premature grey hair and SA

[sharon1965]

hi all
this may be a really dumb question, but i've searched it and can't seem to find anything

it was a friend of my family who first alerted me to the possibility that i had osa, and we go to the same sleep clinic...the other day he was telling me that he believes my brother has it also, based on many signs and symptoms, one of which is his pure grey hair...i was surprised to hear that as i'd never heard of a link, but he said "didn't the doc mention that to you? premature greying is one of the first symptoms"(of course i was sitting there with my carefully coloured hair, the doc wouldn't have reason to think i've had grey hair since my teens)...i assured him that i'm convinced that 2 of my 4 brothers and my father have osa, no doubt about it, but again, based on other signs...however, my father, the same two brothers and i were all quite grey before 30...i needed to colour my hair by the time i was 20 and by the time i was 35 i was 80% grey...now, at 41, i'm probably more than 90%...we've always believed that the early grey just ran in the family, but my friend says what's actually running in my family is osa...it's odd, too, that the other 2 bros have only gradual, age-appropriate greying, not the crazy early grey that the rest of us had...

has anyone ever heard of a link? maybe that will help me support my case when talking to my brothers...the increased risk of heart disease and stroke doesn't seem to bother them...maybe just an interesting factoid like this would convince them that something is amiss...

thanks!
sharon1965

[Wulfman]

Sharon,

So far, I haven't heard of that "link", but I'll tell you that I HAVE wondered about it. Problem is.....genetics can have so much to do with everything.

Den

[Julie]

It's absolutely genetics if they were all gray so early. I'll bet a bundle there's no link to OSA and she was either pulling your leg or repeating something she'd heard (from an ignorant person).

[sharon1965]

den

i hear ya...it was funny because when my friend said, 'look at all the white hair in your family!' i said, 'yeah, it runs in the family' he just laughed, and said 'osa runs in your family', but i have to admit, at the time i just thought, 'man, you really are sleep deprived!' but now i'm really curious, especially since my daughter snored like a power drill till we had her tonsils and adenoids out at 6 yrs. old, and my 4 year old nephew is having apneas...unfortunately, no one in my family seems to want to hear about this...they just pat me on the head like they've always done (only girl in the fam.= no credibility) and remind me that i've always been a maniac when i sleep, so what's the big deal?

sharon1965

[sharon1965]

It's absolutely genetics if they were all gray so early. I'll bet a bundle there's no link to OSA and she was either pulling your leg or repeating something she'd heard (from an ignorant person).

no, julie,
i said 3 of the 5 of us were all grey, not all of us, the other two, who coincidentally i don't suspect have osa, are not grey...you're right, i thought he was pulling my leg too, but he maintains that our sleep doc told him that! crazy

[mkirkwag]

Well, I'm from a family with prematurely gray hair and sleep apnea. I haven't heard that gray hair is an indicator, but it could be that a small population with early gray and sleep apnea grew into a "trend." Things like that happen all the time.

[sharon1965]

the only references i've found mentioning both sleep apnea and grey hair are in regard to hypothyroidism...apparently if you have both the doc should be checking you for that as well

who knows, maybe my friend is delusional

[roster]

Well isn't untreated sleep apnea attacking your whole body? Heart, brain, circulatory system, hormone-producing organs, metabolic system, and much more?

I have some patches of vitiligo and one of them is in my scalp leaving a patch of grey hair in my head of dark hair. I also have had patches of lichen planus and alopecia areata.

All three of these conditions are autoimmune malfunctions. They started when I was in my late thirties. Thinking back, this seems to have been when my sleep apnea started to really bother me. It then went undiagnosed/misdiagnosed for years.

So could sleep apnea cause premature greying? I would say, "Maybe". See how many premature grey people you can find who don't have any signs of sleep apnea.

[Alisha]

Sharon, my brother, sister, and I have sleep apnea. My father, now deceased, had sleep apnea. Each of us also have/had a serious hereditery skin disease. However, to my knowledge, my sister is the only one whose hair started graying at a very young age.

Alisha

[Snoredog]

A buddy of mine started graying when he was a Senior in High School, now that he is a senior he is completely white.

He married this gal who was a hair dresser, she used to dye his hair every week including his mustache and chest hair.

We used to sleep a lot on the top deck of the houseboat, there was a dozen or more people every weekend. We were all up there one night after a heavy day of partying and I accidently ran into him going downstairs to use restroom.

He says what you cannot see me? I said hell no I can't, not since you dyed your hair, you used to glow in the dark like a glow-worm, then you were much easier to see. His wife finally gave up that practice.

He doesn't have OSA at all.

[scotty]

I've never heard of a direct OSA/grey hair connection from my doctor or anthing I read about it. I think I did read that hypothyroidism is a risk factor of OSA and premature grey hair is associated with hypothyroidism. However, people with hypothyroidism are at risk for OSA, too. Kinda like chicken and the egg. haha.

There are connections all over the place. It can be fun trying to figure out all the possible cause and effect links -- but it can get frightening, too.

I'm 40 and found just one gray hair so far this year (that was a couple days ago, actually) and my siblings -- younger and older, all non-OSA -- have little or no gray as well. Sounds like it's affected by genetics more than anything else. I wish OSA was directly linked to baldness because it would be great if being on CPAP meant my receding hairline would reverse itself!

[jackr]

I wish I had gray hair. For that matter I wish I had any hair at all!

[kteague]

I tried to do a little searching, and the closest thing I could find was the parallel course of the long standing premise that stress can affect graying of hair and that sleep apnea causes stress both physically and mentally.

Otherwise, I saw that hypothyroidism is associated with graying hair and with the tongue being enlarged. Could sleep apnea caused by the tongue being enlarged by hypothyroidism have been circuitously linked to gray hair, and be a clinical clue specific to that subset of sleep apnea patients?

Can the friend who said this to you give your their source?

Kathy - with the salt & pepper balance shifting

[racefan]

I can only speak for myself.I'm 52 & only have about a 1/2 dozen grey hairs & apnea went undiagnosed for years before being treated.

[sharon1965]

kteague,

my friend claims that his source is our sleep doc, who runs the sleep clinic here... i kept saying, 'really? are you sure? i've never heard of that!'

i know it all sounds prepostorous--i guess when he pointed out that the 5 people we were talking about (himself, me, 2 of my bros and my dad) fit the sleep apnea/premature grey 'profile', it got me wondering...not a very accurate control group, though, huh?

then again, heartburn, incontinence, headaches, weight gain, fluid retention, muscle pain, heart disease, stroke etc., etc.--who knew they were all connected? but not everyone has all symptoms

thanks to all who have responded, though, it's interesting--still thinking that maybe he misunderstood the doc --maybe he's more sleep deprived than he thought!