Does CPAP Pressure effect blood pressure?

[The Reverend Trask]

Hi there.
I was having a nice visit to the urologists last week, and as the nurse was doing her pre-appointment 'vitals', it was discovered that my BP was 160/85!!

I must say that it has never been that high, that I am aware of, I check it fairly often. 120's/80-90's is normal. I exercise, dont smoke or drink etc.
I only recently started CPAP therapy, and I am wondering if anyone knows if my pressure being too high, or just CPAP pressure in general can have some effect on ones BP? I realize that this could be simply a matter of coincedence, but in the following days, I have checked my BP several times a day, only to find it much higher than normal (140's/80's).
I use my machine every night, but still feel pretty cruddy, by the way.

[Pugsy]

Just a coincidence. CPAP pressure doesn't mess with blood pressure as in increasing it. Some lucky people actually see a reduction in blood pressure because having the therapy being optimal actually reduces the stress on the body and thus the body will sometimes see a lower blood pressure. Most likely the increase at the doctors office is what we used to call "white coat syndrome".. a little case of nerves at the doctor's office.

Still feeling cruddy? Do you have the software to make sure the therapy is optimal? Hours of sleep using the machine?
Quality of sleep, like fragmented sleep for some reason? Outside factors?

I always suggest that when someone doesn't feel so great....check the reports to see if something needs improvement with the therapy first. Leaks and stuff like that. Then look at hours of sleep. And if reports seem to indicate you should feel like a million bucks and you don't....then start looking at other possible factors impacting how we feel.
There are a ton of them out there. I am on that road myself. Reports are near picture perfect but while I am feeling better, I am not feeling as good as I think the numbers should make me feel. In my case I have other issues that the cpap machine doesn't fix.

Don't know about your software options? I have some examples here.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=64906&st=0&sk=t&sd= ... re+options

[LSAT]

In my wife's case she has what her doctor calls 'white coat syndrome'. Whenever her BP is take by a nurse or doctor it is higher than it is when she takes it at home by machine or when our daughter (nurse) takes it. She always worries that her BP will be high at the doctor's office and that anxiety brings up her BP.

[Carl LaFong]

In my wife's case she has what her doctor calls 'white coat syndrome'.

I've heard my doc and his nurses talk about this. Could be a factor. YMMV, but my BP dropped 20 points after a month on cpap.

[Slinky]

Poor Sleep Quality Increases Risk of High Blood Pressure


Reduced slow wave sleep (SWS) is a powerful predictor for developing high blood pressure in older men, according to new research in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers from the Outcomes of Sleep Disorders in Older Men Study (MrOs Sleep Study) found that people with the lowest level of SWS had an 80% increased risk of developing high blood pressure.

"Our study shows for the first time that poor quality sleep, reflected by reduced slow wave sleep, puts individuals at significantly increased risk of developing high blood pressure, and that this effect appears to be independent of the influence of breathing pauses during sleep," said Susan Redline, MD, the study's co-author and Peter C. Farrell Professor of Sleep Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, in Boston.

Men who spent less than 4% of their sleep time in SWS were significantly more likely to develop high blood pressure during the 3.4 years of the study. Men with reduced SWS had generally poorer sleep quality as measured by shorter sleep duration and more awakenings at night and had more severe sleep apnea than men with higher levels of SWS. However, of all measures of sleep quality, decreased SWS was the most strongly associated with the development of high blood pressure. This relationship was observed even after considering other aspects of sleep quality.

In the Sleep Heart Health Study, another large cohort study, researchers found that men were more likely to have less SWS than women. Men were also at an increased risk of high blood pressure when compared to women. The current study raises the possibility that poorer sleep in men may partly explain the male gender predisposition to high blood pressure.

"Although women were not included in this study, it's quite likely that those who have lower levels of slow wave sleep for any number of reasons may also have an increased risk of developing high blood pressure," Redline said.

Slow wave sleep has been implicated in learning and memory with recent data also highlighting its importance to a variety of physiological functions, including metabolism and diabetes, and neurohormonal systems affecting the sympathetic nervous system that contribute to high blood pressure, researchers said.

http://www.sleepreviewmag.com/sleep_rep ... -12_01.asp

[archangle]

For what it's worth, the usual top limit of CPAP pressure is 20 cmH2O. This is around 15 blood pressure units (mmHg).

[pap4life]

white coat syndrome is a very common malady. Most Doctors take this somewhat higher reading in their office in stride, unless its abnormally high, which in your case it is not.

[GumbyCT]

A long walk into the docs office will raise the BP too.

fwiw - my BP went down while using the cpap.

[Slinky]

A long walk into the docs office will raise the BP too. ....

Yeah, it will. I normally tend to quite low BP but a walk into doctor's office from the parking lot will raise my BP. Its almost always 140+ over 70+ at the office unless I've had one heck of a long wait in the waiting room or exam room which is unusual w/my family doctor.

[justbreathe]

It is lowering mine. 114/74 this morning and I haven't taken any high BP medications yet.....

last night my pressure was 19 cm h2o.

[moresleep]

As the other posters said, the only correlation between BP and proper Cpap therapy is inverse. My BP dropped since starting Cpap.

Of course, you want to be sure Cpap is working, and that your AHI is where it should be. Many people starting Cpap (including me) found that they had to address mask leaks, mouth leaks, stuffiness, blocked sinuses and all sorts of other issues to get Cpap therapy to work properly. In your case, since you are new to Cpap, I would be careful to go through the list. A high BP combined with feeling cruddy at least suggests something may not be working as it should.