People with untreated obstructive sleep apnea have roughly twice the risk of developing Parkinson's disease, according to a large-scale study involving 13.7 million Americans. The more severe the apnea, the higher the likelihood of the disease.
The good news is that CPAP therapy -- a device that provides continuous positive airway pressure to keep the airway open during sleep -- reduces this risk by about 30-50%, especially when started soon after diagnosis, Medical News Today reported.
Of all participants, 1.55 million had been diagnosed with sleep apnea, and six years later researchers recorded 1.6 cases of Parkinson's per 1,000 people with the condition -- significantly more than among those without sleep disorders. The study further shows that CPAP does not fully eliminate the risk but lowers it substantially, by one third to one half.
This is the first large study to demonstrate both that more severe apnea carries a higher risk of Parkinson's and that timely CPAP treatment can meaningfully reduce that risk. Specialists note that 25-35% of middle-aged adults have sleep apnea, yet up to 90% remain undiagnosed. | BGNES