Blood pressure and neck pain

[sleeplesshead]

Greetings, newly diagnosed and apap user here for 2.5 months now. I'm in my 30s. I am wondering if anybody has a similar story or situation to mine and how you may have solved it.

Before I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, I actually forced myself to go to the doctor for some rather annoying neck pain that became debilitating headaches that continually got worse over months so much so that Tylenol wasn't working anymore. I also had high blood pressure apparently. Many doctors and MRIs later, they still didn't know what was happening or causing the pain (at most it was perhaps some really mild arthritis). Pain meds didnt work, even the strongest stuff. I eventually found a doctor who tried muscle relaxants + a tricyclic antidepressant + blood pressure lowering medicine. This concoction seemed to have given me a little bit of relief. After that, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and started the APAP therapy.

My doctor thinks the high blood pressure was because of the undiagnosed sleep apnea. I'm wondering if the eventual neck pain was also caused by the sleep apnea - is that even a thing?

So I'm wondering if anyone else here had neck pains/debilitating headaches before their APAP therapy and how long it took before it subsided?

[kteague]

When we have apneas, the body can go through all kinds of things in attempt to begin breathing again. Maybe repeated muscular tension contributed to your neck pain - sounds reasonable at least. Morning headaches are reported on here a lot with untreated sleep apnea. Getting my sleep in order allowed my blood pressure meds to be reduced. Hopefully that will be the case with you too.

[DreamStalker]

I would agree with Kathy that there may be a close relationship between sleep apnea and hypertensive blood pressure.

However, the link between sleep apnea and neck pain is somewhat less likely. There is indeed a frequent relationship between cervical (neck) vertebrae misalignments and headaches.

You may want to consider finding a local chiropractic doctor with good ratings/qualifications ... and if possible, one specifically trained in the Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic Technique.

Best of luck!

[chunkyfrog]

For neck pain, science-minded people get physical therapy--a little more work than chiro,
but you know you are less likely to get a major SNAFU, and the effects last longer.

[Julie]

I wouldn't go near a chiro to save my life... they're known if anything to have caused people to have strokes (and/or die) because they don't know how to deal with carotid arteries and/or neuro. problems in your neck. Very bad idea! A massage therapist could probably do as good a job on your lumbar area without all the rigamarole nonsense chiros do, cheaper, and in half the time. Cpap usually does lower BP btw.

[DreamStalker]

Here we go again -- I've been seeing chiropractors for almost 40 years ... as a professional scientist I think I'm science-minded, have never had a SNAFU, or a stroke, or died, or any rigamarole nonsense (whatever the crap that means?)

Whatever! My apologies to the OP for bringing out all the conspiracies. Shessh!

[D.H.]

If the pains gets less or go away completely with successful treatment, then I would say yes. There are all sorts of symptoms that don't have an obvious link.

[Pugsy]

If the headaches and neck pain were related to sleep apnea then the symptoms should subside fairly quickly.
Those symptoms may or may not have been related to sleep apnea. The headaches would stand a greater chance of being related to sleep apnea (low oxygen headaches) than the neck pain though.

Not everything wrong with us can be blamed on sleep apnea and if the cause isn't sleep apnea then the machine can't possibly fix it.

If the headaches and neck pain persist despite the software reports showing that the therapy is good at least on paper then you should be getting with your doctor and discussing the neck issues and headaches as maybe being related to something else.

I have a really, really bad arthritic cervical spine and the headaches I got from neck issues were massive and horrible.
It wasn't until the cervical spine issues were surgically fixed that the headaches and neck pain subsided to a manageable level.
It had nothing to do with sleep apnea at all.
Neck issues can cause some massive headaches.

Now I also had low oxygen headaches which were killer headaches. Woke up with them and they lasted about 2 hours or so..those went away with effective cpap therapy. My oxygen levels were going down to the low 70s prior to cpap therapy.
Those headaches went away within the first month of therapy.

Now the neck headaches...they wouldn't go away within a couple of hours of waking..they would tend to last all day...I still get them on a rare occasion but when I do I usually also note some neck pain most often from sleeping on the bed pillow in a weird position. Put a "crimp" in the neck so to speak.

The blood pressure issue...may or may not be helped by cpap therapy. I know some people who got rid of their blood pressure medications after some time with successful cpap therapy. I also know some people who the best therapy in the world made no change in their need for blood pressure medications....I am one of those who still gets to take her BP meds.

You are going to find that pretty much everything about sleep apnea and cpap therapy comes with a really big YMMV sticker.
There are just too many potential variables to make big blanket statements regarding anything.

[sleeplesshead]

Thanks for the responses everybody.

I've tried chiro for 3 months and PT for three months. Neither helped. So, science or pseudo-science has failed me!

[DreamStalker]

right

you didnt have a problem so nobody else will have a problem

WRONG!

What are you talking about? That is not what I said at all. Try reading with a little more comprehension.

Here we go again -- I've been seeing chiropractors for almost 40 years ... as a professional scientist I think I'm science-minded, have never had a SNAFU, or a stroke, or died, or any rigamarole nonsense (whatever the crap that means?)

Whatever! My apologies to the OP for bringing out all the conspiracies. Shessh!

[D.H.]

Conditions have common symptoms and drugs have common side effects. However, as one doctor told me, any symptom can be a symptom of any condition, or a side-effect of any drug. He even added that a symptom that is the opposite of one of the listed ones can sometimes be possible.

With that said, it's entirely possible that you were moving your neck in a way to attempt to breathe that was injurious. The body places a greater urgency in breathing than in moving your neck in a proper manner.

Also, check the pillows. You may have been using too many pillows in your attempt to "self-treat" your Sleep Apnea. In addition, you may want to tuck a pillow under your neck to prevent "tucking" your head.

[49er]

""If the headaches and neck pain persist despite the software reports showing that the therapy is good at least on paper then you should be getting with your doctor and discussing the neck issues and headaches as maybe being related to something else.""

Excellent advice by Pugsy.

49er