High blood pressure and CPAP

Is it true if you had borderline or high blood pressure and have been compliant with your cpap therapy, then the top number should absolutely come down? I was suffering, before cpap, and I think due to my OSA, with borderline high BP, ranging in the low 140s over low 90s. My whole life, I had been with borderline low BP, in the range of 118/68. When I started cpap, it seemed to come down. Well, it came down enough where I didn't have to take my medication for it anymore.
Now there are some days when it's 115/75, but then my home machine will say 132 over 87 or so. Does that mean anything in regard to getting help from cpap? I am concerned that the two have a correlation and I might be missing it. Perhaps it's not something that can be cured from the therapy and I still need to be on meds., although I think the standards for putting someone on BP meds. starts at 140/90.
Anyone out there with advice or knowledge on this topic? I'd appreciate hearing from you. Thanks.

Well i dont know what cause my high blood pressure because I have diabetes Anemia and sleep apnea and all those can cause a change in your blood pressure so i'm taking medicine everyday to protect me. I have seen a change in my blood pressure since I been using the cpap machine and it been good results so taking my meds and using my machine seems to be working. I have Moderate to severe OSA

My bp has come down since cpaping and changing what I eat. Perhaps the combination of cpap and the elimination of certain foods and subsequent weight loss. Don't know how much cpap has to do with it. I've been able to cut my blood pressure meds in half and last night for the first time, went w/out it altogether. In the past when I'd try this as the meds slowly left my system, in about 2 wks time my bp would be back up again and I'd need to start taking the meds again. I'm looking forward to giving you a good report in the next couple weeks!

My highest ever bp that I can remember was 214/120. Most recently before cpaping, it would run from 120/65 to 140/85 ish. Lately its been 111/65 to 114/75.

It'd be great to be free of the bp meds and their side effects and cost. Terry

I am so glad to hear soembody's bp is coming down. That is wonderful!
That is another one of the benefits of cpap that I am anxiously awaiting. I now take 4 bp pills a day and and looking forward to eliminating at least 1 or 2 of these (I hope).

I have yet to get all that energy that everyone keeps talking about also. I'm still hoping. DME has ordered my apap/c-flex. Should get it early part of this week, he thinks. I am slowly seeing some improvements but anxiously awaiting the others. I am also having the same problems of puffing air out my cheeks (around my TMJ device) or mouth breathing with my Swift (which I also like). Have only used Swift tho, so don't know if another mask would change anything or not. My MD has told me that BP should come down. That often folks can go off meds. However, I am afraid to get my hopes for that much improvement.

Terry,
You BP is fantastic. I hope it stays that way for you in the next week or two when the meds are entirely out of your system. I can't believe how high your higher readings were before CPAP. How badly was your OSA diagnosed to be when you had your PSG? Were your oxygen desats. high? Seems like they would have been. Mine were considered moderate, but my BP ranged from 130's over 80's to 140's over 90's.

When I found out I was going to go on therapy after being diagnosed, I stopped taking my pills (my neurologist who was treating me for migraines said I was playing Russian roulette and shouldn't have). But then after being on CPAP for not too long, it started to drop to the 130/82-85 range and even he said they wouldn't put you on meds for that pressure. The best I've done since starting therapy was the one hundred teens over 67, I believe. But for some weird reason, and I don't know if it's my home machine or what, it fluctuates so much. I don't understand why if I'm feeling so well, it shouldn't be staying low. I just don't get it.

EllieJose,
Good luck with your new apap machine. Hope it arrives as soon as they are telling you. Isn't that mouth puffing infuriating? I am going to try to turn my machine down tonight just one cm and see if it helps. If my AHI rises, or any other adverse reaction, or it doesn't help, I'll go back to the normal titration rate.

Is your new machine coming with software capabilities, too? If so, you are going to be amazed at what you discover goes on at night when you sleep. It helps so much to see and be able to make adjustments. Is this a rented machine or are they buying it for you?

Well, BP Buddies, may our BPs get lower and lower to the point where we all don't need any more meds forever!!!

