Lost 50 lbs and now CPAP killing me

[palerider]

Again, I am not looking for any diagnosis, I have already gone through every test, including a cardiac stress test, echocardiogram, everything is fine. I stopped using my CPAP for about a week and my symptoms almost fully disappeared and they get less and less the more I sleep without it. Anyway, thanks.

Not sure what you are hoping for. You mention problems - getting dizzy/lightheaded spells, headaches, loss of balance. Kind of hard to solve the problems if you don't know the cause of the problem. CPAP is not the cause. At least not directly.

So, we can help you troubleshoot the problem. But without knowing WHY this is happening, we can't help you stop it.

from my point of view, the original poster is looking to see if anyone has had a similar situation to theirs. s/he's emphatically said s/he's not looking for a diagnosis.

so unless someone comes in here with the exact same problem, s/he's not going to get much.

besides, they are waiting on a sleep study.

<shrug>

Some people just like to complain, but not actually do anything to make their lives better.

[zonker]

Some people just like to complain, but not actually do anything to make their lives better.
[/quote]

and some folks don't fully realize that they can take their therapy into their own hands and improve it.

i just got through reading ahi88's thread. s/he took advice on changing their own pressure and posted today that they slept much better last night.

it can and does happen!

[chunkyfrog]

50 pounds lost--WONDERFUL.
Cpap might be instrumental in keeping it off.
Keep trying.

[mph143]

Again, I am not looking for any diagnosis, I have already gone through every test, including a cardiac stress test, echocardiogram, everything is fine. I stopped using my CPAP for about a week and my symptoms almost fully disappeared and they get less and less the more I sleep without it. Anyway, thanks.

Not sure what you are hoping for. You mention problems - getting dizzy/lightheaded spells, headaches, loss of balance. Kind of hard to solve the problems if you don't know the cause of the problem. CPAP is not the cause. At least not directly.

So, we can help you troubleshoot the problem. But without knowing WHY this is happening, we can't help you stop it.

If you read the post, I was wondering if anybody had similar experiences with CPAP causing these symptoms. I don’t need a diagnosis or troubleshooting although you you seem to know it’s not caused by CPAP.

[zoocrewphoto]

Again, I am not looking for any diagnosis, I have already gone through every test, including a cardiac stress test, echocardiogram, everything is fine. I stopped using my CPAP for about a week and my symptoms almost fully disappeared and they get less and less the more I sleep without it. Anyway, thanks.

Not sure what you are hoping for. You mention problems - getting dizzy/lightheaded spells, headaches, loss of balance. Kind of hard to solve the problems if you don't know the cause of the problem. CPAP is not the cause. At least not directly.

So, we can help you troubleshoot the problem. But without knowing WHY this is happening, we can't help you stop it.

If you read the post, I was wondering if anybody had similar experiences with CPAP causing these symptoms. I don’t need a diagnosis or troubleshooting although you you seem to know it’s not caused by CPAP.

Well, let's see. I've been participating in this forum since April of 2012. Have I seen a single post that somebody lost weight and suddenly had this problem with cpap? Nope.
Even without the lost weight, not many people having the issues you mentioned. If it were likely, somebody would have responded by now, especially those who have been here evenlonger than me. So, it isn't very likely to be *caused* by cpap.

Now, would you like to a chorus of people who say they have never heard of such a problem? Would you prefer crickets since nobody here has had a similar experience?

Or would you like some help in solving the problem?

By the way, most have has learned that doctors do not know everything, especially sleep doctors. Your doctors haven't solved this for you. Maybe somebody here does have some useful experience for you. It just might not be exactly the way you were expecting it.

[Midwest_non_sleeper]

Again, I am not looking for any diagnosis, I have already gone through every test, including a cardiac stress test, echocardiogram, everything is fine. I stopped using my CPAP for about a week and my symptoms almost fully disappeared and they get less and less the more I sleep without it. Anyway, thanks.

Not sure what you are hoping for. You mention problems - getting dizzy/lightheaded spells, headaches, loss of balance. Kind of hard to solve the problems if you don't know the cause of the problem. CPAP is not the cause. At least not directly.

So, we can help you troubleshoot the problem. But without knowing WHY this is happening, we can't help you stop it.

If you read the post, I was wondering if anybody had similar experiences with CPAP causing these symptoms. I don’t need a diagnosis or troubleshooting although you you seem to know it’s not caused by CPAP.

I'd like to know HOW you lost the weight. 50lbs in 6 months is pretty darn good.

[mph143]

Again, I am not looking for any diagnosis, I have already gone through every test, including a cardiac stress test, echocardiogram, everything is fine. I stopped using my CPAP for about a week and my symptoms almost fully disappeared and they get less and less the more I sleep without it. Anyway, thanks.

Not sure what you are hoping for. You mention problems - getting dizzy/lightheaded spells, headaches, loss of balance. Kind of hard to solve the problems if you don't know the cause of the problem. CPAP is not the cause. At least not directly.

So, we can help you troubleshoot the problem. But without knowing WHY this is happening, we can't help you stop it.

If you read the post, I was wondering if anybody had similar experiences with CPAP causing these symptoms. I don’t need a diagnosis or troubleshooting although you you seem to know it’s not caused by CPAP.

I'd like to know HOW you lost the weight. 50lbs in 6 months is pretty darn good.

I went in this crazy diet, I ate less calories than I required. Lol. Yea, it’s that easy.

[mph143]

Again, I am not looking for any diagnosis, I have already gone through every test, including a cardiac stress test, echocardiogram, everything is fine. I stopped using my CPAP for about a week and my symptoms almost fully disappeared and they get less and less the more I sleep without it. Anyway, thanks.

Not sure what you are hoping for. You mention problems - getting dizzy/lightheaded spells, headaches, loss of balance. Kind of hard to solve the problems if you don't know the cause of the problem. CPAP is not the cause. At least not directly.

So, we can help you troubleshoot the problem. But without knowing WHY this is happening, we can't help you stop it.

If you read the post, I was wondering if anybody had similar experiences with CPAP causing these symptoms. I don’t need a diagnosis or troubleshooting although you you seem to know it’s not caused by CPAP.

Well, let's see. I've been participating in this forum since April of 2012. Have I seen a single post that somebody lost weight and suddenly had this problem with cpap? Nope.
Even without the lost weight, not many people having the issues you mentioned. If it were likely, somebody would have responded by now, especially those who have been here evenlonger than me. So, it isn't very likely to be *caused* by cpap.

Now, would you like to a chorus of people who say they have never heard of such a problem? Would you prefer crickets since nobody here has had a similar experience?

Or would you like some help in solving the problem?

By the way, most have has learned that doctors do not know everything, especially sleep doctors. Your doctors haven't solved this for you. Maybe somebody here does have some useful experience for you. It just might not be exactly the way you were expecting it.

Yea, your right. If nobody on this message board has had similar issues with weight loss and CPAP issues, it’s definitely not the CPAP. Lol.

[palerider]

Yea, your right. If nobody on this message board has had similar issues with weight loss and CPAP issues, it’s definitely not the CPAP. Lol.

There are 89104 other cpap users on this board.

vs you and your weird allegedly cpap caused symptoms.

Statistically... You might want to look for other causes.

[mph143]

Yea, your right. If nobody on this message board has had similar issues with weight loss and CPAP issues, it’s definitely not the CPAP. Lol.

There are 89104 other cpap users on this board.

vs you and your weird allegedly cpap caused symptoms.

Statistically... You might want to look for other causes.

Wow, 89k? You are right! That almost all of the estimated 2 million CPAP users in the US only.

[palerider]

Yea, your right. If nobody on this message board has had similar issues with weight loss and CPAP issues, it’s definitely not the CPAP. Lol.

There are 89104 other cpap users on this board.

vs you and your weird allegedly cpap caused symptoms.

Statistically... You might want to look for other causes.

Wow, 89k? You are right! That almost all of the estimated 2 million CPAP users in the US only.

Best of luck to you,

Have a nice day.

[dogsarelife]

If you read the post, I was wondering if anybody had similar experiences with CPAP causing these symptoms. I don’t need a diagnosis or troubleshooting although you you seem to know it’s not caused by CPAP.

Oh I am late coming back to this thread and I would like to offer some anecdotes. Nothing scientific unfortunately. You may not even see this!

I have an acquaintance who uses xpap and recently lost 60 lbs in the last 6 months or so and developed severe aerophagia. They had been loving their xpap for the previous 3 years and were confused about why they had suddenly developed this problem and also why it had come on with weight loss.

So I did a search on cpaptalk.com for weight loss and aerophagia just to see if there were others having this issue, and lo and behold there are 94 results on these forums, though some of those results reference the same post.

Anyway as I read through those results I saw that there are at least 5 other people who lost weight and then started to have some issues with aerophagia /pressure settings. Some needed more pressure with weight loss, some needed less, it didn't seem to be a clear pattern to me.

But of course, not all people who lose weight develop issues with aerophagia, which means it's not xpap, but I propose, some change that can come about from the weight loss, which will be different and specific to each person.

For example, a while back, my n=1, I unfortunately lost a lot of weight due to illness, about 25% of my body weight in a rather short time frame, and ever since then, when I'm hungry I can feel one of my esophageal sphincters relaxing, and thus making me more prone to heartburn when I'm hungry. My parent experienced the same after they lost quite a bit of weight due to cancer treatment, so my guess is that my parent and I are both prone to developing heartburn/esophageal sphincter issues, from a fairly decent amount of weight loss.

Now that I've started xpap, if I'm asleep and for some reason didn't eat enough for the day, then I find myself more prone to aerophagia.

I don't blame xpap but rather my genetics and some weird combination of hormones/physiology?

I believe palerider wrote that it's actually a fairly small minority of people who experience aerophagia at all, and I just chalk mine up to faulty esophageal sphincters.

I have read that baclofen may help some people with aerophagia, but it's not clear.

and I think it was Zonker or maybe Chicago Granny who mentioned things like Ginger. Oh and possibly low dose melatonin to help with lower esophageal sphincter relaxation? and perhaps you can find some other things on aerophagia if you search around. And last but not least, from my personal experience, the aerophagia may sometimes be a sign you need to eat more, but I will leave that up to your experimentation and customization.

losing 50 lbs in 6 months is a rate of about 2 lbs per week and losing weight at that rate unintentionally really screwed my body up. but I also understand each person is their own unique set of circumstances and will want to find a solution that works for them, and that this may be different than what worked or didn't work for me.

[mph143]

If you read the post, I was wondering if anybody had similar experiences with CPAP causing these symptoms. I don’t need a diagnosis or troubleshooting although you you seem to know it’s not caused by CPAP.

Oh I am late coming back to this thread and I would like to offer some anecdotes. Nothing scientific unfortunately. You may not even see this!

I have an acquaintance who uses xpap and recently lost 60 lbs in the last 6 months or so and developed severe aerophagia. They had been loving their xpap for the previous 3 years and were confused about why they had suddenly developed this problem and also why it had come on with weight loss.

So I did a search on cpaptalk.com for weight loss and aerophagia just to see if there were others having this issue, and lo and behold there are 94 results on these forums, though some of those results reference the same post.

Anyway as I read through those results I saw that there are at least 5 other people who lost weight and then started to have some issues with aerophagia /pressure settings. Some needed more pressure with weight loss, some needed less, it didn't seem to be a clear pattern to me.

But of course, not all people who lose weight develop issues with aerophagia, which means it's not xpap, but I propose, some change that can come about from the weight loss, which will be different and specific to each person.

For example, a while back, my n=1, I unfortunately lost a lot of weight due to illness, about 25% of my body weight in a rather short time frame, and ever since then, when I'm hungry I can feel one of my esophageal sphincters relaxing, and thus making me more prone to heartburn when I'm hungry. My parent experienced the same after they lost quite a bit of weight due to cancer treatment, so my guess is that my parent and I are both prone to developing heartburn/esophageal sphincter issues, from a fairly decent amount of weight loss.

Now that I've started xpap, if I'm asleep and for some reason didn't eat enough for the day, then I find myself more prone to aerophagia.

I don't blame xpap but rather my genetics and some weird combination of hormones/physiology?

I believe palerider wrote that it's actually a fairly small minority of people who experience aerophagia at all, and I just chalk mine up to faulty esophageal sphincters.

I have read that baclofen may help some people with aerophagia, but it's not clear.

and I think it was Zonker or maybe Chicago Granny who mentioned things like Ginger. Oh and possibly low dose melatonin to help with lower esophageal sphincter relaxation? and perhaps you can find some other things on aerophagia if you search around. And last but not least, from my personal experience, the aerophagia may sometimes be a sign you need to eat more, but I will leave that up to your experimentation and customization.

losing 50 lbs in 6 months is a rate of about 2 lbs per week and losing weight at that rate unintentionally really screwed my body up. but I also understand each person is their own unique set of circumstances and will want to find a solution that works for them, and that this may be different than what worked or didn't work for me.

Well, I got my sleep study back and my AHI was at 2, In other words, i no longer have sleep apnea. The CPAP machine WAS causing all of my symptoms as I thought. So to all of you struggling with sleep apnea, I wish you well...except for that one cretin on here that was sure it wasn’t my CPAP and I have weird symptoms, ....xxx profanity removed by moderator...

[ChicagoGranny]

....xxx profanity removed by moderator...

teehee

[zonker]

Well, I got my sleep study back and my AHI was at 2, In other words, i no longer have sleep apnea. The CPAP machine WAS causing all of my symptoms as I thought. So to all of you struggling with sleep apnea, I wish you well...except for that one cretin on here that was sure it wasn’t my CPAP and I have weird symptoms, ....xxx profanity removed by moderator...

shockedkoala.jpg

if your study had come back with an ahi of ZERO, then you wouldn't have sleep apnea.