A recent opinion paper in the well respected Journal ‘Neurology’ nicely summarises research about the ‘glymphatic system’ in our brain. This system, only recently understood, drains fluid from our brain in a way similar to the way the ‘lymphatic’ system drains fluid from our arms and legs. The glymphatic system particularly works during sleep and probably has a major role in clearing away various break-down products of proteins, peptides and solutes. We know that some of these substances, such as Beta amyloid, Tau protein and alpha-synuclein, if they accumulate in the brain, are not good for us and are associated with several forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.
This glymphatic system’s function is decreased with ageing, sleep apnoea, obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cerebrovascular atherosclerosis, cerebrovascular haemorrhage, ischaemic stroke and sleep disruption or deprivation – all risk factors for dementia.
The significance of all these observations isn’t crystal clear but certainly suggests that we need to see a lot of further research into the glymphatic system.
Enter ‘Does Sleep Flush Waste From the Brain?’ into your search engine to read the paper.