‘The worst thing you can do for your brain is starve it of oxygen’—and sleep apnea may be doing just that
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“Sleep apnea triples the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. One of the big lessons imaging has taught me is that I can actually see the pattern for sleep apnea on a scan, and it looks like early Alzheimer’s.” — Daniel Amen, MD
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Sleep apnea is often dismissed as a common, manageable condition—but what if it’s silently tripling your patients' risk of Alzheimer’s disease?
Daniel Amen, MD, a leading brain health expert, has uncovered a troubling connection in a new Instagram Reel: sleep apnea triples the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Even more concerning, brain scans of patients with sleep apnea often reveal patterns resembling the early stages of Alzheimer’s—an alarming discovery that isn’t getting enough attention.
“When you sleep, you stop breathing multiple times,” Dr. Amen explains. “If you sleep alone, you might not even realize it, because no one’s there to hear your snoring.”
Even when diagnosed, many patients resist treatment, often due to the discomfort of wearing a CPAP mask. But Dr. Amen is firm: “You have to treat it. The worst thing you can do for your brain is starve it of oxygen.”
As healthcare providers, it’s time we rethink how we approach sleep apnea. It’s not just a sleep disorder—it’s a significant contributor to cognitive decline. Treating it could be one of the most effective ways to slow Alzheimer’s progression and protect brain health in at-risk patients.
It’s time we recognize sleep apnea for what it truly is: a silent threat to cognitive health that we cannot afford to overlook. Treating it isn’t just about improving sleep—it’s about protecting our patients' brains from irreversible damage.
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