Heart palps while using CPAP

[Renee71]

I am new to all of this. I have been using the CPAP for about a week now. Last night I woke up at 3 a.m. and at 5 a.m. with rapid heartbeat again. I am pretty sure this is the first time I have really had it since I have been using the CPAP. I do have GERD also so I am not sure which is causing the night palps if it is the GERD acting up or the sleep apnea. I am just wondering if anyone else here still had palps for a while when first starting the CPAP and how long did it take for them to go away? This is all so new to me and I just want to feel better and be able to sleep a solid night and feel rested. I am on a phillips respironics CPAP machine set at 8, and ramp of 4. Cflex set at 2. I have moderate sleep apnea, they say I stop breathing 25 times per hour. Using a full face mask that covers my nose and mouth because sometimes I am a mouth breather. I have also noticed the past 2 days my GERD has been acting up more than usual. I am very careful about my eating habits, only drink water.

[BlackSpinner]

Hopefully you have a machine with full data.
Get the software (Sleephead) installed and show us the charts of what happened around that time.

[Country4ever]

Hi Renee,
Are you going through menopause? My irregular heartbeats got crazy during that time.
I also have gerd and can have irregular heartbeats occasionally from that. Do you think your cpap is causing you to have alot of air in your stomach?
Can you raise the head of your bed? Don't eat anything after dinner.
You might try taking some magnesium suppelments (along with some calcium, and also some sublingual B12).
When was your last check up?

[Renee71]

BlackSpinner, I will check my machine to see if I have data when i get home. I hope I do. I will be sure and upload here if I do.

Country4ever, I have been going ot the ER numerous times within the last few months, (because of waking with heart palps) had EKG's, Echocardiogram, CatScan, Stress Test, Blood work, 30 day even monitor (results not back on even monitor yet). Everything has checked out good, they say my heart is fine, hopefully when results are back from event monitor they will be ok as well. I have very low Vitamin D, mine was 11. So I am on 50,000 IU of vitamin D once a week. I am having a scope done by gastroenterology on Monday to check how bad my GERD is. I never eat anything after 6:30 and I am very careful about my diet. I also have a wedge pillow I sleep on. I did however have chicken from KFC for dinner last night, I had the grilled chicken and I didn't eat the skin, but maybe that is what bothered the GERD. I am just hoping the palps are from the GERD and not the apnea. I am wondering if I should ask doc to test my hormones to see if I am starting menopause.

[knothead]

I am new to all of this. I have been using the CPAP for about a week now. Last night I woke up at 3 a.m. and at 5 a.m. with rapid heartbeat again. I am pretty sure this is the first time I have really had it since I have been using the CPAP. I do have GERD also so I am not sure which is causing the night palps if it is the GERD acting up or the sleep apnea. I am just wondering if anyone else here still had palps for a while when first starting the CPAP and how long did it take for them to go away? This is all so new to me and I just want to feel better and be able to sleep a solid night and feel rested. I am on a phillips respironics CPAP machine set at 8, and ramp of 4. Cflex set at 2. I have moderate sleep apnea, they say I stop breathing 25 times per hour. Using a full face mask that covers my nose and mouth because sometimes I am a mouth breather. I have also noticed the past 2 days my GERD has been acting up more than usual. I am very careful about my eating habits, only drink water.

Hi Renee,
I have GERD, take meds for that for the last 15 years. Also noticed awhile back that my heart was (seemed like) skipping beats, it was really weird feeling. Went to Dr got myself checked out, all ok. At that time I was on statins , well I quit taking them for awhile and the missed beats went away. Started statins again a month ago and the skipped beats are back. Off statins, told Dr...who knows what some meds will actually do.
Question: do u take Statins? if so u may stop for a week or so and see if the rapid beats return to normal. Be sure to ask Dr first...dont ask me how I know to do this...lol

[Renee71]

Knothead, No I am not on statins, kind of wish I was so I could stop just to see if it would help, lol. I get really scared when I wake with the palps at night. Very uncomfortable feeling. So far they say the heart checks out all good. Hopefully when the event monitor results come in it will still all be good. I am very willing to sleep with the CPAP 100% of the time in hopes that it will stop the heart palps, so waking up with them twice last night bummed me out. I was hoping to never have them again after starting the CPAP.

[Country4ever]

[/quote]Country4ever, I have been going ot the ER numerous times within the last few months, (because of waking with heart palps) had EKG's, Echocardiogram, CatScan, Stress Test, Blood work, 30 day even monitor (results not back on even monitor yet). Everything has checked out good, they say my heart is fine, hopefully when results are back from event monitor they will be ok as well. I have very low Vitamin D, mine was 11. So I am on 50,000 IU of vitamin D once a week. I am having a scope done by gastroenterology on Monday to check how bad my GERD is. I never eat anything after 6:30 and I am very careful about my diet. I also have a wedge pillow I sleep on. I did however have chicken from KFC for dinner last night, I had the grilled chicken and I didn't eat the skin, but maybe that is what bothered the GERD. I am just hoping the palps are from the GERD and not the apnea. I am wondering if I should ask doc to test my hormones to see if I am starting menopause.[/quote]

Renee........yes, get that Vitamin D up!! Mine was low too awhile back, but is better now with about 5,000 u a day. My daughter had an episode of severe vertigo lasting 3 days and was very depressed. Then she found out her D level was 9! Once she got her D up, she felt so much better and hasn't had any dizziness since. I'm sure it will help to get your D up.

Hormone tests aren't very reliable (at least in my case). But I'll bet if you could have some I.V. magnesium.........and then start oral stuff, your irregular beats would go away.
I went to the E.R. once for mine. There was a very smart doc there who gave me I.V. magnesium, and I didn't have any irregular beats for 2 weeks after that! Unfortunately, alot of docs will say magnesium doesn't matter. Taking calcium with it will offset some of the diarrhea that the magnesium might cause.

