PVC's PAC's & Sleep Apnea

i read a few articles about sleep apnea affecting the heart and heart rhythms. Does anyone know about this ? and if there is fact a connection here?

[va_tony]

Absolutely. If you are not breathing well during sleep, your heart is shortchanged the oxygen it needs to function.  This can lead to heart desease and palpitations. There's a well known connection between sleep apnea, snoring and afib and CAD.

[degrassi]

and chf.

[Michaelccc]

so how come you don't hear much about this topic being the possible cause of pvcs and other heart issues ???

[va_tony]

Sleep apnea doesn't cause PVCs. PVCs are common occurances in the general population and generally benign. Sleep apnea will more likely cause afib and svt, Of course, CHF and CAD are far more serious and clinical studies have associated sleep apnea with those conditions.  CHF and CAD in turn lead to higher rates of PVCs (and NSVT and VT).

Do you think you might have apnea?  If so, have a sleep study.Are you are loud snorer? If not, sleep apnea is likely not a problem.

[Michaelccc]

yeah i know i have sleep apnea. i've been seen waking up choking and gasping a couple of times. i did a sleep test awaiting results. i realize that sleep apnea does not directly affect pvc's. but my thought was that if sleep apnea can cause heart wall thickening , heart wall thickening may cause pvcs and pacs so in a sens sleep apnea can cause pvcs. so i'm not sure why no one takes this in  consideration

[va_tony]

You were prudent to have been tested for sleep apnea.  Taking correcive action as soon as possible if sleep apnea is diagnosed will avoid a lot of problems later in life.  As I recall, you are still fairly young (30's) and so the sleep apnea would not have damaged your heart at this stage of your life. My guess is that you've probably also had stress tests and echos previously.  Has your cardiologist reassured you that your heart is struturally normal?  If so, your PVCs are probably due to some other (harmless) cause and not due to wall thickening. PVCs are very common.

[aussie mum]

So take it from a wife of a man who has chronic asthma and now sleep apnea that this is a VERY serious condition. Thankfully my husband now sleeps with the aid of a CPAC machine and the difference it has made in him is amazing.

When he went to be fitted for his machine he had to watch a short dvd about the CPAP machine. He said there was a lady on it that had been having bad pac/pvc ect for many years but after a few days of using her machine guess what no more of those nasty buggers !!

Maybe i might try using my hubbies to see if it helps my palps (LOL)

[Michaelccc]

yep well i had an echo done and i came up as borderline LVH (left ventricular hypertrophy) . although doc said nothing to worry about normal heart. it still does not make sense to me. some people who are extremely tall or big are told that 1.2 cm for wall thickness is normal. i however am not that tall nor obese so i'm not sure what would have caused even a slight thickening. my only guess is sleep apnea. when sleep apnea occurs your heart race speeds up and blood pressure rises. even if blood pressure is normal during day upon doctors check up , blood pressure has to be up during sleeping overnight. many nights of blood pressure rise during sleep leads to thickening is my guess. thickening may have contributed to my sudden onset of pvcs. i realize that most people have pvcs but i don't think that mine came out of nowhere. anyway i  hope i get a sleep cpap machine i have a feeling it will do wonders for me.  to aussie mom. i have a great article for your husband suffering from asthma please look it over and see if it is something he may benefit from my brother has asthma so horrible            

[Michaelccc]

oops sorry wrong one.   here it is ... tell me if this link works for asthma article      http://www.moondragon.org/health/disorders/asthma.html

[aussie mum]

Hi michael thanks for that link !! I also have LVH :{ I go back in December for follow up echo but my cardiologist  seems to think all will be ok. I may even mention sleep apnea to him and see what sort of response i get ?? I guess the think is that there seem to be millions (ok maybe not that many LOL) of reason as to why these thing happen it's just finding the cause and maybe i never will.

Don't know about you but the MOST frustrating thing for me is WHY did it start in the first place ??

Once again the CPAP machine gets a BIG 10/10. The change in my husband is amazing. He has stopped snoring, no more splitting headaches in the morning, heaps more energy which he need with 3 kids under 6 LOL. He did rent a machine for about 2 months before purchasing one so that he could trial the different types of masks.

Anyway hope all go well with you :}

[Michaelccc]

i'm glad your husband is doing well. and thats really good that he is treating his sleep apnea cause i know that sleep apnea can destroy a heart over time. so what does your doc think may have caused the lVH ? and how is he treating it? also what are your numbers for lvh? mine is "borderline" "mild"    1.2 cm   IVS and 1.2 cm posterior wall  .   also how old are you ? and are you a smoker or overweight or any of these things. i'm 35 and i'm not overweight but smoke a lot and sometimes get spikes of hypertension from stress in my opinion that may cause it too. even though docs think only chronic hypertension can cause it. but i figure if i get tons of panics a day and that brings on hypertension with each panic attack then why can't panic be the culprit of LVH ?   and in that same token if you do get even mild lvh why can't that maybe cause pac's or pvcs? so in a sense i'm not sure if i believe in psychologic reasonings for heart problems everything seems to be physical . maybe im' wrong maybe not. i dunno

