According to a health narrative from American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine that was posted in November, 2017 on a website called Science Daily, Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) might imperil the aged citizens from acquiring Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). NHMRC, actually, initiated to support and finance the initial research, along with the Mason Foundation.
It was believed that the focal point of the study would be the patients age 55-75 years old, in order to distinguish the common treatment of OSA and its relevance to the acquisition of Alzheimer’s Disease. It will be a helpful operation since, sleep interference may take 10 years before it aggravates into Alzheimer’s Disease.
Sleep Apnea, Alzheimer’s Disease and Amyloid Beta
It was found out that OSA heavily influences Amyloid Burden in an elderly with normal cognitive functions.
Ricardo S. Osorio, MD, senior study author and assistant professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine suggests that Amyloid Beta or the plaque-building peptides which is a trait of Alzheimer’s may greatly extend over time in elderly adults who are suffering from sleep apnea.
What is OSA and AD, and how many people experience the pain?
For those who are not familiar with Alzheimer’s, it is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects almost 46.8 million people worldwide, including 425,000 Australians, as stated by Alzheimer’s Association. On the other hand, sleep apnea is a type of serious sleep disorder that takes place whenever a person’s breathing is interrupted, as stated by WebMD. The Sleep Zone mentioned that almost 100 million people worldwide, are diagnosed with OSA.
An important apparatus called CPAP
Moreover, there is a device named Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) ventilator that is able to stop or delay brain degeneration related with insufficient amount of oxygen while sleeping, and lower the danger of dementia, although, further explorations are needed to authenticate if CPAP, indeed, protects cognitive decline. A researcher from the Queensland Brain Institute, Professor Pankaj Sah says that the study could guide them into creating feasible interventions and preventive public health measures in the near future.
Hypoxia and Brain Degeneration
A fellow professor from the same institute, Professor Elizabeth Coulson aforementioned that the patients who endure sleep apnea which, unfortunately, worsen to hypoxia (diminutive levels of oxygen in the blood) are 3 times more prone to developing Alzheimer’s Disease. Scientists are currently examining the plausibility of hypoxia into the retrogression of the different areas of the brain.
Chief Medical Advisor Dementia Australia, Associate Professor Michael Woodward recognized the whole analysis as a potential way for diminishing or lowering the risk of several types of disorders such as Alzheimer’s.
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