How's your caffeine intake? Sounds like you've had every heart test in the book........so try to not let those beats bother you. But.........I know how very disconcerting they can be!
What meds are you on? There's a theory that GERD comes from eating too many carbs. That's true for me, for sure. I was on Aciphex for 5 years, and I'm so glad to be off it. I've found that alot of the time, meds can just cause more problems.

Having irregular heartbeats when you lie down, and also having an increased heart rate at night is pretty typical of going through menopause. Don't know why it happens, but lots of women have said it happens to them.

[Rob108]

Renee,
"Heart palps "can be very difficult to get to a root cause. Do you only have them at night? Do you feel like they are too fast or too slow (skipped) or both?
I've been dealing with tachy /Brady arrhythmia, svt's and my resultant syncope with drop. I also have gerd (take nexium). I've had stress tests, ekg's, echo cardiograms, nuclear stress tests, tilt table tests, electrophysiology testing (2, both with ablations) and still feel my heart speed at times (though no longer the instantaneous jump from 70bpm to 240 bpm caught by my implanted loop recorder).
Keep a record of time and what you are doing when you feel your palpation to share with your doctor. I wore an external halter monitor for a week before the cardiologist implanted the loop recorder. I still get "palps" but nothing I worry about cause I'm no longer passing out & crashing to the ground.
Hope you are able to get a definitive diagnosis to ease your concern but doctors may never find that root cause.

[Sir NoddinOff]

Sometimes the simplest answer if the right answer. I suspect you're having mini-anxiety attacks while sleeping that are elevating your heartrate (Do you have chest pains too? That's another issue entirely). As I see it, you've got your hands full adapting to your CPAP experience and all that that entails, plus you seem to be suffering from GERD and maybe aerophagia on the side. Not to mention, your sleep quality is probably in the crapper. My advice is to keep seeking out solutions and apply them one by one. Work thru this stuff one step at a time and keep plugging away ... I think you'll soon solve these problems while moving ahead with your therapy. I know that is what happened in my case; I had a LOT of rough patches but I'm glad I stuck them out. Let us know how it goes.

[HoseCrusher]

Nervous disorders including rapid heart rates can be caused by low levels of cellular magnesium. Low cellular magnesium can exist even when blood levels are "normal." Vitamin D is needed to absorb magnesium from your diet.

If you are low in vitamin D you are most likely low in magnesium.

The first step is to get your vitamin D levels up, then to try some magnesium to see if that helps. Once you get things back in balance you can see if you can get everything from your diet and exercise in the sun without sun screen to build vitamin D levels or take a supplement.

If all this fails seek advanced medical help.

[Ford Guy]

A good book to read about CPAP stuff is called "My Little CPAP Book" from iTunes and Kindle.

Horrible book. Waste of money.

[archangle]

Do check with your doctor, it could be anything from serious heart problems to nothing to worry about.

You can get a CMS 50-D plus pulse oximeter for less than $100. It will measure your pulse rate and also shows you the O2 level in your blood. It also shows a graph that would show any serious gaps in heart beats.

However, realize it's showing O2 level in your finger, not actual EKG of your heart, so it won't necessarily show things like atrial fibrillations, etc. It also may not read correctly if you move, etc. so don't panic too much if you see gaps in the data.

The O2 readings are good info for apnea users.

Get the CMS-50D PLUS, not just the CMS-50D. Only the PLUS will record data that you can use to check on pulse and O2 while you're sleeping.

[Renee71]

Thank you all so much for the replies. I am so glad I found this forum. I feel like I have a support team guiding me through this new journey in life. I have to report I had a great night's sleep last night!!! I took the closest thing I had that had some magnesium in it, which was an airborne tablet. Not sure if that is what helped but I slept until 4 a.m. with no wake ups throughout the night. And when I woke at 4 I had no heart palpitations. I didn't even have to get up to go to the bathroom. I was able to lay there with my mask on until 5:00 when it was time to get up. Thank you all again. I really appreciate the input. I am def going to look into getting the pulse oximeter as well! Have a great day all

[Sir NoddinOff]

I think nothing beats trans-dermal Magnesium. Spray it on your thighs, rub it in and your body absorbs what it needs thru your skin. Great for a-fib, arrhythmia etc because people with these heart issues are often low in magnesium. Here's a product I use and like:

http://www.amazon.com/Life-flo-Pure-Mag ... nesium+oil

Also available at many health food stores, tho a lot more $$$.

[purple]

Might be parathyroid tumors. Do you have low energy?

http://www.parathyroid.com/low-vitamin-d.htm

Parathyroid Tumors can be difficult to diagnose, starting with docs almost never think of them. Particularly in the docs do not think of it. For some, Parathyroid tumors can be the result of the Thyroid being Oblated (killed, usually by the docs because the Thyroid became overactive).

Today Diabetics are told to take a Vitamin D3 every day. D3 because it works better than other forms of Vitamin D. For whatever reason, when I saw my doc, who has a lot of Diabetic patients, he told me I was only the third whose Vitamin D levels were where they should be.

The best guy to remove a parathyroid tumor is in Tampa Bay Florida, in that he does the removal with tools in catheters, rather than cutting the patient ear to ear to get at them.

If you are in doubt, I think he will answer an email in how to diagnose whether you have the parathyroid tumors. I will let you find his site on your own.

I also seem to recall, my sister having gone through a difficult time having parathyroid tumors diagnosed, that the first piece of advice the Tamp Bay expert gave her was to STOP the Vitamin D. More Vitamin D being dangerous to those having parathyroid tumors.

Please let us know how you are doing, and what you find out. It could be quite important for someone else.