Brief Answer: Before Dementia, What about sleep habits? Detailed Answer: Hi! Thanks for coming to HealthCareMagic. I'm so sorry to hear about your sleep apnea and memory issues. From what you have described here, the is a remote chance that you could have early onset dementia (I say early onset because you are 48, and that's VERY early for dementia). Before we go down that path though, I would like to put you on the path or ruling out some much more likely possibilities. Dementia is a diagnosis of exclusion and we should exclude all the other issues first. When did your sleep apnea start? Have they been able to determine a reason behind it? There are many reasons for sleep apnea, not the least of which are High pressure on the airway at night from obesity to certain tracheal diseases. When you were you put on CPAP? What are the settings? And last but actually most important, has the quality of your sleep improved since you started the CPAP? I am focusing very heavily on the the sleep apnea because it is known to cause an issue with memory and retention of information. If your brain is chronically fatigued then you could have all the symptoms of dementia but we could be missing the vital (and very correctable) issue of chronic fatigue. One of the most important things to look at when you have sleep apnea is to see what the quality of your sleep is like AFTER the CPAP is started. You may need to tweak the settings on the machine (or the doctor might, don't change settings on your own). There is a test known as a sleep study which is basically an overnight test where they monitor you while you sleep. They look at brain activity, dream cycles (REM and nREM sleep) and a host of other factors to evaluate if you are getting proper sleep or not. Has this been done for you? Also, when was your most recent thyroid checkup? Are all the levels in normal range on the current dose of eltroxin? Both the sleep issues and improperly treated hypothyroidism can lead to that feeling of dullness and laziness. Do you have any medical issues beyond the sleep apnea and hypothyroidism? It would help to have all that information so that we can have a more full and fruitful conversation. All in all, I would not feel right in jumping to the diagnosis of dementia first. In fact.. lets keep that as the absolute LAST option and see if we can work forward on reasoning out your problems. When you give me the info that you can, we will go over it and formulate a plan to help you manage your issues. Feel free to follow-up any time and thanks again for coming to HealthCareMagic Vinay

---

Brief Answer: Don't worry, we can work around that Detailed Answer: I can't communicate with you outside of this system. Its a company policy. Do not worry. You are allowed 3 free follow ups. I will stay on your case and I will make sure you don't have to keep repeating yourself. Thanks again, Vinay

---