BRAIN BENEFITS ???

When I google things like CPAP and Apnea I often see comments about Apnea Therapy helping the Brain recover.

Well, my wife and I have been using ResMed CPAP equipment for about 9 months, and seeing the exact opposite. We both had excellent Memory, but now we BOTH find it difficult to remember NAMES of People/Places/Vegetables/Medicines etc etc. If it were just one of us I could understand, but BOTH suffering in the same way at the same time seems VERY COINCIDENTAL !!

Does anybody else suffer in this way since starting Apnea Therapy ?

Well there is this thing called "age". Amazingly it seems to impact everyone at the same rate...

More seriously CPAP as long as it is set up properly does reduce the amount to time that oxygen levels in the blood and brain go below normal levels. The time spent in apnea or in oxygen deficiency is probably not good for us in the long term.

Sorry Sierra but I don't understand your 2nd paragraph ?? Are you saying that Apnea THERAPY Does or Does Not help the Brain LONG(OR SHORT) Term ?

Sierra, I'm far less educated in a medical profession (never before seen or read what you sent) ....... BUT ...... My question was related to what is happening during CPAP Therapy itself. My wife apparently had been getting "events" in the 30's for quite a while, whereas I was very low and only got the CPAP to see if it improved my Night Sweats. Also we are several years apart, and RIGHT UP TO THE TIME WE STARTED THERAPY, we BOTH got complements on our Memories. NOW, as above, I have to believe that the Therapy is harming our Memories !!!

I was diagnosed with OSA in my fifties, but, in retrospect, had it from childhood, as did most of my family on both sides (undiagnosed at the time, of course.) Moreover, although not overweight until much later in life, I desaturated severely, below 70% every night. Sometimes as low as 60%.

By the time I was in my fifties, I was experiencing seizures from the brain damage caused by the nightly hypoxemia and after three days of neuropsychological tests, tentatively diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimers. At the time of the EOAD diagnosis, I had already been diagnosed with, and was in treatment for, the OSA. But six months into treatment, I was still experiencing the seizures, which was the reason I sought out the neurologist.

The neurologist totally ignored the OSA as the possible cause of the abnormal neuropsychological testing findings. But after the neurologist did genetic testing without my knowledge or consent (illegal in 14 states at the time, and merely unethical in the other 36) I changed neurologists. But the time of the appointment with the second neurologist, the curative effect of totally adherent, effective PAP treatment had started to kick in.

It took about four years to recover and fully “ get my brain back”. But considering that I was trying to rebuild my brain after a life time of nightly damage, perhaps the fact that it took a while to do so, should not have been a surprise.

This happened almost 20 years ago. I’m about to turn 76 and I’m doing fine cognitively. But I use my PAP machine absolutely EVERY time I sleep. I minimize mask and mouth leaks and have a residual AHI between 0.0 and 0.3.

Even if you have an AHI of only 1, if you want age well, I would recommend getting to a doc who will treat your SA.