OSA & Diabetes

In reference to another thread about a certain person who believes we need to be kept in the dark about our OSA stats, I have something to say about that - even as a total newbie.

I am also diabetic, and the ONLY way I've managed to maintain mostly non-diabetic blood glucose numbers is through constant testing of my BG, knowing what foods trigger a spike and what times of the day I can eat a certain number of carbs to stay in a good range.

NOT by following the dietician who has a 'formula for all' - who I haven't been back to since she had me on a road to ruin. NOT by doing what my PCP recommended and testing once or twice per day for HIS benefit.

After 2 years of following the advice and guidance of other diabetics, I have lost weight, lowered my cholesterol and blood pressure and improved my kidney and heart function.

My endo recommended a sleep study to see if OSA might be causing my higher night and fasting glucose numbers. Now that I have OSA to deal with it's VITAL to me that I know what my sleeping patterns are during the night so that I can compare those to corresponding BG readings to see if the correlation is there. A doctor can't see that - only I can log those numbers on my spreadsheet daily to see what's working and what's not.

If 'good' sleep and the CPAP is lowering my BG numbers then it's working. If the CPAP isn't helping my BG numbers, then I will need to try insulin. The issue here is that IF I DON'T KNOW whether the CPAP is successfully affecting my glucose numbers because I don't have access to those stats, then taking insulin blindly could be dangerous.


Our CPAP stats are important for ALL of us, but I just wanted to point out one way that those stats can help with other health issues - not just because we are curious.

Cheers,
Xena

xena,
Do you take anything for your blood pressure?
I to have High blood pressure actually that is why I was DXed with OSA and then a week later with Diabetes. I am curently taking something for my high BP, I was hopping that my CPAP would take4 care of it but so far it hasn't. I do how ever have great success with my CPAP treatment and also with keeping my BG down, my last A1c was 5.6 ( only 3 months after i was Dxed).
I agree with you 100% on not being kept in the dark.

jabman,
I take Coreg, Lisinopril and Cozaar for BP, but they mostly are to protect my chronic poly-nephritic kidneys as kidney function and BP go hand in hand. My BP is consistently around 90/60 which my doctors love, but if it goes any lower will revisit my meds, specially if CPAP lessens the need for meds.

Cheers,
Xena

--better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
It's so nice and bright in here--I LOVE it!

AMEN! I could not agree more. Poor sleep leads to uncontrolled high blood pressure. That (in conjunction with other issues, such as diabetes) can lead to kidney failure, congestive heart failure, stroke, heart attacks and other problems.

A diabetic needs to test their blood glucose numbers, so they can keep their high blood glucose under control. And someone with a sleep disorder should monitor their sleep and problems during sleep. That is the only way the person with OSA will learn how to control those things that DO impact sleep. If we knew what impacted sleep for everyone, we would not need xPAP therapy. But we don't know.

It might be seasonal allergies for someone. It might be stress. It might be alcohol. It all depends. But the one thing we can do is MEASURE our sleep to see what makes a difference for us. We can compare our sleep to our BP or our blood glucose. And surprise of surprises, they are interconnected. Poor sleep leads to higher (and uncontrolled) BP. It also leads to higher (and barely controlled) blood glucose. At least that is my experience.

Thanks for posting your thoughts. It definitely agrees with my own experience.

Hey, y'all with high BP...mine was 215/110 at diagnosis (some here were higher ), took me 18 months to be able to drop the Cozaar. Along the way I was slowing halving the dose as my BP dropped. No drops the first 9 months if memory serves. Gotta be patient, takes time to heal the damage that apnea causes.

Since I have been on cpap, and lost 47 pounds my Diabetes, has stabilized and I have reduced my diabetes meds from 4 pills a day to none. While I still have to watch what I eat, my blood sugar has not spiked at all. Cpap has definitely helped me with weight loss, blood pressure, and diabetes, a long with the other benefits
BoB C

jabman wrote:xena,
Do you take anything for your blood pressure?
I to have High blood pressure actually that is why I was DXed with OSA and then a week later with Diabetes. I am curently taking something for my high BP, I was hopping that my CPAP would take4 care of it but so far it hasn't. I do how ever have great success with my CPAP treatment and also with keeping my BG down, my last A1c was 5.6 ( only 3 months after i was Dxed).
I agree with you 100% on not being kept in the dark.

I too am diabetic and have high blood pressure. I take hydrochlorothiazide and enalapril for the blood pressure. I belong to the dlife website which is run by the American Diabetes Association. I also get news letters from them every week Recently I recieved one newsletter with an article and a list of medications that make blood glucose levels rise. Both of my meds are on this list. Since my diabetes was never diagnosed until after I started these medications it makes me wonder if I woulld be diabetic at all had I not started these meds.

Laura

physicsbob wrote:Since I have been on cpap, and lost 47 pounds my Diabetes, has stabilized and I have reduced my diabetes meds from 4 pills a day to none. While I still have to watch what I eat, my blood sugar has not spiked at all. Cpap has definitely helped me with weight loss, blood pressure, and diabetes, a long with the other benefits
BoB C

Thank you Bob!! I think I see a tiny light at the end of a pretty long tunnel - but it's THERE! Looking forward to seeing my other health issues slowly decline - that includes this body, reluctant to give up its extra pounds.

Cheers,
Xena

OceanGoingGal wrote:I too am diabetic and have high blood pressure. I take hydrochlorothiazide and enalapril for the blood pressure. I belong to the dlife website which is run by the American Diabetes Association. I also get news letters from them every week Recently I recieved one newsletter with an article and a list of medications that make blood glucose levels rise. Both of my meds are on this list. Since my diabetes was never diagnosed until after I started these medications it makes me wonder if I woulld be diabetic at all had I not started these meds.
Laura

I too belong to Dlife and the ADA message boards, which is where I get a lot of my information.

I've read articles about certain drugs raising BG levels also, but it's usually only temporary - like steroids. From all that I've read in the last 2 years, it seems that if you have the genetic makeup for diabetes, you're gonna develop it at some time, unless you manage to die of something else first. Eating too many carbs and processed food, no exercise and being overweight don't CAUSE diabetes, but if you have the genes, then you will develop it sooner. There are plenty of skinny people who never exercise and live on junk food who will NEVER develop diabetes.

My dilemma is whether I could have delayed the onset of T2D had I been Dx'd with OSA much sooner... who knows? I had a heart attack in 2004 and my PCP and cardio have been monitoring my BG ever since, so that was caught right away - kinda. Even though I always mention I'm tired, get up during the night, snore etc., no one ever thought to do a sleep study until my endo kept looking at my spreadsheets of my BG tests and saw my night time and fasting numbers were way higher than any other time. I even had hubby wake me up at 2:3am for 2 weeks and test me LOL.

All water under the bridge now, and I certainly don't blame my doctors - they can't be everything to everyone, but I am looking forward to seeing improvements in all areas as a rewardf for looking like an astronaut each night

Cheers,
Xena

[quote="OceanGoingGal...I take hydrochlorothiazide...list of medications that make blood glucose levels rise...Since my diabetes was never diagnosed until after I started these medications it makes me wonder if I woulld be diabetic at all had I not started these meds.[/quote]
Possibly. I read a Heartwire (ezine for cardiologists) article that stated older women with glucose intolerance put on this type of diuretic became diabetic. When they switched these women to similar drugs that do not have the glucose-raising effect, they returned to their previous state of glucose control. The reason I say possibly is that with age and with at least 5 yrs of undiagnosed apnea the chances of going from glucose intolerant to diabetes is huge so swithcing now might not make any difference at all in your natural glucose control.