Apnea caused by medications?
Question:
I recently (October past) developed some heart problems (unstable angina) which is being treated medically. In Late December I was taken off amlodipine and put on a 360 mg strength of Cardizen (diltiazam) per day. Since starting the Cardizem I started having numerous bouts of apnea each night. My husband was the first to notice and obviously given my recent heart problems, it has scared him immensely. As time has gone on, my apnea has pretty much been replaced with insomnia. I rarely get to sleep before 4-5 a.m and then only sleep 3-4 hours. Almost every fourth night I manage to get more sleep, most likely out of pure exhaustion then anything else. I have an appointment with a sleep clinic physician in April so hopefully they can do something about it. Has anyone else suddenly developed sleep problems after starting blood pressure or angina medications? Cheryl ( sleepless in Ontario)
Response:
No , but often with CPAP for sleep apnea blood pressure medication can be reduced, sleep apnea causes heart problems and high blood pressure maybe the other way round you may of had sleep apnea all along just not as noticeably and now someone is worried about you they are watching you a lot more closer. Warren "Cheryl Ceretti" <mage…@truemagenta.com> wrote in message
news:vx9i8.3302$uK1.73947@read2.cgocable.net… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> I recently (October past) developed some heart problems (unstable angina) > which is being treated medically. > In Late December I was taken off amlodipine and put on a 360 mg strength of > Cardizen (diltiazam) per day. Since starting the Cardizem I started having > numerous bouts of apnea each night. My husband was the first to notice and > obviously given my recent heart problems, it has scared him immensely. As > time has gone on, my apnea has pretty much been replaced with insomnia. I > rarely get to sleep before 4-5 a.m and then only sleep 3-4 hours. Almost > every fourth night I manage to get more sleep, most likely out of pure > exhaustion then anything else. > I have an appointment with a sleep clinic physician in April so hopefully > they can do something about it. > Has anyone else suddenly developed sleep problems after starting blood > pressure or angina medications? > Cheryl ( sleepless in Ontario)
Response:
Cheryl…… any medication that causes relaxation will induce OSA if you already have the problem. Are you on CPAP? If not, then I’d talk to your prescribing physician about the problem. The apnea will make the angina much worse and could cause a stroke or heart attack. It will also increase your blood pressure. Where in Ontario are you? In the meantime, try sleeping in a reclining chair or with your body, from waist up propped up with pillows at about a 22 degree angle. This will help prevent airway colapse. Regards, Lee in Toronto – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Cheryl Ceretti wrote: > I recently (October past) developed some heart problems (unstable angina) > which is being treated medically. > In Late December I was taken off amlodipine and put on a 360 mg strength of > Cardizen (diltiazam) per day. Since starting the Cardizem I started having > numerous bouts of apnea each night. My husband was the first to notice and > obviously given my recent heart problems, it has scared him immensely. As > time has gone on, my apnea has pretty much been replaced with insomnia. I > rarely get to sleep before 4-5 a.m and then only sleep 3-4 hours. Almost > every fourth night I manage to get more sleep, most likely out of pure > exhaustion then anything else. > I have an appointment with a sleep clinic physician in April so hopefully > they can do something about it. > Has anyone else suddenly developed sleep problems after starting blood > pressure or angina medications? > Cheryl ( sleepless in Ontario)
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Response:
On Sat, 09 Mar 2002 10:04:25 -0600, Lee Babcock <leebabc…@pathcom.com> wrote: >In the meantime, try sleeping in a reclining chair or with your body, >from waist up propped up with pillows at about a 22 degree angle. This >will help prevent airway colapse.
I tried sleeping in a lazy boy style recliner for two weeks, at various reclining angles including just about straight up, and it didn’t help me. Other than the first night I decided to try this. Which is when I sleep for seven hours, had breakfast and slept for another six hours. I felt great for the next three days even though I only slept for about four hours each of those next two nights. After that nothing. And this was with the BiPAP machine running. I did have to drop the pressure to about 20/15 as otherwise I was burping too much much. Although that was not a problem on the first night’s sleeping as I described above. Tony
