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Re:Alzheimer’s Drug Failure Leaves Scientists Seeking New Di... by graeme on Saturday March 23, 2019 @07:08PM (#19472836)
Read an interesting anecdote on amyloids in Why We Sleep. During a certain sleep phase, the brain tissues change size and open up pathways for cerebrospinal fluid to pass this. This washes out amyloids.

Over time with age and with brain damage, older adults lose the ability to generate this type of sleep, and so there is less cleaning.

Does anyone know any more about this? It seems plausible that the cause could be partly due to a loss of this sleep cleaning function. Indeed lack of sleep is correlated with alzheimers.

But that's just a book anecdote. I'd be curious to read more.

Re:Alzheimer’s Drug Failure Leaves Scientists Seeking New Di... by holowire on Saturday March 23, 2019 @11:39PM (#19474115)
I am currently reading Why We Sleep as well, and Matthew Walker's research on the topic is really interesting to consider within the larger constellation of approaches to Alzheimer's—particularly in context of the dietary/metabolic angle.

The neural maintenance that occurs during sleep, the body's circadian mechanisms and quality of diet all seem to be highly complementary and ultimately point towards a more holistic and fundamental understanding of the disease (or brain physiology in general). It's been demonstrated pretty comprehensively that quality of diet and timing of eating have a profound effect on how well the body functions as a whole, so the sleep component seems to be an important thread in tying all of these approaches together.