Sleep Apnea and Parkinson's

jacob006a · Post by **jacob006a** » Fri May 04, 2012 7:18 am

I was diagnosed with Parkinson's about two years ago. About four months ago, I started passing out randomly, while driving etc. Luckily, I didn't have any accidents and the blackouts were very short. I was taking mirapex for Parkinson's at that point. I was then diagnosed with Sleep Apnea and had my medications switched around taking mirapex and sinemet, not having blackouts. I am wondering if the sleep apnea is a result of the Parkinson's disease as I never had any sleep issues until about four or five months ago.

Since getting the CPAP last month, I am averaging six hours sleep a night, which is up from two to three hours.

Thanks

NightMonkey · Post by **NightMonkey** » Fri May 04, 2012 8:02 am

I think it is more likely that untreated sleep apnea causes Parkinson's disease.

Read

http://doctorstevenpark.com/can-sleepin ... e-dementia

and

http://doctorstevenpark.com/lou-gehrig- ... leep-apnea

and let us know what you think.

avi123 · Post by **avi123** » Fri May 04, 2012 8:11 am

My wife has early stage of Parkinson's for the last 1 1/2 years. She controls it nicely with medications. She does not have sleep apnea but snores a bit.
There is vast medical data that Parkinson's leads to Sleep Disorders.

jnk · Post by **jnk** » Fri May 04, 2012 8:22 am

jacob006a wrote: . . . I am wondering if the sleep apnea is a result of the Parkinson's disease . . .

Good question.

Answer unknown, at this point, in general, as I understand it:

Previous studies have reported a high incidence of sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) in PD [Parkinson's Disease] patients (approximately 20%–60%) compared with age- and sex-matched control patients. In these studies, the body mass index of patients with PD was similar to or even lower than that of control patients, suggesting that upper airway muscle dysfunction caused by nocturnal akinesia or dyskinesia of the respiratory muscle may play a role in the development of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in PD. By contrast, a study measuring PSG over three consecutive nights found that the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was not different between PD patients and control patients and that the rate of OSA in PD patients was similar to that observed in the general population. Another study reported that sleep apnea, defined as an AHI >5, was less frequent in the PD group compared with an in-hospital control group who exhibited daytime sleepiness (27% versus 40%) and that daytime sleepiness was caused by other, nonapneic, mechanisms. The relationship between OSA and PD requires further investigation.

Keisuke Suzuki, Masayuki Miyamoto, Tomoyuki Miyamoto, Masaoki Iwanami, and Koichi Hirata, “Sleep Disturbances Associated with Parkinson's Disease,” Parkinson's Disease, vol. 2011, Article ID 219056, 10 pages, 2011. doi:10.4061/2011/219056

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/pd/2011/219056/

NightMonkey · Post by **NightMonkey** » Fri May 04, 2012 8:30 am

avi123 wrote: There is vast medical data that Parkinson's leads to Sleep Disorders. [/b]

I do not believe that scientists have sorted out which is cause and which is effect, if either, regarding the high correlation of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and Parkinson's.

The motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease result from the death of dopamine-generating cells in the substantia nigra, a region of the midbrain; the cause of this cell death is unknown.

It could be that SDB causes the referenced cell death. It is certainly known that SDB causes cell death in some regions of the brain.

I am not proposing that SDB is the only cause of Parkinson's as there are certainly other things that can cause the referenced cell death.

jnk · Post by **jnk** » Fri May 04, 2012 8:41 am

And some might say that although the correlation between sleep disorders (in general) and PD is sufficiently established, the correlation between SDB (specifically) and PD is not.

If PD patients are known for sleep troubles, they are more likely to get the sleep study that can discover SDB. That can throw off the numbers and lead, at least temporarily, to some people drawing conclusions (as in, assumptions) that are not scientifically established. Yet.

jacob006a · Post by **jacob006a** » Fri May 04, 2012 2:01 pm

Yes, from all that I read, it is confusing to what causes what with PD.

I am participating in a Parkinson's research study in a week or so.

I am still researching both maladies to make sure I at least understand what is going on.

