High blood pressure and OSA

[chennOR]

I have been on blood pressure meds since 2001. Got my cpap 3/2007 and was worried about my meds bringing my bp down too low so I initiated a visit to my GP and asked her to look at my bp and she cut my meds by half. Went back in 5/07 and she cut them by half again. Went back in July and they were cut in half once again. Going back late August and hoping for another reduction in meds. I want to get off more pills but this is a great start. I am so pleased with what my use of cpap has done for my health, mental and physical. It has been an unsteady road to increased health, but an increase none the less. I am now dealing with very tight heel tendons but some Physical therapy has improved that too. Wondering what is next - but smiling and laughing lots more now.

Carol

[kantite]

I've had high blood pressure for 15 years and my left arm is always higher than the right. Most doctors, or nurses, will take your blood pressure from the left arm.

[GreenIce]

I measure blood pressure on my left arm, may try right arm to see any difference.

[ozij]

...And my 87 year old dad the doctor says BP should always be measured in both arms....

Yes, BP medication is not a cure - it is an attempt to use chemical intervension in order get you BP down, since high BP is harmful.

Like OSA, high BP sometimes runs in families.

O.

[wabmorgan]

MIne has never been high... but it has been borderline:( a couple of times.

[Hurricane]

Hypertension is a real and potentially deadly ailment. YES, it can surely result from OSA, or another, or a combination of the numerous other sleep disorders. It could be from other causes and be greatly exacerbated by OSA.

Even marginally successful XPAP sleep therapy can begin to get your body back into better working order. That can result in the necessity to lower your dosages of medications for many kinds of ailments.

Your results of XPAP therapy may differ greatly from the results of others. We are all different in so many ways -- physically, and in our lives and lifestyles. Don't expect miracles from the therapy, but do expect to notice some major improvements if you stick with the therapy and are achieving true therapy nights of compliance.

Your current weight, types and amounts of foods and beverages, amounts of alcohol beverages you ingest, whether you smoke or not, exposures to chemicals, stresses, work hours and many other factors could have substantial part in your hypertension.

As for me: Between some slight diet changes and, thus far, marginally successful XPAP therapy I have had my Type-2 Diabetes under control by food only for about a year. My hypertension is also far better controlled, by less than half the medication dosages I previously had to take. And I have not even begun a specifically targeted exercise regimen to assist. My edema is less than 15% of what I used to experience. And I have trimmed down to almost being my lifelong weight, excellent for my build, of 200 to 215-lbs. On XPAP therapy my carb cravings greatly diminished. I no longer have the persistent snack attacks.

Run a search on my name and you'll also find that I take AVC, apple cider vinegar, two times daily, along with other OTC supplements. Those help also.

But, your XPAP therapy is the most important thing to maintain religiously. It is your foundation upon which to begin some healing. Whether you are barely successful or more successful in XPAP therapy, do not fail to take the therapy seriously. No one can predict the amount of healing you will experience, or the length of time it could take to achieve any healing. But, XPAP therapy should provide you some noticeable benefits if you are even marginally successful.

It's simple: Foods, liquids and medications can not be very effective if we do not breathe well and remain properly oxygen saturated during sleep. Sleep is our heal time, regenerative time, repair time. It's the time during which we recharge. If sleep is poor, barely there, or is oxygen starved then we can not be at our best. In fact, we will deteriorate.

You put it all so well, nothing to add but you did a great job of wording the issue.And the forum does benefit from posts like yours.
Ed

[geoDoug]

Your current weight, types and amounts of foods and beverages, amounts of alcohol beverages you ingest, whether you smoke or not, exposures to chemicals, stresses, work hours and many other factors could have substantial part in your hypertension.

You left out other medical conditions such as hypothyriodism. You can do everything "right," such as eating right, xpap, exercise, etc. Sometimes, though, medication as a supplement to all of that is required.

Doug.

[arthuranxious]

Still fat and not particularly energetic or patient BUT blood pressure which was borderline high is now down to 110/70 or slightly less! Good for me, I was always very regular at the gym and used to get fairly good bp readings after working out, now the gym exercize physiologists tell me: "Why do you even want us to check it you always have perfect pressure?"

[dieselgal]

My high blood pressure has not changed by using CPAP and I have been a hosehead now for six months.

However I have HBP because I am very overweight.
If you only had HBP due to Sleep Apnea it would probably affect it.

[tillymarigold]

I read about HBP medication such as diuretics and beta blockers, some have side effect . It seems once taken this HBP medication, it will almost be forever. Also it is not a cure but a control, keeping the blood pressure down. Is it true, HBP medication need to be taken every day ?

Also, what are the common medication (drugs) for HBP ? What about the side effects ?

I am not trying to self medication, but to further understand what I am about to face.

