LOS
ANGELES, November 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Brain damage -
not a blocked airway - may be the cause of a sleeping disorder that
causes explosively loud snoring and fitful nights, U.S. researchers said
Monday, November 18.
Scientists
at the University of California at Los Angeles say patients who suffer
from the disorder, known as sleep apnea, also show a dramatic early loss
of grey matter.
“Our
findings show that sleep apnea patients also suffer disordered wiring in
brain regions that control muscles of the airway,” said UCLA
neurobiology professor Ronald Harper, who led research into the problem.
“These
glitches may lead to the syndrome, which is exacerbated by a small
airway,” he added of the research, details of which appear in the
latest edition of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care
Medicine.
Doctors
had previously blamed the condition on a narrowed airway caused by
enlarged tonsils, a small jaw or excess fat, Harper said.
Some
four percent of the U.S. population suffers from sleep apnea, in which
the throat and mouth relax during sleep, collapsing the airway.
Harper’s
team examined magnetic resonance imaging scans of the brains of 21 men
diagnosed with sleep apnea and 21 who died not suffer from the disorder.
The
findings were measured against a template of 152 patients whose brain
scans were classified as normal.
The
healthy men’s brains were between two and 18 percent larger in the
areas that control breathing.
“Our
findings suggest this sleep apnea is a pre-existing condition - that
abnormal brain wiring from childhood contributes to the onset of the
disorder in adulthood,” Harper said.
Harper
added that obstructive sleep apnea patients often display other traits
that suggest subtle brain damage, including problems with memory,
thought and motor skills.
“The
repeated oxygen loss from sleep apnea may damage other brain structures
that regulate memory and thinking,” he said.
In
an online supplement to the article, Harper’s team said 38 percent of
sleep apnea patients reported a history of stuttering or speech
impairment. Some seven percent of the U.S. population stutter.
