnosed sleep apnea.

Move all of those over to the first group and like you say, the ratio will be much higher!

I am trusting fewer and fewer medical studies these days because they don't control for diagnosed or undiagnosed sleep apnea.

Regards,

[elader]

I had HUGE acid reflux at night - tums every few hours. Completely gone on cpap from the first week. God, I love my cpap machine.

[roster]

........ I love my cpap machine.

Charles does not approve of this kind of talk.

[Pugsy]

........ I love my cpap machine.

Charles does not approve of this kind of talk.

Oh Rooster, you are so bad. I must be bad too.

[elg5cats]

acid reflux symptoms

Yesterday on ABC's The Doctor's Talk Show ...........topic was discoloration on the tongue.............a yellow discoloration of the tongue can be a symptom of acid reflux when there are no other obvious symptoms.....a dentistry professional provided the Health of the Tongue segment......... a red tongue may mean you have B vitamins deficiency (or just had a red lollipop), and black.......well can be a case of the black hairy tongue!!! So, if your tongue is yellow, might want to explore reflux even if that's your only symptom!!!!.......might be something of interest might be the ramblings of TV MD's.

elg5cats.........

[elader]

I need a funnier avatar. You people are just too creative.

[BadBreath]

I am going on two years of BiPap and doing well, so I mostly lurk here for interesting info. Charles set me off a little because I thought his reaction was over the top and was probably baiting us. The only thing I didn't add was the usual "this thread is helpful anyway...” because it is always said. Turns out it was true for me.

When the Charles rant thread (viewtopic/t41918/Day-6-Part-II--CPAP-An ... rding.html) turned to GERD as the possible cause for esophageal irritation, it made me realize that I had recently been starting to cough shortly after going to bed. Before Cpap I had raging GERD, and if anyone has damaged their lungs from inhaling stomach acid it was me. Since Cpap my GERD is tamed, but I thought that silent GERD could now be the cause of the cough, so I tried taking a Zantac at the first sign of irritation and it immediately resolved the issue. Score one!

The other issue that we had been facing was that my wife had started chemotherapy when she had a cold, but the doctor said it wasn't an impediment. But it seemed like she could not shake her cough and it had been getting progressively worse, so that after three months of treatment she was coughing almost continuously. Now, Zantac is prescribed for the day before and after chemo because the soft tissues (like the esophagus) can become irritated and even minimal GERD can cause a problem. And she had been mentioning heartburn, which she never gets. So I suggested that along with having her lungs listened to, she take the Zantac on a regular basis. After two days (and confirmation of clear lungs) her cough disappeared. And having one less constant irritation to deal with has made a big difference. Score two!

So even if trolls appear trying to undermine the good advice given, or repudiate the concept of self regulating your treatment, or are just trying to use the site to shift blame for their failure, the ensuing thread can provide needed guidance, and prove that the thoughtful, responsible patient can become an intelligent and proactive caregiver.

[roster]

I need a funnier avatar. You people are just too creative.

Proof that there is much to be appreciated about a plain avatar.

[jskinner]

In Dr Parks book he theorizes that untreated apnea can cause GERD. All those attempts to breath suck acid up into the throat.

I personally believe that in some cases it can also work the other way, in that CPAP can split the airway open allowing acid to get into the throat.

[roster]

In Dr Parks book he theorizes that untreated apnea can cause GERD. All those attempts to breath suck acid up into the throat.

I personally believe that in some cases it can also work the other way, in that CPAP can split the airway open allowing acid to get into the throat.

Both may be correct. I had reflux before CPAP and believe the struggle to breathe while undiagnosed caused the reflux. Healed after CPAP pluse 3 months of Prevacid plus bed head elevated four inches.

[kebsa]

I had severe Reflux before cpap, i used wake up choking on stomach contents even when i was sleeping sitting upright- i have swallowing problems caused by nerve damage by MS to the esophagus so it does not help push food down as it should so i have had to sleep upright and avoid eating or drinking for a few hours before going to bed

i still have to sleep in an upright position but i have not woken up almost choking since i have been using the VPAP, it have sort of figured that the airflow (which is at fairly high pressure) actually helps preventing the reflux- for some it leads to uncomfortable aerophagia and for me it just about cures my reflux! I too love my little motorised bedside buddy

[jimbutsu]

That article makes a casual mention of weight as a factor, but not nearly enough. The population of people who are overweight that present with apnea is WAY higher than the population of people at a healthy weight- same story with GERD. It's like saying OSA causes back pain because a lot of (overweight) people experience both of those complications.

That being said, I do think that CPAP might help reflux (I'll let you know ), but I think they're much more a shared complication of a condition than they are causative of one another.

[BlackSpinner]

But there are a lot of us who are not very over weight. I have put on more weight since my OSA started then ever. Plus my GERD started long before I put that weight on. At 5'3'' I was under 120 for most of my life. I have been around 145 -155 for the last 2 years only since I started crashing in the evening on the couch. I am working hard right now with diet and being more active to get back to 125. The Gerd became noticeable but untreated before 2000 when I had a bout of flu that had probably turned into a mild case of pneumonia that had me coughing for 3 months before I got antibiotics that cleared it up. I started waking up choking on acid at this time and I was maybe 118 lbs if not less. It didn't get treated until the fire in 2004 when my stomach reacted to the stress by doubling me over. It also got me to eat more since it hurt less to have food in my stomach especially carbs like lots of bread.