Blood pressure

I know there are lots of factors that affect blood pressure, but I was hoping to hear some personal accounts of how CPAP/BiPAP treatment has affected your blood pressure.

Assuming your BP was elevated when you started treatment, how much and how soon did it come down and was there an ongoing improvement or just the initial drop?

I have been treated for high BP for about 2 years now using HCTZ. Prior to treatment, my BP would get as high as in the 180's over low 100's but averaged somewhere around 160/90. After being on HCTZ for a while, it was averaging around 140/82.

Since I started BiPAP treatment about a month ago, my diastolic pressure has been pretty consistently below 80, but my systolic has been all over the place. It seems especially dependent on the time of day. Usually in the morning, I am around 120/low 70's. But as the day wears on, it climbs. The highest has been around 150/82 but average for all times of day is around 130/mid 70's.

So feel free to respond with your experience and I'm going to start a poll as well.

Thanks for the information. Hopefully it will be useful to everyone.

My blood pressure and heart rate have both been high all my life, even when young. Mine went down to almost normal before CPAP treatment, but I wouldn't advise my cure,

I had a heart attact, 1/2 my heart died, and one month later I had a quad-by-pass, Now the pressure reads right, my heart rate is still high 95 BPM at rest, no strenth and numb limbs. But like a Timex, I'm still ticking. Jim

The CPAP came after all this.

oh wow dude, that's a heckuva way to drop those bp numbers, that's rough, that's why i try to keep an eye on mine, last thing i need is a friggin' heart attack to brighten my day, and i have been having some chest pains on my left side, it kinda freaks me out sometimes cause i think i'm too young for that stuff, but it could happen. it does go away after a while but it is still distressing.

As I have stated in previous posts I probably have had OSA most of my life, but I have only been on CPAP for the past 21 months. I am very compliant and have persevered in spite of all the problems that arose in the beginning with this "new way of sleeping." When my doctor decided to order a sleep study I was having periodic spikes with my blood pressure--i.e. 220/110, 200/180, etc. This was happening even though I was on medications to control my blood pressure. At the time I was taking Ziac twice daily and Norvasc 10 mg. daily was added. In addition, Catapres was prescribed for me to take during the sudden spiking periods. I'm sure now there had to be a correlation somehow to my sleep pattern and the number of apneas the night before these sudden spikes. After starting my therapy the spiking seems to have disappeared and I have been able to discontinue the Norvasc completely.
I just thank the Lord for leading my doctor to order the sleep study and prescribing the proper therapy to help me. My mother's cause of death was a CVA so with not being able to control my blood pressure properly with the prescribed medication this was causing me real concern.

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Goofproof, I agree thats not the way I want to reduce it. Sorry to hear that! Hopefully the apnea treatment and other lifestyle changes will keep you with us for a long time.

RedThunder94, have you talked to your Dr. about the chest pains? Although there are lots of things that can cause them, its definately worth figuring out whats going on if its happening with any regularity. I used to think, I'm too young for high bp and heart conditions. But there is no such thing as too young. Fortunately, I haven't had heart issues but there have been a couple of times that I really thought I was. Several years ago I went to the ER with chest pains which turned out to be heartburn with erosion of the esophogus due to acid. But they ran the full cardiac panel to rule everything out. I was about 32 then. By the way, I'm sure you've seen the posts here recently but if your chest pain is related to acid reflux, it could be increasing your AHI.

Felineperson3, glad to hear things are improving for you. I have a family history of just about everything in the book from diabetes to stroke to cardiovascular disease. So I'm trying to stay on top of this and improve my odds.

Thanks everyone. Keep the replies coming.

no, it's only started happening recently these past couple of days, and it's not reflux, i used to have that when i was younger it's definately something else besides that, and i'm 28 right now so that's why i'm kinda freaked by it but it's not that sharp a pain, it's just enough to make me stop and and say whoa, that's weird. and it go's away after a little while, so who knows, if it persists i'll check into the er.

Make that "creeping downward" for the 6 months I've been on CPAP, no signs of "leveling off". I have reduced meds accordingly, and hope it keeps creeping DOWN. Exercise helps. On days I do the "long runs" I skip the meds altogether, take extra H2O and salt just to keep my BP UP to normal. (and yes that is with my docs sincere blessing, he also runs and does racquetball and uses CPAP and takes meds for HIS bp, that is VERY handy).

I also have been increasing my water and salt intake and both my AHI and BP has gone down, my sleep quality has had some dramatic improvements, no longer needing any sleep meds, still some not so great nights, but WAAY better than with sleep meds, 10 glasses of water sounds like a lot until you break it down to 2 in the morning 2 before each meal and 2 a hour or so before bed. oh and with not much room for soda's the weight has started to drop.


so, all in all, what does one stand to loose be drinking more water?,

I have lost a lot in a lot of areas, all for the better.

I hope everyone realizes that hypertension is between (130-140)/(80-90). So below hypertension is not below 140/90 as stated in the poll. And for a lot of people salt increases BP. Mine with low salt and no meds is in the low 130 over low 80s. I'm hoping that CPAP will get it even lower.

Snooter

Not to argue, but both NHLBI and American Heart Association guidelines list 140/90 as Hypertension and between 120/80 and 139/89 as "PreHypertension." While the AHA has published recommendations stating that anything over 115/75 could increase your risk of certain BP related diseases, anything below 120/80 is considered by both to be normal.

I didn't intend to imply by the poll question that below 140/90 was "normal" or even healthy, just that it was below the accepted guidelines. My goal is to get mine back to consistently in the normal range, without medication. Right now, when I wake up in the morning (I'm still on HCTZ) before taking my HCTZ, my readings are in the normal and below range, as the day goes on it tends to climb. I am hoping as my body "catches up" on sleep, my readings will be more consistent throughout the day. This may very well never happen, but that is my hope.

As I stated in the opening post, and I hope everyone realizes, there are A LOT of factors that can affect BP including salt intake, stress, diet, exercise, medications, and the list goes on and on... However, I was interested in an unscientific poll of how CPAP affected people's BP or at least their perception of how it affect it.