My husband just started one and basically the most common side effects have to do with your BP dropping suddenly and your body needing to deal with that: dizziness, lightheadedness, exhaustion, blacking out when standing up quickly, etc. For most people those go away pretty soon when the body adapts to the new, lower pressure; but also, if you're taking a diuretic blood pressure medication, you have to avoid (or at least cut way back on) anything that could make you dehydrated (sun, potassium, alcohol, caffeine) because the combination could make you really dehydrated.

I'm not sure if we're hoping for this or not, but: in his case they think it's caused by a malformation of the renal artery and so (if that's confirmed when he has his ultrasound) they'll do surgery and then take him off the meds.

He's on a diuretic for it, btw, because they think the problem is his kidneys aren't pulling enough water out of his red blood cells so basically his blood is thicker (because the RBCs are larger) and that increases the pressure. Diuretics cause cells to expel water by force, so it's a different way of doing what his kidneys apparently aren't.

[LavenderMist]

Okay, I have to recant my earlier reply to this post. I've been on therapy since Dec 2005 and apparently now something is working. I went for my routine 6 mo checkup and the nurse had to take my bp three times because she couldn't hear it. She finally got it in the right arm and it was 92/64. I assured her I wasn't dead. I have been on three bp meds Lisinopril, Verapamil and Toprol XL. Last visit I was told if bp didn't come down that they would add diuretic. Well, only thing I can attribute drop in pressure to is cpap therapy. Now they are cutting my Toprol XL dose from 100 mg to 50 mg due to low blood pressure reading. I hope that I can continue to see a reduction in meds due to cpap therapy. I am starting with a full face mask soon because I know I mouth breathe and talk in my sleep. So, I guess after two years of compliance this is starting to pay off.

[GreenIce]

An update, just bought a digital blood pressure meter recently. Checked the meter is working, measured my wife and my brothers, yes they are OK except me. Measured my both arms, not much difference.

I do notice the blood pressure went down quite a lot after exercise. The higher heart beats goes, the blood pressure goes down lower. However it does not sustain for long after more than twelve hours, the blood pressure returns back to the usual reading. I did some research, exercise do help in reducing blood pressure. Looks like I have to exercise more frequently.

[dieselgal]

My Dr. just recently told me that the BP is generally higher in the morning when you first get up. He has me check mine right after rising every morning.

[geoDoug]

My Dr. just recently told me that the BP is generally higher in the morning when you first get up. He has me check mine right after rising every morning.

That's exactly what my cardiologist has told me. I'm religious about taking it right after getting out of bed in the morning before anything else (eating breakfast, going to the bathroom, taking a shower, etc.). It makes most sense to me to take it when it tends to be at its highest resting rate. I keep the data in Excel so I have that info and a nifty seven day rolling average chart I created. That part's handy so I don't overreact one way or the other if my BP is insanely high or low.

Doug.

[AdmiralCougar]

I haven't been diagnosed with HBP, but I'm getting a bit concerned. I kind of poo pooed my Dr. on July 31st when he tried to talk about the High Blood Pressure. Mostly he was referring back to June 21st. I had went in for a blood transfusion, but I kind of discounted the numbers because I had also had a Tdap (ADACEL) (Tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis) shot, and I had an allergic reaction to it. Though at my Pre Op visit Thursday with another Dr. My BP was 147/91. I asked the nurse how the numbers were (I really had no clue about the numbers at this point I've never really been too worried before about my BP, but it has been kind of on my mind since the last appointment with my Primary Dr. July 31st) Anyway the nurse said the numbers weren't high. And the Pre Op Dr. didn't mention anything about it. But after reading this thread I decided to goto Kaiser's web site reference section and do a bit of research on what Kaiser at least considers High Blood Pressure.

One or both Systolic/Diastolic
Prehypertension:
systolic 120 to 139 mm Hg
diastolic 80 to 89 mm Hg

Hypertension:
systolic 140 mm Hg or above
diastolic 90 mm Hg or above

Call a doctor if: Your blood pressure is 140/90 mm Hg or higher on two or more occasions (taken at home or in a community screening program).

So after several readings within the last 3 months at appointments and the ER:
06/18/2007 138/88
06/20/2007 139/75
06/21/2007 180/70
06/29/2007 140/88
07/03/2007 139/67
07/31/2007 142/72
09/06/2007 147/91

I emailed my Primary Care Dr. about what he thought about my latest BP and the trend since I kind of cut him off at our last appointment and he dropped the subject. I feel kind of stupid now since what he had to say was probably pretty important. So far I've been on BiPAP for almost a month and it hasn't seemed to help yet.

What does anyone else think about those numbers anything I should extremely worry about? Is it really high enough to warrant meds? Plus all those pressures were taken in the afternoon-evening or at night (in the case of the Blood Transfusion) if it really makes a difference.

Christy