Thanks

jnk · Post by **jnk** » Fri May 04, 2012 3:24 pm

From a treatment point of view (is there another?), I would make sure I was getting my obstructive apnea treated no matter what other health issue(s) I needed to deal with. So I would make sure the research did not require my agreeing to leave apnea untreated for some reason for any significant amount of time.

But hey, that's just me.

Knowing what causes a problem may be interesting and may be helpful to future generations. But when there is an available treatment as simple and effective as PAP therapy, for as significant an anatomical problem as obstructive sleep apnea, respect for quality of life demands that we take full advantage of that therapy now for our own well-being.

In my opinion.

NightMonkey · Post by **NightMonkey** » Fri May 04, 2012 4:04 pm

jnk wrote: That can throw off the numbers and lead, at least temporarily, to some people drawing conclusions (as in, assumptions) that are not scientifically established. Yet.

I thought it was widely understood that we act every day in many ways on knowledge that has never been scientifically established. It's a good thing we do, otherwise the human population would have never gotten off the ground.

I have read too many posts to remember but I thought it was you who quoted a doctor saying, "There is no scientific study showing that ingestion of water will treat dehydration but we treat all dehydration cases with water." (We don't say wait for a scientific study before making assumptions.)

DavidCarolina · Post by **DavidCarolina** » Fri May 04, 2012 4:16 pm

Based on my research Night Monkey seems to be ahead of the curve.

Theyre just NOW starting to inter-relate all these corrrelative and causative factors between 02 deprivation, c02 problems, nutrition deficiency (like d3), apnea, parkins, MS, fibromyalgia, intestinal permeability (which causes all hell to break loose including multiple food allergies and adrenal mysfunction0,

ETC ETC.

The "funny" and ironic part of this is that most doctors scoff at these interelations. They dont know anything about it.

FUNGI is another related condition. Theyre discovering that it causes asthma. When you do research you have to be prepared to stand alone
on the convictions of what you discover. You'll know way more than your doctors do.

jnk · Post by **jnk** » Fri May 04, 2012 5:02 pm

Sometimes the night chimp makes me miss the yard bird.

But not very often.

My previous point is that causation does not dictate treatment.

My new point is that trying to impress your doc with personal theories is likely to be more entertaining to you than to your doc.

avi123 · Post by **avi123** » Fri May 04, 2012 7:50 pm

jacob, having blakouts during driving is scary. How do you know that you had them? Do you relate it to the PD or to OSA? My wife who takes Stalevo for her PD says that she does not have those episodes while driving.

******************************************
jnk, why can't you foe the monkey?

avi123 · Post by **avi123** » Fri May 04, 2012 8:02 pm

DavidCarolina wrote:Based on my research Night Monkey seems to be ahead of the curve.

Theyre just NOW starting to inter-relate all these corrrelative and causative factors between 02 deprivation, c02 problems, nutrition deficiency (like d3), apnea, parkins, MS, fibromyalgia, intestinal permeability (which causes all hell to break loose including multiple food allergies and adrenal mysfunction0,

ETC ETC.

The "funny" and ironic part of this is that most doctors scoff at these interelations. They dont know anything about it.

FUNGI is another related condition. Theyre discovering that it causes asthma. When you do research you have to be prepared to stand alone
on the convictions of what you discover. You'll know way more than your doctors do.

Reply,

David, physicians rely on centuries to prove procedures and remedies. Don't you know it? It's not that they don't know about new stuff. But they are afraid of being sued. They rather let someone else be the smart Doc and pay the price.

jacob006a · Post by **jacob006a** » Fri May 04, 2012 8:12 pm

Most likely cause of the blackouts was Mirapex, which was the only pd drug I was on. I take sinemet and Mirapex now and no more blackouts since lowering the Mirapex dosage. It is a listed side effect. I was doing fine on it until things went south on me.

I realized I was having blackouts when I was further down the block then I remembered being. They ran me through many tests and that is when they found the sleep apnea in addition to the PD.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Fri May 04, 2012 8:30 pm

It's interesting that one known answer to PLMD/RLS is dopamine, the same thing given to Parkinson's patients...

Sleep Apnea and Parkinson's

Sleep Apnea and Parkinson's

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