Hi Lauri....yikes if I ever knew what an "oxygen dsat" was, I don't know now!
I remember they said I had moderate apnea...I know I posted what I did know here in the beginning...prob in June. I'll have to do a search so I can be more specific for you. My rt never came back to read the smart card so I don't have a clue whats happening there. All I know is I feel so much better! I'm pretty sure she set my autopap between 4 and 16. I don't know if I ever needed to go above a "16" and I've never been there if so!

Yes I agree .... it'd be great for all of us to get off the meds we've been taking for apnea related problems!

Re you fluctuating bp: Have you noticed if salt, dairy, grains, high carbs, transfats tend to elevate it for you? Ditto for things like pop, even sweetened w/"fake sugar".... It may be helpful to observe those things.

See you on the board, friend! Terry

Terry,

The way my son, who just became a licensed RT, tells it, oxygen desaturations are when your body's oxygen level decreases while you are sleeping from the blockage of your airways. Since you stop breathing, the body is deprived for those lengths of times that you have the episodes of 100% of the oxygen it needs to furnish the entire body. Depending on how bad your desats are will probably have a great reflection on the conditions you experience as a result of your apnea. Now, although my apnea was considered mild, my desats were moderate, not mild, which we feel was the reason for high BP, as I was always low my whole life, and for my headaches. Loss of oxygenation to the body is not a very healthy thing to experience night after night after night during the hours that you are asleep.

I don't want to go back on my BP medication (Diovan HCT) if I don't have to. I don't go up into the 140s ever anymore, nor the 90s. But for some unexplained reason, even though I feel great and my numbers on my software are very low, my BP fluctuates still. It can be as low as 115/67 and then go up to 132/88. I don't undertand it. I don't eat unhealthy ANYTHING. I am now offically down 11 lbs. since the end of June, when I started eating nothing but healthy, and drinking tons of water a day, and started my exercising three days a week on 7/3. I am aware of the salty food effect on BP and I don't snack on anything but raw broccoli or fruit. I am being literally angelic. For me to lose 11 lbs. in about 6-7 weeks is very good, considering I needed to lose a total of 25 or so. So I'm almost halfway there.

I am very happy to hear you are feeling well. Please continue to do so. And get that **** DME over to your house to read your software (or buy it yourself and read the nightly data). If you're going to keep this type of machine, I'd make the investment now. I always say, being without your data (now that I have it) is like sleepwalking. You don't know what you're doing while you're asleep and it could be dangerous (or, in this case, great and cause for celebration). You just never know.

Lori, Are you the bike rider ? I think that has alot to do with it. If you are the biker from L.I.

:twis ted:

Chrisp writes:

Lori, Are you the bike rider ? I think that has alot to do with it. If you are the biker from L.I.

That's me, three times a week, about 13 miles a day. What does that have to do with it? Does "it" mean my fluctuating BP??? Now you have my curiosity so perked, I'm dying to know what you mean... ???

Lori, there's angelic and then there's angelic (fallen angels, right?)

For me, pre-Neandr, when my bp was high and I needed the full dose of meds, I would have considered angelic to include brown rice, whole grains like barley, oatmeal and the more esoteric kamut. BUT NO>>>>>>!!!!!! I found that those choices were of the sort where my body is concerned. Whole grains touted to be so healthy cause inflammation and general mayhem for this body of mine...not saying its the same w/yours but just a thought sis.

I do eat carbs in the form of ripe yummy raw fruits and nonstarchy veggies and raw nuts.

as far as my dme.....she's overworked poor dear and also since I have an autopap doesn't think it necessary to read the smartcard since the machine is, imho, smarter than both of us put together....LOL Terry

Terry,

Let me tell you what I've been doing basically. By the way, I lost more weight this morning, and now my total is 14 lbs. I am so excited. 11 more to go to my goal.

