Sleep apnea and Adrenal/Thyroid issues

[greenmug]

Does anyone have this combo, and if so can you share what worked for you as well as the what the link between them might be? I believe that both of these issues started for me at the end of my first pregnancy (quite a long time ago now).

I understand the extra weight/airway collapse connection, but beyond the mechanics, does anyone know any other reason that they occur in tandem?

My guess has always been that the pregnancy weight gain and hormones caused the apnea, which caused the adrenal fatigue, which in turn caused the thyroid deficiency.

I have never been able to get back down to my pre pregnancy weight (and in fact am very far away from it now) so have not breathed normally at night since before my first child was born. I have tried mouthguard, tape and even trialled a cpap at one point - OMG, how I hated that:(.

I still wonder if I could somehow get my weight down to what was originally if it would cure the apnea, but with chronic pain and long term, sometimes extreme sleep deprivation, that kind of weight loss has been out of my reach.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

The Thyroid Pharmacist website has good info here

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

[greenmug in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you!

[debjs]

I used to wake at night gasping for breath & have found it happens more when I am under medicated. Also the lovely Dr Skinner (sadly no longer with us) advised me to take a small dose of my Armour Thyroid in the evening which helped enormously. Hope things improve for you.

[greenmug in reply to debjs]

That's really good to know, thanks for mentioning it. I'm glad it helped you to do that - I may just give it a try.

[silverfox7]

I've often thought it might be down to lack of muscle tone which would be down to not being optimally treated but that's just my train of thought.

[greenmug]

I've wondered about this too but also have been told that I am hypermobile and have read that can cause sleep apnea too.

Hypermobility caused other problems in pregnancy for me too and until recently I blamed my muscle pain and stiffness on it.

It wasn't until I was told that I had severe adrenal fatigue that I even looked back in the direction of underactive thyroid as a possible cause for all of my symptoms.

[Stourie in reply to greenmug]

My neighbour has sleep apnoea and he uses a cpap and has lost about 10 stones. He hasn't changed his eating habits, just sleeps properly and the weight has just kept going down It has taken about a year for the weight reduction but he still weighs just over 20 stones and although he is about 6 foot he still has a way to go. It might be worth trying again.

Jo xx

[Treepie]

There are various causes . Mine together with mega snoring ceased once on levo so being hypo was the cause.