Betty C. Jung: The brain makes a lot of waste. Now scientists think they know where it goes www.npr.org/sections/sho...

The brain makes a lot of waste. Now scientists think they know where it goes www.npr.org/sections/sho...

The brain makes a lot of waste. Now scientists think they know where it goeswww.npr.org The brain appears to rely on synchronized waves to wash out waste products, including toxins associated with Alzheimer's disease.

About 170 billion cells are in the brain, and as they go about their regular tasks, they produce waste — a lot of it. To stay healthy, the brain needs to wash away all that debris.

During sleep, slow electrical waves push the fluid around cells from deep in the brain to its surface. There, a sophisticated interface allows the waste products in that fluid to be absorbed into the bloodstream, which takes them to the liver and kidneys to be removed from the body.

Iliff & Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, first proposed the clear fluids in & around the brain are part of a system to wash away waste products (AKA glymphatic system)which helps fight infection, maintain fluid levels and filter out waste products and abnormal cells.

Both systems work like plumbing in a house (Jonathan Kipnis/ Washington University/St. Louis. Water & sewage pipes - water comes in clean, and the dirty water goes out." The lymphatic system is a network of thin tubes transporting waste to bloodstream. Brain lacks these tubes.

In sleeping animals, cerebrospinal fluid begins to flow quickly through the brain, flushing out waste. It turned out that the electrical waves were acting as a signal, synchronizing the activity of neurons and transforming them into tiny pumps that push fluid toward the brain's surface.

"Around the vein, you have a sleeve, which is never fully sealed," he says. "That's where the [cerebrospinal fluid] is coming out" and transferring waste to the body's lymphatic system.

One of the waste products carried away is amyloid, the substance that forms sticky plaques in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease, when the brain's waste-removal system is impaired, says Jeffrey Iliff/University of Washington.

I wonder if the microplastics we're all swimming in are part of the clogging...

Wonder no more! March 4, 2024 research: Nanoplastics, widely existing in the environment and organisms, have been proven to cross the blood-brain barrier and increase the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Impact of nanoplastics on Alzheimer ’s disease: Enhanced amyloid-β peptide aggregation and augmented neurotoxicitywww.sciencedirect.com Nanoplastics, widely existing in the environment and organisms, have been proven to cross the blood-brain barrier, increasing the incidence of neurode…

📌

This recent paper challenges the existence of the glymphatic system. It's not as clear as some folks have claimed 🤔 www.science.org/content/arti...

Does sleep really clean the brain? Maybe not, new paper argueswww.science.org A mouse study challenges popular “glymphatic” theory, but its methodology is drawing criticism

That is true. I think #COVID19 opened up brain research when researchers were trying to find out why people infected with COVID had brain fog. One explanation was mRNA fragments were getting into the brain and the immune cells were trying to clean those fragments out.

Apparently, immune cells are usually not found in the brain until researchers theorize that the blood brain barrier is not so tight a barrier after all and that these cells and fragments were kind of like "backing" into the brain, like the way a toilet does when stopped up. The analogy is great!

You can get a “nasal auger” that is designed to fit up a nostril and reach that crap. An ordinary drain snake can’t get around the bend, you need a special one.

4Chan? Florida? The Republican National Convention?

📌

The article summary sounded exactly like something I read a long time ago. Then I read it’s a new study based on a hypothesis first proposed 10 years ago. Ok, so I’m not imagining things.

Keep the track, scientists.

“Out the mouth.” :p

Thanks Betty! 👍🏽

You're welcome...

Cool stuff, thanks for sharing

You're welcome!

This rules, Betty.

Yes, it does!

:0

:)

Post