United States: For many years, the connection between the quality of sleep and Alzheimer’s disease has been a focus of interest.
Current findings indicate that irregular sleeping patterns are one of the first typical indicators of Alzheimer’s disease before the manifestation of more serious symptoms like memory impairment and dementia.
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Scientists believe that promoting healthy sleep could be a key strategy in combating the disease.
This is why some experts hypothesize that improving the quality and quantity of people’s sleep could be one of the ways to fight the illness.
It is well established that the brain, during sleep, clears out, detoxifies, and removes waste products from the cerebral spinal fluid and embarks on an important detoxification process.
These involve amyloid-beta and tau proteins that aggregate into toxic clumps in the brains of persons living with Alzheimer’s illness, dailygalaxy.com reported.
That is why sleep quality should be improved, which would improve the natural cleaning mechanism and possibly influence the slowing down of the progress of the illness in some way, dailygalaxy.com reported.
About a promising sleeping pill
The research carried out by researchers from Washington University in St. Louis centered on suvorexant – an insomnia therapy.
A group of healthy adults who took suvorexant over two nights at a sleep clinic had a modest reduction in both amyloid-beta and tau in their cerebrospinal fluids.
Consequently, although it was a short-term study and the sample included only a small number of subjects, the obtained outcomes are stimulating. Brendan Lucey, a neurologist who coordinated the study, says that suvorexant lowered the levels of amyloid-beta by 10 to 20 percent against baseline measurements of a placebo.
Also, the higher doses of the drug were found to inhibit, though only in the short term, one of the forms of Tau protein, known as hyperphosphorylated tau, which has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, dailygalaxy.com reported.
But, Lucey also warned against immediately jumping to conclusions, “It would be premature for people who are worried about developing Alzheimer’s to interpret it as a reason to start taking suvorexant every night,” he added.
Some Key takeaways
At the same time, the results of the study are exciting, but the multifactorial nature of Alzheimer’s disease indicates that it requires an integrative approach to the problem of the brain. Here are some key takeaways:
- It is essential to enhance the sleep habits necessary to maintain the wellness of the brain.
- Addressing other conditions that cause sleep disturbance, like sleep apnea
- Taking a balanced diet enriched in nutrients such as vitamin D
- Exercise and mental stimulation on a regular basis