About a third of American adults are living with obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that robs people of restful sleep and causes subtle damage throughout the body, especially if left untreated. New research out this week seems to show that sleep apnea can harm the brain in unexpected ways.
Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University and others examined the medical records of U.S. veterans. People with obstructive sleep apnea were significantly more likely to later be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, they found. The findings also suggest that treating sleep apnea early with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can lower the odds of developing this neurodegenerative condition.
“Effective screening measures and protocols for consistent adherence to CPAP may have large impacts on brain health,” the researchers wrote in their paper, published Monday in JAMA Neurology.
The dangers of sleep apnea
Obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, is the most common form of sleep apnea. It happens when airway muscles physically block a person’s breathing during sleep. Though these bouts of no breathing are momentary, they can occur hundreds of times a night in some cases. Loud snoring is a common symptom of sleep apnea, though not all people with sleep apnea snore, and not all regular snorers have sleep apnea.
OSA can steadily worsen our health over time since it subtly disturbs our sleep (the body briefly awakens to restore breathing) and can cause chronic low oxygen levels that are harmful to the heart and brain. OSA is suspected to raise the risk of various conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, and brain damage. Some research has also suggested that OSA may affect the risk of Parkinson’s, a neurological condition that gradually destroys nerve cells, sapping our ability to move and stay coordinated. But the evidence for this relationship so far is mixed, the researchers note, so they sought to take a closer look using data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
They analyzed health records from roughly 11 million adults over the age of 40 who received care through the VA between 1999 and 2022. About 14% of people were diagnosed with OSA. And compared to not having sleep apnea, OSA was associated with nearly double the risk of developing Parkinson’s, the researchers found. Importantly, this pattern held true even after the researchers accounted for other possibly relevant factors such as body mass index, vascular health problems, and certain psychiatric conditions.
“In this EHR-based cohort study, OSA appeared to be an independent risk factor for the later development of PD,” the researchers wrote.
The CPAP silver lining
Though this retrospective study can’t definitively show that sleep apnea causes Parkinson’s, it does provide more evidence of an important connection between the two conditions. And the team’s other findings may offer a ray of hope to people who have or are worried about having sleep apnea.
The researchers also compared the outcomes of people diagnosed with OSA who were or weren’t placed on CPAP, an effective and gold-standard treatment for the condition. People who went on CPAP within two years of their initial diagnosis were significantly less likely to develop Parkinson’s, they found. This result indicates that keeping apnea in check can help prevent or at least delay the progression of Parkinson’s.
“Having sleep apnea doesn’t guarantee you’re going to get Parkinson’s,” said study co-author Greg Scott, a pathologist and brain aging researcher at OHSU and the Portland VA, in a statement from the university. “But it does increase your risk—and CPAP seems to reduce it back down.”
Given how much of a danger sleep apnea can be to our health, it’s important to treat it regardless. Now there’s just more incentive to do so, for both your sleep and your brain.
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