Sleep Apnea’s Impact on Alzheimer’s

There's some large studies prior to knowing about sleep apnea. One of them was the Nurses Health Study, where they looked at tens of thousands of women. We found that there's a clear association between short sleep and neurocognitive decline. There's a clear association between short sleep and obesity since that time. We have actual data on people that have sleep apnea, and we see that people that have sleep apnea when it's not treated, they typically get Alzheimer's a decade sooner than those that do not have sleep apnea. They get Alzheimer's at a higher rate, about a 65% higher rate. Sooner onset and sleep apnea when it's treated slows the decline in the face of Alzheimer's. Now, we don't know. Does treating sleep apnea prevent Alzheimer's? Probably reduces it, but there's no evidence to suggest that.