r/science • u/Wagamaga • Oct 08 '24

Neuroscience Brain’s waste-clearance pathways revealed for the first time. Wastes include proteins such as amyloid and tau, which have been shown to form clumps and tangles in brain images of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

https://news.ohsu.edu/2024/10/07/brains-waste-clearance-pathways-revealed-for-the-first-time
30.8k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

658 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.9k

u/Squibbles01 Oct 08 '24

My guess is that we're going to discover that Alzheimer's is basically the degradation of this cleaning system. I've seen studies where Alzheimer's patients have say too much aluminum in their brain, and I think that in most cases they probably weren't exposed to too much of it, but that they just couldn't clear it out like a normal brain would.

1.0k

u/redditshy Oct 08 '24 edited Oct 08 '24

My grandfather died from amyloidosis. He worked many many hours of his life, and got little sleep. My aunt died of lewy body dementia. She worked overnights as a nurse her whole adult life. My friend is in late stage dementia at age 55; she had a lifetime of partying, and not getting clean sleep.

3

u/Jgusdaddy Oct 08 '24

I wonder if a lifetime of caffeine addiction can affect the quality of sleep.

16

u/giant3 Oct 08 '24

A study in European Journal of Cardiology showed that people who drink 2-3 cups of coffee actually live longer. For 3+ cups, the benefits disappeared.

Unless you suffer from an inability to break down caffeine, it shouldn't affect your sleep as long as you are not drinking it close to bedtime.