Oxygen/catecholamines

[NMPotsie]

A friend of mine was recently (finally) diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. Prior to his dx, doctors suggested he had a pheo (he was dxd with pseudopheo) due to high levels of urinary cats. His doctor later explained that the oxygen deprivation from sleep apnea causes increase cats and even "surges" similar to what some of us hypers experience.

I'm no doctor and I don't understand some of this. For those of you who are medically more skilled than I, my question is:

could oxygen deprivation play a role in the hyper episodes that some of us experience?

could some hypers have obstructive sleep apnea? the symptoms look similar to me.

For the record, I was monitored for this and didn't have it, but I wonder if cerebrohypoperfusion could lead to these surges. Perhaps this has been asked and answered. If so...my apologies.

Here is a link to the article his doctor showed him: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199003293221314

[julieph85]

I have read that some people with bad pots have central sleep apnea episodes.when I first got pots it was pretty severe. My husband witnessed me having those episodes of apnea and I remember waking up gasping. At the same time I also would wake up with surges with my heart rate going up to almost 200 bpm. I would wake up from a dead sleep like that. Makes sense to me

[margiebee]

I can't believe someone else has had the "waking up gasping" thing! I never remember or am aware of it when it happens but my boyfriend has informed me of several times when I have shot right up and been wheezing and gasping for breath, and described it as "terrifying".

I take this more as a possible hyper episode than sleep apnea itself, but I suppose it could go either way. Only reason I suspect it to be POTS related rather than sleep apnea is I also wake up in the middle of the night sweating with an extremely high heart rate sometimes, and I lack other apnea related symptoms.

[issie]

I have apenea and HyperPOTS. I don't think it is the cause of POTS - but, maybe a consequence of.

Issie