Improving poor sleep CAN help prevent Alzheimer's & probably the reverse is true....

Today’s post:  Thursday, 6-4-2015

Medical News Today had a story earlier this week which showed evidence that lack of good quality sleep increased beta amyloid deposits. 

[http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/294760.php?tw ]

AND, beta amyloid deposits tended to prevent the kind of deep restorative sleep that prevented this.

It’s not widely known yet; but in deep sleep the working parts of your brain become more compact and the fluid channels between them open up.  And, apparently your body quite literally sends in the cleaning crew when that happens.

This research shows that lack of this kind of sleep stops the cleaning out of beta amyloid which creates brain and nerve damage.

Then, just like the rest of the brain, the nerve damage to the control centers for this process cause it to happen less or much less well.

Here’s a quote from Matthew Walker, senior author of the study:

"Our study shows that this beta-amyloid deposition may lead to a vicious cycle in which sleep is further disturbed and memory impaired."

Part one of the solution is clearly to take action to help people get much better sleep:

Matthew Walker says this directly himself in the report of his study:

“The good news about the findings, Walker said, is that

poor sleep is potentially treatable and can be enhanced through exercise, behavioral therapy and even electrical stimulation that amplifies brain waves during sleep, a technology that has been used successfully in young adults to increase their overnight memory.

"This discovery offers hope," he said. "Sleep could be a novel therapeutic target for fighting back against memory impairment in older adults and even those with dementia."

1.  You can improve sleep quality and reduce beta amyloid deposits with early morning exercise, blackout curtains, very regular sleep times, and the Chrona device and more.

2.  You can take stigmasterol and turmeric or curcumin with black pepper and 5,000 iu or more a day of vitamin D3 to stop or reverse beta amyloid deposits.  Using the ultrasound cleaning method in advanced cases may also help.

(The beta sitosterol supplement cholesterol balance taken from natural sources contains the related sterol, stigmasterol that appears with it. Taking that lowers your LDL cholesterol which is why I began taking it.  But Medical News Today ran a story that people with early Alzheimer’s who lost their sense of smell regained it when they took stigmasterol.  So taking it either helps prevent the beta amyloid from being deposited or more likely helps clean it out.

Curcumin with black pepper appears to do the double of causing less deposits of beta amyloid and increasing the clean out of any that shows up.  And, it cuts chronic inflammation enough to help cause less damage of the brain AND it lowers LDL cholesterol as beta sitosterol does to help maintain good blood circulation.  Vitamin D3 at levels comparable to what people get in sunny locations at times of year with good sun access strongly boosts immune function which also helps ensure the part of the immune system that does the cleaning is strong.  And, it may do more than that.)

(It may not be widely available for a bit, but in an earlier article Australian researchers were able to show their ultrasound system cleaned out as much as 75% of beta amyloid deposits!

When that becomes available, it may also become the first line treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.)

3.  Besides the regular exercise, taking DHA and getting enough choline and in some cases bacopa, uridine, etc to restore or prevent the damage from beta amyloid also makes sense.  So may coconut oil & taking PS & eating blueberries.

Regular vigorous exercise most days of every week – and to some extent even regular 10 minute walks most days of the week, causes your body to release BDNF which grows new nerves and brain cells.  People who fail to do this have the white matter that connects the parts of the brain and enables them to work together properly literally shrink and gradually stop working.

Mercifully, the reverse is true. To some degree you can reverse this damage by starting exercise.

Even better people who get this kind of exercise AND take the omega 3 DHA multiply this effect. (Taking DHA and getting this kind of exercise also sharply lowers the kind of LDL that causes heart disease and lowers brain circulation as was in our post two days ago. So exercise plus DHA by increasing brain circulation may boost the cleaning out of beta amyloid as well!

Taking the herbal supplement Bacopa has reported to also help do this.

One study found that exercise plus DHA even began to reverse Alzheimer’s disease and make restorative changes visible in brain scans when choline and uridine were added.

Uridine is quite expensive but you can get choline in egg yolks and supplements.

AND, one study found that adding the related supplement phosphatidyl serine even restored axons that were disconnected.  (We already knew phosphatidyl serine helped brain cells surfaces stay flexible enough to take in nutrient and discharge wastes better.

So by taking the steps we know produce better quality sleep and the ones we know prevent Alzheimer’s disease or reverse its damage it’s possible to do both.

We can improve sleep quality AND stop the process that creates Alzheimer’s and we may even be able to reverse it.