Anyway, I eat two servings of calcium a day as it's supposed to support weight loss. So I will have a yogurt (nothing no or low-fat) in the morning and for lunch. If I don't have it for lunch, I will substitute a piece of cheese during the day as a snack. I do sometimes have cottage cheese and fruit for lunch (love cottage cheese). I have usually a grilled turkey burger ON THE ROLL for dinner, unless I've had some other form of bread during the day. Then it's off the roll. Always grilled, never fried anything. I will have it with sliced tomatoes and lettuce. Other times for dinner is a grilled chicken wrap with a hot veggie or salad. No cheese in it, just lettuce and sometimes tomato. For a snack, I usually eat raw broccoli or some other form of fresh veggie sliced up. I drink tons and tons of water a day to flush out impurities and keep hydrated. With this, I ride my recumbent bike without fail three times a week, at a high pace (for me anyway) of about 17-19 mph for 45 mins. rain or shine. Seems to be working.

I am going to go check the BP. If it's not doing well, I may just have to find out what is going on. I know 132/87 is not high enough to be put back on meds., but don't you think it's an indication something is not right in the body? I don't know.

Thanks for your story. So brown rice can be evil? That's all they let the girls eat in "Showgirls," the horrible movie with Elizabeth Berkley and Gina Gershon. If you didn't see it, don't. Should have been X rated. To think, Elizabeth was on Saved By The Bell and then did this movie blows my mind.

Sounds like you are eating pretty healthy compared to most Americans! The things that have made a diff for my bp are eliminating grains, most salt and most dairy. Once in a very blue moon I'll have some full fat sour cream or cottage cheese. Maybe once a week. Congrats on the drop i weight. It can feel like such a huge hurdle if its been a struggle your whole life like its been for me. Looking forward to hearing your progress! ps. A friend years ago recommended I take olive leaf extract (from the health food store....expensive and sold as a concentrated extract) to lower my bp. It did just that for quite a while until I'm guessing I developed a tolerance to it or something. Turns out too that when I walked into the health food store I looked around for something on olive leaf extract and blood pressure and couldn't find anything back then in the indexes of the books I looked at. I stood and asked God for direction. I walked over to another shelf and there was a small pamphlet on Olive leaf extract!!!! It was pretty cool because when I opened it, it said that in Yugoslavia, people have taken olive leaf extract to lower their bps for decades. GUESS whose grandparents on BOTH sides were from Yugoslavia???!!!!!!! No I'm not kidding! Terry

Terry,

Cool story on the olive leaf extract and divine intervention, which I whole-heartedly believe in. Now you have given me incentive to go buy the olive leaf oil. Thank you so much.

I have to say, my whole life, I've been very thin. I never had a problem with weight growing up, was 109 lbs. when I got married, and I'm 5'6". But after I had three kids and started finishing their meals, etc., it crept up on me. Not the way I want to live. And althought 25 lbs. is not drastic, it's a lot for someone that has always been thin her whole life. So I made the decision to get back into shape. I also had a scare last month with migraine prevention meds. they put me on right before I started CPAP when they upped the dose. Started having severe tightness in the chest and chest pains. Since my maternal grandpa died at 54 and heart disease definitely runs in my mother's sidse of the family, I said, NO MORE. I started to exercise vigorously and made sure I continued to eat well and drink water and just be the healthiest person I could be. The older you get, the more you realize how important that is. I'm very happy I took that stance and am not going to give it up for anything, now that I feel as good as I do.

Okay. Off to the health food store to look for olive leaf oil. Thank you so much for recommending it. Talk with you later.

ps to Lori....ditto to you re thanks....I need a reminder every so often to be faithful in taking my calcium/D/mag 2x a day since I'm not eating dairy and am postmenopausal...all the...ahem...."equipment" was yanked out some years ago and so I've been cautioned by my dr for the sake of preventing osteoporosis to take high doses of same.

If the research is correct its also sposed to help bp issues and the heart. And its important to get enough potassium in your foods too because those nutrients just mentioned interact to benefit our bodies.

T

Terry,

You're so welcome. Don't need to say it, though.

Thank you, but I do know all about potassium and its effects on the heart. A banana a day...when I was in my mid 20's, was hospitalized after having severe two weeks of arrhythmia (that's another story) and they found I had virtually no potassium in my body, unexplained to this day. However, after infusion for 24 hours, I was released and always now make sure I eat potassium-enriched foods. But, as you say, the reminders never hurt.

Keep up the great work, girl. Sounds like you have a real great handle on what's going on with you. Now just keep up the fight and you'll be succesful. I don't need to tell you. You've been at it far longer than I have.