Yes, Joe Biden Using a CPAP Machine to Help Him Sleep Is a Big Deal

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Joe Biden appeared in public on Wednesday and displayed some curious marks on his face.

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The fact that the marks are still visible 4 or 5 hours after the president supposedly wakes up raises an urgent question. The White House says that Biden wears the CPAP mask because he suffers from sleep apnea — a common sleeping disorder afflicting around 20 million Americans, as the White House hurriedly tried to explain.

That’s very true. Sleep apnea is common. But for an 80-year-old man, it can be serious.

Obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, “occurs when a blockage in the airway prevents the patient from breathing while sleeping, causing the patient’s blood-oxygen levels to drop. This pattern, medically known as an apneic episode, triggers a ‘survival reflex’ in the brain, causing the patient to wake up in order to respond to the emergency and begin breathing,” according to the Washington Examiner.

According to the Sleep Foundation, you can die from sleep apnea. “Observational research has found that OSA increases a person’s risk of sudden death. This risk is believed to be higher in people of older age, in people with a critical illness, and in people with severe OSA.”

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So a condition that could seriously impact the president’s health — even lead to his death — went unmentioned in White House physician Kevin O’Connor’s summary of the president’s health following his most recent examination in February.

In 2008, Politico reported that Biden “has suffered from atrial fibrillation, or an irregular heartbeat,” which doctors said was probably “linked to Biden’s reoccurring problem of sleep apnea.” That was 15 years ago when Biden was running for vice president. Shouldn’t the White House doctor have updated the country on the president’s condition last February?

Washington Free Beacon:

Failing to treat his sleep apnea with a CPAP machine—for more than a decade—may have put Biden at increased risk for dementia, studies show.

That’s because untreated sleep apnea leads to intermittent oxygen deprivation in the brain, causing certain brain cells to die. Those brain cells are among the same cells “that we know die in dementia,” according to Australian neuroscientist Elizabeth Coulson. As a result, Coulson and her coauthors found in a recent study, untreated sleep apnea can lead to increased risk of dementia.

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“Sleep apnea is associated with a significantly increased risk of dementia, particularly for Alzheimer’s disease,” claimed a 2022 study published in the National Library of Medicine. Another study published in May in the American Academy of Neurology’s medical journal found that people “with sleep apnea who spend less time in deep sleep are more likely to have brain health problems that could lead to dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or a stroke.”

Biden’s recent troubling and embarrassing errors of fact– saying that Putin was “losing the war in Iraq — are becoming frightening. Let’s not forget this man could launch a couple of thousand nuclear weapons. And if he didn’t have a good night’s sleep? Knowing what the White House has known for months, is it possible that Joe Biden no longer has control of America’s nuclear arsenal? Who the hell is in charge?

Frankly, I’m sick of being lied to about Joe Biden’s health. We understand the political ramifications of Biden being incapacitated or unable to perform his duties. Democrats are worried about 2024. And considering the state of the world and the state of the economy, they damn well should be.

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But have we all gotten so far off the rails that doing what’s right for the country takes second place to personal ambition or maintaining power for a political party?

The White House needs to come clean about the president’s infirmities. And if they’re serious enough, Biden should step down.

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