By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
JULY 5, 2017
Poor sleep may be an indication of increased
risk for Alzheimer’s disease, a new study of older people suggests.
Researchers studied 101 cognitively normal
people, average age 63, who completed well-validated sleep questionnaires. They
analyzed their spinal fluid for the presence of indicators of the plaques and
tangles that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s. The study is in Neurology.
After controlling for age, a family history of
Alzheimer’s, the ApoE gene that increases Alzheimer’s risk and other factors,
they found that poor sleep quality, sleep problems and daytime sleepiness were
associated with increased spinal fluid indicators of Alzheimer’s disease.
The reason for the association is unclear, but
at least one animal study found that during sleep the brain’s capacity to clear
toxins like beta amyloid, the toxic protein that forms plaques in the brains of
those with Alzheimer’s, improves. It may be that poor sleep interferes with
this process in people, too.
“Not everyone with sleep problems is destined
to develop Alzheimer’s disease,” said the senior author, Barbara B. Bendlin, an
associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of
Medicine and Public Health. “We’re looking at groups of people, and over the
whole group we find the association of poor sleep with the markers of
Alzheimer’s. But when you look at individuals, not everyone shows that
pattern.”
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