Image source: American Health Assistance Foundation
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a debilitating condition that destroys brain cells and causes cognitive impairment. Symptoms range from confusion, mood swings, difficulty in learning and reacting (mild), to severe manifestations like not recognizing family members, inability to feed himself, to totally losing all memory.
Up to this time, scientists still have to identify the exact cause/s of Alzheimer's. The closest they have gone to understanding this disease is the discovery of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Experts say that we accumulate these plaques and tangles as we age, but those diagnosed with dementia are found to have gross of amounts of these.
If, for whatever reason, you have been worrying about Alzheimer's Disease (AD), don't let this report stress you out enough to keep you up at night: scientists have discovered a connection between chronic lack of sleep and Alzheimer's.
NewScientist reports new finding that chronic sleep deprivation could spur the development of these toxic plaques in the brain that cause the progression of Alzheimer's disease. These amyloid plaques destroy the neurons in the brain.
In an experiment with mice, David Holtzman and his team found that the brains of sleeping mice have a higher concentration of beta-amyloid compared to when they are awake. Beta-amyloids are proteins that turn into plaques that kill brain cells. Mice that were deprived of sleep for 20 hours were also found to develop more amyloid plaques in the brain. Experiments with human subjects produced the same results, suggesting that sleep could minimize the level of these plaque-producing proteins in the human brain.
This report brings us to sleep as a solution to mitigate the disease. However, people with AD are also known to have sleeping problems. Sleeping pills are a tempting option - but hold it right there. The MayoClinic advises against it. It says in its website, "Most medicines designed specifically to help people sleep can cause problems for people with Alzheimer's disease. These drugs often increase confusion."
This brings us back to exercise, as the best option. Exercise helps us sleep easily and it increases the amount of time in deep sleep, which is the stage of sleep where our brain works at repairing itself, developing new neurons, and consolidating information.
