News article on OSA and silent brain damage...

[lovey]

I found this news article on OSA and how it might cause silent brain damage. Interesting. Makes me want to go out and get a brain MRI (even though the study was on men only). Any comments?

Sleep apnea linked to silent brain damage: Japanese study Fri Mar 16, 8:07 AM ET



People who suffer from fragmented sleep due to a condition called obstructive sleep apnea are at increased risk for subtle, creeping brain damage, according to a Japanese study published in the US.

In a small study involving 65 men, researchers at the Showa University School of Medicine in Tokyo found the men with moderate to severe obstructive apnea had significantly more lesions on brain scans than those who had mild or no sleep disorders.

The men with the greatest sleep disturbance also had significantly elevated markers for inflammation and blood clotting compared with the other men in the study.

The higher rates of inflammation and blood platelet activity, which correlated closely with oxygen deficiency, may explain why these men had more brain damage, the Japanese researchers said.

People who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea wake up repeatedly during the night because of a blocked airway, preventing them from reaching the deep, refreshing stages of slumber. Some sufferers endure 100 or more arousals a night.

Previous research has shown that people with the disorder are at higher risk for high blood pressure and stroke, but this study reveals the sub-clinical or "silent" cerebrovascular damage that may precede a major event such as a stroke.

However, the investigative team also showed that a treatment with a CPAP machine lowered the levels of inflammation and blood clotting.

Tests on 24 volunteers with moderate to severe apnea, who used a CPAP machine for three months, showed they had significantly lower levels of C-reactive protein, the marker for systemic inflammation, and two other platelet-activating proteins.

A CPAP machine supplies continuous airway pressure by means of an air compressor attached to a mask.

"CPAP may be an important intervention for decreasing the stroke risk in this susceptible population of obstructive sleep apnea patients," said Kenji Minoguchi, the lead author of the paper which appears in Thursday's issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.




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[drbandage]

I found this news article on OSA and how it might cause silent brain damage. Interesting. Makes me want to go out and get a brain MRI (even though the study was on men only). Any comments?

You mean women get OSA? Who knew??

Nice article. Certainly not a huge surprise, although not a happy thought. And you make a good point about studies that are not inclusive of people that are not society's power brokers. They'll lose significant credibility in the medical community because of the obvious omission, as well they should.

Suggestion: print out the abstract that lovey posted and mail it to your primary care physician and your sleep doc with a "nice" note that suggests how devastating untreated (and undiagnosed) OSA can be.

I have already placed a copy of the post into the inbox of all the primary care docs in our clinic.

Suggestion #2: Pursue a diet that would qualify as anti-inflammatory and regularly monitor blood pressure. http://tinyurl.com/39sa6w

Excellent post, lovey.

[Rabid1]

WOW!

That'll make our masks feel a little better tonight.

[CollegeGirl]

In case anyone was looking for more responses to this, Karen (Padacheek) started a thread on the very same topic earlier today. See:

viewtopic/t18243/A-very-smart-reason-to ... -CPAP.html

[DreamStalker]

Now I know why people have been telling me about how the noodle was not folded right and the peanut being half-baked.

Good thing I quit eating trans-fats and increased my omega acids along with airing out the space between my ears with this cool PAP contraption.

[Snoredog]

That sounds like the same study I had read years ago, think it referenced "silent strokes" it also showed some MRI images of the brain that looked like swiss cheese from all the infarction suffered due to the severe hypoxia condition from untreated OSA.

Sad part is most Neuros that seen an MRI like that had no idea as to the root cause of the problem. It would not surprise me if the cause of Alzheimer's was not somehow related to severe hypoxia suffered from another disorder like OSA.

Deprived of oxygenated blood your brain tissue begins to die in as little as 10 seconds, couple minutes worth and its like egg whites.

When you have a TIA once a week and a few strokes you take it upon yourself to find out what the risk factors are for stroke and how you can lower your own risk. I haven't had so much as a single TIA in over 6 years, aspirin a day and cpap.

One area I found of interest of study was the effects of Hypoxia on the brain and arteries, you get down to the root cause of endothelial injury and how it plays a role in contributing to thrombus/thrombi and related stroke.

No one has to convince me of the risk.



In my reading, injury at a bifurcation point was fairly common: