Sleep Apnea Causes Brain Damage

February 4, 2010

A new study in the journal Sleep revealed that using special MRI imaging techniques, untreated sleep apnea patients have significantly decreased concentrations of gray matter in certain predictable areas of the brain. This means that the density of neurons is much lower than normal. The average AHI was 52, and on initial inspection of the MRI, there were no obvious structural abnormalities, with no differences in the total volume. However, gray matter density was significantly lower for sleep apnea patients in various areas of the brain that serves important functions such as memory, breathing, cardiovascular function, and autonomic function.

This study complements a prior study that showed that OSA patients have multiple dysfunctional areas of the brain.

I think the implications of this study along with various other similar studies are profound. What this means is that if you have obstructive sleep apnea, you can literally kill off certain parts of your brain, that preferentially control your memory, executive function, your breathing patterns, and even your your heart rate. Could this be an alternate explanation for central sleep apnea? Maybe this is also why not all patients that use CPAP feel significantly better—perhaps the damage is irreversible. What's frightening is that you can suffer permanent brain damage long before your sleep apnea is even picked up and treated.

Take a look at the abstract and read the paper if possible. What do you think about these findings? Please enter your opinions in the text box below.

Written by Steven Park · Filed Under Blog | 3 Comments

Sleep Apnea Can Cause Brain Damage

May 12, 2009

A recent review of the literature in the Journal of the American Dental Association concluded that episodes of hypoxia (low oxygen levels) due to sleep-breathing problems can lead to permanent brain damage, and can even occur in early childhood. These findings are not too surprising, with a number of studies in recent years that support this finding. What’s troubling, however, is that no one is making the possible connection between brain injury due to sleep apnea and other well known neurologic conditions such as ADHD and Alzheimer’s.

Numerous studies have shown that sleep apnea patients have more areas of injured or dead brain tissue than patients without sleep apnea. This can occur in the gray and white matter (which serve memory and cognition), and even in the lower areas that control breathing, sensation and movement. One sleep researcher at a meeting that I went to many years ago stated that in young children who undergo tonsillectomies for obstructive sleep apnea, they catch up pretty dramatically in terms of cognition, memory, reaction times and intelligence scores. But they never catch up fully with age matched control children that don’t have obstructive sleep apnea. What this implies is that there may be a slight, but permanent brain injury.

Written by Steven Park · Filed Under Blog | 2 Comments