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Dementia Flows from Plumbing Problems in the Brain
How your head’s waste disposal system works, and how we might make it function better, according to new research
Every day, your brain fills up with toxic chemicals and bits of harmful detritus, the effluent of thinking and doing, the cost of cognition. If you are healthy and sleep well, a natural sewage disposal system kicks in overnight and cleans and clears your mind while you’re zonked. If not, the sewage backs up and you’re bound the next day to be groggy, unproductive, perhaps cranky, and subject to poor decisions. If the sewage system remains chronically clogged, life flows downhill toward dementia.
That much science has figured out, starting with a discovery more than a decade ago of the previously hypothesized glymphatic system. That’s the name given to your brain’s Roto-Rooter because it functions like a mini-version of the lymphatic system, a well-understood whole-body waste disposal system that transports excess liquid from your blood, treats it to eliminate harmful stuff, then returns it to the bloodstream.
New research this week points to a method to unclog a poorly functioning glymphatic system in a non-invasive way. In technical terms, the experimental work massaged lymphatic vessels, which are the PVC pipe of the…
