Can CPAP cause unusually high blood pressure?

RedMare wrote: I was under the impression the machine was going to lower my high blood pressure

Have you been diagnosed with hypertension ( http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-cond ... n-20019580 )?

I have pulmonary hypertension and it is NOT measured with a cuff on the arm. Actually you dont even know u have it--unless u have an cardiac echogram and its seen there. I think your problem may be anxiety over all of this. If it persists see your doc. for sure. I assume you have BP kit at home? This whole thing is driving me nuts. I lay awake for hours.

Pulmonary hypertension IS

NOT

MEASURED

ON ARMS!

For god's sake instead of complaining about your genius, show up some PROOF of it!

Just in case someone with high systemic blood pressure has read some of the above and is worried about pulmonary hypertension, the "blood pressure" associated with pulmonary hypertension is a completely different thing.

What people most commonly mean when they talk about blood pressure is systemic blood pressure, the pressure to move your blood through your blood vessels around your body. (e.g. 120 over 80). That is measured by using the cuff on your arm.

The blood pressure associated with pulmonary hypertension is the pressure the heart exerts to pump the blood from the heart along the arteries to and through the lungs. It is measured at the heart and normal measurement is 8-20 mm Hg (at rest). This isn't measured in your usual doctor check-up you need to go have a stress test with echocardiogram. And yes, you might even have to have a catheter put in your heart to measure it.

As someone who had severe PH before CPAP treatment, whenever my doctor measured my systemic blood pressure, it was always perfect even though my pulmonary hypertension was quite bad.

The are quite a few potential "causes" of PH, not just sleep apnea, it can be genetic, due to lung disease or due to heart disease to name a few. Unlike systemic blood pressure, pulmonary hypertension is quite rare.

So CPAP may improve your pulmonary hypertension or it may have no effect at all depending on the cause.

Why are y'all discussing pulmonary hypertension?

Oh, I found it, Julie went on a scaremongering side trip.

Julie wrote:Neelie - ask your MD about 'pulmonary hypertension'. It's not something you want to wait about if it's happening (sorry, don't want to scare you, but better to check into things than avoid them).

Once more, xxyzx is incorrect about pulmonary hypertension. It is not measured with a blood pressure cuff. This has been revealed in a previous thread. It is a different condition than systemic hypertension. Ths is at least the third time xxyzx has been incorrect in the last couple of days.

No it is not reflected with a blood pressure cuff. It is not systemic high blood pressure, it is a condition of localized HBP generally caused by vascular disease in the lungs. ANd why do you call me names, I have not called you names.Yet you claim to only call names and insult when you are attacked. So that's what, the fifth inaccuracy posted in the last couple of days?

In any case, another possible cause and what did raise my bloodpressure initially, is that with my severe apnea I was getting up several times a night to pee, this is called Nocturia and in apnea sufferers is usually caused by heart issues, , when I started CPAP usage my Nocturia immediately stopped. This caused a natural increase in blood pressure since my natural night mechnism of the anti-diuretic hormome vasopressin was now working correctly! And as you know diuretics are a normal treatment for high blood pressure! Eventually my body sorted itself out... In the meantime I drank a lot of green tea during the first part of the day to help lower my blood pressure. (tea is a natural diuretic.)

Most of us had nocturia to one degree or another prior to Cpap and most of us no longer have it since using Cpap... not a one-off situation but an almost-across-the-board one.

xxyzx wrote:

TASmart wrote:No it is not reflected with a blood pressure cuff. It is not systemic high blood pressure, it is a condition of localized HBP generally caused by vascular disease in the lungs. ANd why do you call me names, I have not called you names.Yet you claim to only call names and insult when you are attacked. So that's what, the fifth inaccuracy posted in the last couple of days?

because you started attacking me again

you were doing good
put a lid on it and i wont have to respond in kind

I have not attacked you at all. However, I will continue to point out any errors or misinformation that you post. If you think that is attacking than name call away. I am sure that new posters will be able to determine what is what.

nicholasjh1 wrote:In any case, another possible cause and what did raise my bloodpressure initially, is that with my severe apnea I was getting up several times a night to pee, this is called Nocturia and in apnea sufferers is usually caused by heart issues, , when I started CPAP usage my Nocturia immediately stopped. This caused a natural increase in blood pressure since my natural night mechnism of the anti-diuretic hormome vasopressin was now working correctly! And as you know diuretics are a normal treatment for high blood pressure! Eventually my body sorted itself out... In the meantime I drank a lot of green tea during the first part of the day to help lower my blood pressure. (tea is a natural diuretic.)

I bolded the part that I'm responding to. I'm pretty new to xPAP and all things apnea related, and so I've been doing a whole lot of reading lately. One of the symptoms that points to sleep apnea is that the person gets up during the night to pee. Perhaps this is also a clue to heart issues, I don't know, but apnea in and of itself causes nocturia. Apnea suferrers become awake enough to sense bladder fullness, which is something they'd normally sleep through. Just sayin'. Interesting idea to use the green tea.

Kidneys respond to high pressure and hence the nocturia. I wouldn't complicate it or (for now) make it a big cardiac issue. Certainly the heart is involved in aspects of apnea, and BP, etc, but it doesn't mean it's some dire situation if you 'just' have obstructive apnea, with or without having to pee a lot.

So your request is that when you, who are the only one who claims to never be wrong, says something wrong I should not let newbies know that the self-proclaimed perfect one is indeed not perfect? Just making sure I understand your point of view.

Pulmonary hypertension.
If in doubt, look it up. Plenty of credible sources.
Do not take the word of a random raving lunatic.
Misinformation could be harmful for your health.

I had this reaction. Scared the crap out of me and i couldn't find information ANYWHERE except here!
Alarmingly high blood pressure (almost hospitalisation level), asthma like feeling when breathing during the day, pain between my shoulder blades and water retention (gained 5kg in a week!) was scary and i practically ran to the Dr. Dr upped my medication and sent me for blood tests an echocardiogram.
Luckily for me, heart scan and blood tests gave me the all clear. Routinely checking my blood pressure at home after the change in medication showed improvement and as time goes on and I get more and more used to the machine, I've found that my lungs have adjusted (no more asthma like feeling), pain between my shoulder blades is gone (no more anxiety or sore muscles), my body has adjusted to using the bathroom during the day instead of 3 - 4 times a night and most importantly bp is actually closer to normal than it's been in a long long time - it's usually 130/90 with medication, now it's dropping into high 120/high 80s.
Dr's... at least in my experience... tend to discount anxiety in a lot of situations. I wouldn't be surprised if you're in a similar situation to me.

Please see your dr regardless, they'll probably increase your medication for a short time while your body adjusts to the stress of using the machine. CPAP won't 'fix' your hypertension, but it may make it a little better.