feel drowsy during the day could mean a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease, new research suggests. Long-term study included 123 adults who had an average age of 60 years when the study began. The findings showed that those who had very sleepy during the day had a nearly three times higher risk of developing deposits of beta-amyloid, a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease in the brain. The findings expand the growing evidence that lack of sleep could have a role in Alzheimer’s disease, and that getting enough sleep could be a way of reducing the risk of disease that destroys memory, according to researchers.
“Factors such as diet, exercise and cognitive activity have been recognized generally as important potential targets for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, but the dream has not reached that status, although perhaps that is changing,” said the leader of the study, Adam Spira, an associate professor in the Department of mental health at the Faculty of health public Bloomberg of Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore.
If the sleep disturbances contribute to Alzheimer’s disease, perhaps we can treat patients with sleep problems to avoid these negative results is not clear why the daytime sleepiness would associate with protein accumulation beta-amyloid in the brain, said Spira. And the study did not prove that dream actually causes the accumulation of beta-amyloid in the brain. But bad sleep due to sleep apnea or other factors may cause the formation of beta-amyloid by an unknown mechanism, and these sleep disorders also cause excessive daytime sleepiness.” However, no we cannot rule out plaques of beta-amyloid, which had at the time of the evaluation of sleep cause drowsiness”, said Spira.
Animal studies have shown that restrict the nocturnal sleep can lead to a greater amount of beta-amyloid in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid protein, and some studies in humans have been linked to bad sleep with higher levels of beta-amyloid in the brain.
The sleep problems with common in patients with Alzheimer’s, and it is believed that the accumulation of beta-amyloid and related brain changes affect sleep.
“Still there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, so we have to do everything possible to prevent it. Even if a cure is to develop, it should emphasize prevention strategies”, said Spira. “Prioritize sleep could be a way to help prevent or perhaps slow down this condition.” The findings of the study were published in the edition of September 5, the magazine Sleep.En this note:
