Snoring, Sleep Apnea Linked to Alzheimer's Disease, Study Claims

According to a new study released by the Mayo Clinic and cited by Fox News , heavy snorers may have higher accumulations of the toxic protein tau — a bio-hallmark of Alzheimer's disease — in the portion of the brain that manages memory, navigation, and perception of time. This new data will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Philadelphia set for May 4-10. It supports a major link between an increased risk for dementia and sleep disruption — one that's especially true for obstructive sleep apnea where breathing repeatedly stops during sleep. Using the population-based Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, a research team identified 288 men and women 65 and older who did not have dementia. Participants were asked to track when their snoring bed partners stopped breathing during slumber. Brain scans then looked for a build-up of the toxic protein in the entorhinal cortex, the brain zone deep behind the nose that's most susceptible to tau accumulation and stores and retrieves info related to visual perception when experiences happen. Those bed partners who witnessed sleep apneas had about 4.5 percent higher levels of tau in the entorhinal cortex than those observed in peaceful sleep.