Sleep Apnea Increases Dementia in Elderly Women, Study Finds
A study has found that elderly women who experience frequent episodes of sleep apnea are at a greater risk of developing dementia or cognitive decline.
The research revealed that the oxygen deprivation that occurs during sleep apnea, a condition that causes sufferers to stop breathing during sleep, may stunt the regenerative properties of sleep and possibly be the cause dementia in the aging subjects.
Researchers tracked the sleep apnea of 298 women that were on average 82 years old, over the course of two years.
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Using sensors and computerized monitoring, the overnight sleep studies diagnosed sleep-disordered breathing, characterized as 15 or more episodes of sleep apnea in every hour of sleep, in 105 of the of the women; meaning that these women experienced at least 15 occurrences of oxygen deprivation an hour for their entire sleep cycle.
"We found a very high prevalence of untreated sleep apnea -- about one third of the women had sleep apnea, and those women had about an 80 percent increased risk of developing cognitive impairment or dementia during the study," said Dr. Susan Redline, a researcher in the division of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, who co-authored the study.
Cognitive tests were given to the women five years after the sleep study, after which researchers compared the brain health of the women who suffered from sleep-disordered breathing to the brain health of the women who didn't.
Taking into account other common cause of dementia or cognitive impair, such as age, education, body-mass index, diabetes, smoking, medication use and brain health, the study discovered that 31 percent of the women who had no sleep disturbances developed dementia, while 45 person of the women who suffered from frequent sleep apnea developed dementia.
Dr. Gary Kennedy of the Montefiore Medical Center called the study findings positive and hopeful.
"If the abnormalities in getting oxygen are what's causing the damage to the brain, it's a potentially reversible or preventable problem."
There however is currently is no cure for sleep apnea, except weight loss, for the condition is directly linked with obesity.
Redline stated that more research must be done on the link between oxygen deprivation and dementia because the study focused on the link between sleep apnea and dementia, with oxygen deprivation as a possible cause.
