Ibuprophen and Sleep Apnea

[Riverlea]

My impression is that when I use ibuphrophen (for arthritis pain) it makes my sleep apnea worse. This seems to be as true now that I'm on a machine as it was before treatment began. I once read that ibuprophen can worsen sleep apnea because it causes muscle relaxation (hence airway collapse), and in my case this seems to be true. Anyone else have experience with this? For me it's a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation.

[kempo]

I take it on a regular basis. I have a bad back. Ibuprophen will make your muscles relax. For me it will make my jaw and face muscles relax so much that my jaw will drop and my lips will open and allow all of the therapy from the cpap machine to go out through my mouth. So, I have to tape my mouth and use a chin strap. If I don't take the Ibuprophen I can't sleep because of the pain.

Getting old is not for sissies.

[jazzer4]

ibuphrophen makes my ears ring...am I the only one?

[Pugsy]

For me it's a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation.

Welcome to the world of pain. Either be in pain and not sleep well or take drugs for pain that may mess with your OSA and may impact therapy or sleep.

I can't take any of the NSAIDs like Motrin (killer stomach pain) and I have some major arthritis in various parts of my body. This past summer I was doing something stupid and fell and broke my wrist and had to have it surgically repaired. Some major pain there so I got to take some major pain killers (Percocet) which are well known to possibly make OSA worse by causing more relaxing of the airway tissues. It was a concern but it was a choice of pain and no sleep or maybe make OSA a little worse.

I had an APAP at the time. My normal settings were 10 min and 20 max. I found very little difference, if any, in my reports. AHI was not hugely impacted and my pressures didn't increase any more than they normally did.
I figured I would just let the machine do its job and it did.

My number one goal always is "get the hours of sleep my body needs". If I have to take something that might impact my OSA...well that is why I use a machine anyway. It's not like I wouldn't need the machine if I didn't take something for pain. Also it's not like the meds tripled my events or pressure needs.

[kempo]

ibuphrophen makes my ears ring...am I the only one?

I think my ears have been ringing since the day I was born. I don't pay any attention to it any more unless I am in a very quiet place or if someone talks about it. Thanks a lot.

[Lizistired]

Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory, not a muscle relaxer.

[ameriken]

Welcome to the world of pain. Either be in pain and not sleep well or take drugs for pain that may mess with your OSA and may impact therapy or sleep.

Hey, that's me!!!

[Riverlea]

Lizistired:
Actually, ibuprophen does relax muscles, according to my doc.

[JohnBFisher]

WARNING!!

Frequent use of ibuprofen, especially with high blood pressure, can lead to kidney damage!!

WARNING!!

This is no joke. I now had Stage 3 Chronic Kidney Disease due to this. I used ibuprofen to help address my headaches due to my uncontrolled central sleep apnea. The uncontrolled central sleep apnea led to uncontrolled high blood pressure. I was finally put on ASV by November (several years back), but by my physical the following January, I had developed the Chronic Kidney Disease. So, in the space of one year I went from perfectly functioning kidneys to kidneys that are not doing as well as they should. My nephrologist has seen this type of damage before.

So, use ibuprofen with caution.

[Bobby269]

My Doctor won't let me take any Nsaid pills. He will let me take Tylenol extra strength Arthritis for lower back arthritis. He says that Nsaid pills are bad for mature ( older) people. The tylenol affect my sleep by reducing the pain and letting me sleep.

I have ringing in my ears called tinnitus. The Military said that it was caused by Jet Aircraft noise. I feel that excedrin caused it. On the box it now says that it can cause Tinnitus.

[Mr Bill]

Some people get pain relief but also inflamation of airways and slight adema from using ibuprofen. I seem to be one of those. My doc says some people just react that way.

[CarpeNoctum]

You guys...
You can't believe everything you read. There is a relationship between pain and relaxation...so if you relieve pain, you can get some relation. But if this applies to cpap use, i doubt it. Search the web and find out for yourself.

NSAIDs are a very useful tool in pain management. True, with marginal kidney function, there is a risk, but even then...with adequate fluid intake, the risks are minimal.

Some NSAIDS are better then others and you should consult your Doc if you have any questions.
CN

[kteague]

Whether it's relaxed muscles from being free from pain, or being free from pain allowing one to sleep deeper, seems reasonable to me that sleep apnea could be affected by these changes. How much is anybody's guess, unless there's already a study on it, which wouldn't surprise me.

As far as the liklihood of experiencing a side effect of any med, if you are the one who does experience them, it won't matter much to you if most people don't. I do know a healthy young adult male who was taking Advil for a period of time due to a pulled hamstring (I think) and almost ended up on dialysis before they figured out the kidney failure was a result of the product. Thankfully his kidneys bounced back after discontinuing the med. Also know a young adult female who was on a medication that caused her muscles to break down. Don't know what med that was though. But it was one of those listed rare side effects.

Now that the discussion has come up, once I'm using my good cpap again and download the software on my current computer, I'm gonna experiment a bit and see if there's any patterns with and without my usual ibopropen at bedtime. Curious now.

[sickwithapnea17]

can advil or aspirin cause sleep apnea like narcotics? can asthma inhalers like symbicort or steroids like prednisone?

[n0hardmask]

I take it on a regular basis. I have a bad back. Ibuprophen will make your muscles relax. For me it will make my jaw and face muscles relax so much that my jaw will drop and my lips will open and allow all of the therapy from the cpap machine to go out through my mouth. So, I have to tape my mouth and use a chin strap. If I don't take the Ibuprophen I can't sleep because of the pain.

Getting old is not for sissies.

I've been taking both asthma and arthritis meds for 2 or more decades, and long ago I noticed that when I had to take more asthma meds, the arthritis flared up, and not surprisingly, when taking more arthritis meds the asthma got worse. Guess it proves we're complicated organisms with intricate interrelated systems.
Or as kempo stated, (pain) ain't for sissies. Now that I think of it, I may take my Ultram earlier in the evening.. might help me keep mouth closed at night(?).