A pill for sleep apnea?

wading thru the muck! · Post by **wading thru the muck!** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 12:22 pm

If you are interested... check out this article.

Pill for Sleep Apnea

Severeena · Post by **Severeena** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 3:26 pm

wading, when I read your subject line I thought you were joking.

Very interesting article.

wading thru the muck! · Post by **wading thru the muck!** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 3:46 pm

Severeena wrote:wading, when I read your subject line I thought you were joking.

Very interesting article.

No, I'm not joking. The article caught my eye because a take a diuretic for hypertension and thought that if i could take one that helps my blood pressure and my apnea it would be worth a try. I'm going to ask my Doc next time I see him.

2SleepDeprived · Post by **2SleepDeprived** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 pm

This study was in patients with stable heart failure. That disqualifies a lot of us. I don't have any heart failure. It would be great if they could come up with a pill to help sleep apnea before your heart starts failing.....

Wulfman · Post by **Wulfman** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:51 pm

What the heck is "stable" heart failure?
Sounds like a contradiction in terms to me.....

(and I read the article, too) Thanks, Wader.

Den

2SleepDeprived · Post by **2SleepDeprived** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:56 pm

"Stable" heart failure is simply referring to the fact that the heart is being controlled at a certain level of failure---not getting worse and not causing any immediate problems with swelling or breathing.

Wulfman · Post by **Wulfman** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:06 pm

OK......thanks.

Den

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:45 pm

Wouldn't this be fantastic? If we could just take a pill instead of being hooked up every night? I'm sorry to say I wouldn't be able to use it because I'm allergic to sulfa. Just my luck.

deltadave · Post by **deltadave** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:55 pm

Looks like this is only for central apnea, though. From the abstract:

Objectives: To determine the therapeutic efficacy of acetazolamide on central sleep apnea associated with heart failure.
Main Results: There were no significant differences between parameters at baseline and placebo. In comparing placebo with acetazolamide, the hourly number of episodes of central apnea (49 ± 28 vs. 23 ± 21 [mean ± SD]; p = 0.004) and the percentage of total sleep time spent below an arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation of 90% (19 ± 32 vs. 6 ± 13%; p = 0.01) decreased significantly. Acetazolamide improved subjective perception of overall sleep quality (p = 0.003), feeling rested on awakening (p = 0.007), daytime fatigue (p = 0.02), and falling asleep unintentionally during daytime (p = 0.002).

Conclusions: In patients with heart failure, administration of a single dose of acetazolamide before sleep improves central sleep apnea and related daytime symptoms.

deltadave

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A pill for sleep apnea?

A pill for sleep apnea?

Probably Won't Help OSA Though