October 2013 Newsletter

Greetings!
The presence of fall is fully here and it has nestled its way into crisper climates and shorter, cooler days. Many people look forward to fall favorites during this part of the year such as pumpkin treats or layering on favorite sweaters and knits. As we immerse ourselves into our fall treasures, we should also remain mindful of our health and the health of our loved ones. With the excitement of everything that fall brings, and the anticipation of the upcoming events and holidays around the corner, it can become easy to neglect our own health and wellness. Nuisances like snoring or restless sleep can sometimes become low on the priority list of critical things that need to be addressed. Please understand that issues such as snoring or waking up feeling unrefreshed after a night of sleep can be indicators of a serious health issue such as a sleep breathing disorder and/or sleep apnea.

Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep By Jon Hamilton

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/18/236211811/brains-sweep-themselves-clean-of-toxins-during-sleep

While the brain sleeps, it clears out harmful toxins, a process that may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, researchers say. During sleep, the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain increases dramatically, washing away harmful waste proteins that build up between brain cells during waking hours, a study of mice found. "It's like a dishwasher," says Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Rochester. lts appear to offer the best explanation yet of why animals and people need sleep. If this proves to be true in humans as well, it could help explain a mysterious association between sleep disorders and brain diseases, including Alzheimer's. Nedergaard and a team of scientists discovered the cleaning process while studying the brains of sleeping mice. The scientists noticed that during sleep, the system that circulates cerebrospinal fluid through the brain and nervous system was "pumping fluid into the brain and removing fluid from the brain in a very rapid pace," Nedergaard says. The team discovered that this increased flow was possible in part because when mice went to sleep, their brain cells actually shrank, making it easier for fluid to circulate. (Continued on Page 2)

If you or a loved one suffer from this, please call us today for more info!

October 2013 Newsletter

Sleep Is Critical For Living A Healthy Life

http://www.counselheal.com/articles/7185/20131015/sleep-critical-livinghealthy-life.htm

Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins (continued)

When an animal woke up, the brain cells enlarged again and the flow between cells slowed to a trickle. "It's almost like opening and closing a faucet," Nedergaard says. "It's that dramatic." Nedergaard's team, which is funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, had previously shown that this fluid was carrying away waste products that build up in the spaces between brain cells.

Getting some shut-eye every night for seven to nine hours is critical to maintaining one's health. Seeking treatment for a sleep disorder is just as critical too, according to three new studies. "30 percent of adults in the U.S. regularly get insufficient sleep," said the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. In one study, 2,240 adults were examined to find the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and mortality in Asians. "OSA is a serious sleep illness that is associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, depression and stroke," according to the AASM." AASM reports that at least 12 to 18 million adults in the U.S. have untreated obstructive sleep apnea, which involves the repetitive collapse of the upper airway during sleep." Results for the first study showed that other than increasing your risk of health complications, people with severe OSA have a cardiovascular mortality risk that is 4 times higher than peoples all-cause mortality risk which was 2.5 times higher. A second study of 2,673 patients in Australia established that untreated OSA is linked to an increase of risk for sleepy motor vehicle drivers. According to the study, reports showed that participants with untreated OSA were three times more likely to be involved in a car crash than anyone else without a sleep disorder. The third study observed the association between self-assessed health and sleep duration in Koreans. Results show that short sleep duration of 5 hours or less per day and long sleep duration of 9 hours or more per day was associated with poor self-rated health," said AASM. "The results add weight to recent data emphasizing the importance of adequate sleep in physical and mental health.

The process is important because what's getting washed away during sleep are waste proteins that are toxic to brain cells, Nedergaard says. This could explain why we don't think clearly after a sleepless night and why a prolonged lack of sleep can actually kill an animal or a person.
So why doesn't the brain do this sort of housekeeping all the time? Nedergaard thinks it's because cleaning takes a lot of energy. "It's probably not possible for the brain to both clean itself and at the same time [be] aware of the surroundings and talk and move and so on," she says. The brain-cleaning process has been observed in rats and baboons, but not yet in humans, Nedergaard says. Even so, it could offer a new way of understanding human brain diseases including Alzheimer's. That's because one of the waste products removed from the brain during sleep is beta amyloid, the substance that forms sticky plaques associated with the disease. That's probably not a coincidence, Nedergaard says. "Isn't it interesting that Alzheimer's and all other diseases associated with dementia, they are linked to sleep disorders," she says. Researchers who study Alzheimer's say Nedergaard's research could help explain a number of recent findings related to sleep. One of these involves how sleep affects levels of beta amyloid, says Randall Bateman, a professor of neurology Washington University in St. Louis who wasn't involved in the study.

"Beta amyloid concentrations continue to increase while a person is awake," Bateman says. "And then after people go to sleep that concentration of beta amyloid decreases. This report provides a beautiful mechanism by which this may be happening."
The report also offers a tantalizing hint of a new approach to Alzheimer's prevention, Bateman says. "It does raise the possibility that one might be able to actually control sleep in a way to improve the clearance of beta amyloid and help prevent amyloidosis that we think can lead to Alzheimer's disease."