[aussie mum]

Hi Michaelccc

Well i've just turned 36 (happy birthday to me LOL) don't smoke or drink no hypertension but sadly i am overweight :{ My cardio said i was "the upper scale of normal" and that this may have been caused by my resent pregnancy (but sadly miscarried at 8wks)

I have three wonderful kids under the age of 6. After the birth of my third child (now 18months) is when all the fun started for me in the form of svt/palpitaions. I also developed a  "mild form" of PPCM which thankfully needed no medical intervention just time to heal itself (my cardio's words not mine)

So now i've got this LVH happening he seems to think all will be ok that it is more then likely to do with having been pregnet. So once again no meds :}

How long has all this been going on for you ?? Are you on meds ?? What's the one thing about having these that you hate the most ??  I'm guessing your American (sorry if i got that wrong) so how is your medical system over there ??

And as to the psychologic/phsiacl reasoning well like you i dunno but i do know this, i reckon that if i keep trying to figure out WHY this has happened to me I'm going to go stir crazy LOL

Take care :]

[Michaelccc]

i see . i'm sorry about your miscariage by the way. my cousin had one too . very sad for all of us. so overweight. slightly overweight? that can be your culprit right there. lets 4 months ago my aunt died with cancer and it freaked me out. sadness . anxiety . fear. anger all that stuff. the day of her death is when i noticed a flutter. although i felt flutters my whole life like once or twice a year never paid much attention to them. but these flutters kept coming like 10 a day or so. so i found out from doc that they are pvcs. i freaked out and did tons of tests like all of us. doc said echo was normal but when i went to get a report copy of the echo to show another cardio just in case for a second opinion . i noticed it said mild lvh. 1.2 cm ivs and 1.2 cm posterior wall. which puts me at borderline or mild. anyway i'm so curious why they say its normal when report shows its slightly abrnormal. i guess they have their reasons and second cardio also said its normal. i'm not too convinced of that. i mean obviously something has to cause it to be at the thickness. like i said i contribute mine to sleep apnea and stress. the american system seems to blow you off till its too late and you're already damaged. right now i realize borderline lvh is not life threatening, but i'm trying to get  a preventive guidance. what caused it to become borderline. lets nip it in the bud so that in a couple of years time it does not progress from borderline to actual lvh. some people may think this is anxiety talking but to me its just being smart. besides just because a person has anxiety problems that does not disclude us from getting actual problems. if treating my sleep apnea and losing a little weight does not have any effect on the lvh and if it does not get worse then i'll believe that this condition is benign. so i'm curious what were your numbers?  mine were 1.2 cm ivs and 1.2 cm posterior wall

[aussie mum]

Hi Michael just wondering if you have had a sleep study done ??

Also i need to apologies to you as i have LV enlargement not LVH. For some reason i had it in my mind that they are one in the same which is not the case. I've read that LVH can be caused by to much exercise. Are you on meds for it ?? Do you have to have a follow up echo to track how it is going ??

I think i may try for a holter monitor again as i have never really been told what type of palps (pac/pvc/svt ect) i have. Do you think it really matters or is it much of a muchness ?? I guess like a lot of people on this forum it seems that once you put on of those machines on the papls seem to stay quite (LOL) until the day after you take it off !!

Any how ....

Take care

[Michaelccc]

yeah i had a sleep study done. but the results were inconclusive because some genius decided that that those tests should begin at 7pm . and i couldnt fall and stay asleep long enough .. lvh is mild is what i'm told so they say the results are "normal" i dont see how that could be normal but hey. anyway . i used to exercize years ago but i dont anymore so i'm not sure if my cause would be that. lv enlargement. i'm not sure what causes that at all. no idea. i read about atrial enlargements but never lv enlargement. as far as pac/pvc go i don't let them bother me anymore and it seems that since i'm not too scared of them anymore they just don't come. hmm hope it stays this way. bananas help. maybe once every other day. also celery juice does something wonderful too . half a cup everyother day worked for me. quiting cigarettes. no caffeine. organic foods. and relaxation exercizes. how many of them do you get a day anyway?

[aussie mum]

Not sure how many i get a day ?? i do feel a few but once i had a holter on felt some really good ones but guess what nothing recorded !! so how many am i really having per day is any ones guess. I'm going to my GP tomorrow as i think my gallbladder may be playing up so i think i might get a referral for to try the holter again.

Do you think it is necessary to know from which part of your heart they come from or is it much of a muchness ??

How many do you get and any SVT ??

Silly question but what is your resting pulse usually ?? Is your BP ok.

Some times i think my pulse is to slow but when i do the 15 sec / 4 it is most times around 75/85

And saddly yes i do need to lose around 25kg :{

Take care