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Wisdom Wednesdays: New Research On How You go Through A Form Of Brainwashing Every Night · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

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  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to do a deep dive into a topic
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  Speaker 1: that really underscores just how vital sleep is for our health.
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  Speaker 1: And I've talked about it a few times, and we
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  Speaker 1: often think of sleep as a time when just our
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  Speaker 1: bodies and brains just kind of shut down. But in reality,
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  Speaker 1: it's an incredibly active process that is pretty critical for
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  Speaker 1: our physical health, our mental health, and our emotional well being. Now,
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  Speaker 1: when we sleep, our bodies actually embark on a series
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  Speaker 1: of what we can think of as essential maintenance tasks
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  Speaker 1: that are vital for our overall health. So one key
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  Speaker 1: thing that happens during sleep has released a growth hormone,
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  Speaker 1: and everybody will know that, and this hormone is critical
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  Speaker 1: for physical repair. It helps us recover from that we're
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  Speaker 1: in ter our daily life. It helps to rebuild our muscle,
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  Speaker 1: which is turning over continuously, as well as our organs
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  Speaker 1: which are turning over, and it supports the healing of
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  Speaker 1: any injuries we might have. Now at the same time,
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  Speaker 1: our DNA rapper mechanisms kick in. And think of these
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  Speaker 1: as little enzymes that run all the way through your body,
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  Speaker 1: identifying and fixing damaging sales, including those that might be
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  Speaker 1: pre cancers or become pre cancers. So this is one
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  Speaker 1: of the body's natural defenses against chronic diseases, including cancer.
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  Speaker 1: But also let's think about what's going on in the brain.
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  Speaker 1: So I have talked about this previously. During rem sleep,
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  Speaker 1: when we're dreaming, the brain actually engages in this memory consolidation,
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  Speaker 1: and what researchers thinks happening is that reviews and processes
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  Speaker 1: the events of the day and organizes and stores the
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  Speaker 1: memories in a way that makes them more accessible and
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  Speaker 1: integrated into our overall knowledge base. But what is pretty
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  Speaker 1: fascinating about that is that that is the only time
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  Speaker 1: in your life when no epinephyrine or no adrenaline, which
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  Speaker 1: is the sister chemical of adrenaline in the brain, is
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  Speaker 1: actually shut down. So it allows you to replay the
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  Speaker 1: day's events but in the absence of stress, and has
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  Speaker 1: actually been shown to be really helpful. It's kind of
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  Speaker 1: like nightly therapy for the brain. And when you emperor
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  Speaker 1: rem sleep, you actually increase people's anxiety. But there's another
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  Speaker 1: critical function that takes place in the brain where we're sleep,
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  Speaker 1: and this one is less well known, and it's the
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  Speaker 1: brain's own self cleaning process called the glymphatic system. Now
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  Speaker 1: I have talked about it before, but there's some new
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  Speaker 1: research that's come to light. So the glymphatic system was
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  Speaker 1: only discovered in twenty thirteen. Right now, we've known for
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  Speaker 1: decades and decades that the body gets rid of its
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  Speaker 1: toxic waste products with the lymphatic system, but the Brian
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have a lymphatic system. And then in twenty thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: some genius discovered that the brain actually when we're asleep
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  Speaker 1: at night, uses what's called our csf our cerebrospinal fluid
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  Speaker 1: to wash away any toxins that accumulate in the brain
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  Speaker 1: during the day. So people might think, well, what toxins
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  Speaker 1: can accumulate, Well, really, all of our cells are the
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  Speaker 1: vast majority of our cells go through a process called
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  Speaker 1: aerobic metabolism, so they use oxygen to create energy inside
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  Speaker 1: the cell, and there are toxic waste products, and as
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  Speaker 1: I said, the cells and the rest of the body
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  Speaker 1: dump those waste products into the lymphatic system along with
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  Speaker 1: a whole heap of other chunk, and it's cleaned out right.
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  Speaker 1: So this glymphatic system is similar stuff going on in
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  Speaker 1: the brain, and it's this process is especially effective clearing
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  Speaker 1: out these protein aggregates. Kind of think of them as
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  Speaker 1: like clumpy bits of protein, like amyloids, which are you
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  Speaker 1: may have heard me talk about them before with their
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  Speaker 1: implications for neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's. So thing of
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  Speaker 1: the glymphatic system as the brain's version of a quick
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  Speaker 1: spring clean every night, right, and as this cerebral spinal
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  Speaker 1: fluid goes through the brain, it's actually flushing out the
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  Speaker 1: waste products and keeping our neurons functioning optimally. And the
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  Speaker 1: thinking was it kind of hitches a ride down the
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  Speaker 1: outside of the glymphatic system. Now, while that sounds relatively
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  Speaker 1: straightforward and the reality is much more complex. So there's
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  Speaker 1: brain washing if you think about literal brain washing it
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  Speaker 1: atmosphere in sleep. But what has really eluded scientists is
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  Speaker 1: the understanding of what drives the process exactly and how
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  Speaker 1: the waste is moved from deep brian regions and the
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  Speaker 1: sales there are past the blood brain barrier into the
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  Speaker 1: bloodstream where it can then be filtered out by delivering
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  Speaker 1: the kidneys. Now, early this year, there's a series of
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  Speaker 1: groundbreaking studies that actually provided some much needed answers, and
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  Speaker 1: a geek like me loves this stuff. Now. These studies
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  Speaker 1: focused on the role of slow electrical waves, so you
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  Speaker 1: might have heard of slow wave of sleep, and they
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  Speaker 1: uncovered critical insights in the high the glymphatic system functions
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  Speaker 1: by studying these slow electrical waves. So one of the
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  Speaker 1: studies was published in February in the journal Nature, and
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  Speaker 1: you know, if you get published in Nature, it's a
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  Speaker 1: cracking article. And it was published by doctor Jonathan Kipness
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  Speaker 1: and his team at Washington University of Saint Louis, and
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  Speaker 1: they revealed that individual nerve sales in the Brian coordinate
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  Speaker 1: to create a rhythmic electrical waves during sleep, and these
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  Speaker 1: waves actually act like tiny pumps moving the fluid through
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  Speaker 1: the brain tissue and facilitating the removal of waste, which
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  Speaker 1: is really cool shit. And Kipnistic explained this is a
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  Speaker 1: quote from me. He says, we knew that sleep is
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  Speaker 1: a time when the brain initiates a cleaning process to
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  Speaker 1: flush out waste and toxins that accumulates during wakefulness, but
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  Speaker 1: we didn't know how that happens. And this study provided
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  Speaker 1: the missing piece by showing how these electrical waves coordinated
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  Speaker 1: by a bunch of nerve cells actually help to cleanse
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  Speaker 1: the brain. But why when I understand how waste is
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  Speaker 1: moved through the brain, where there was still a bit
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  Speaker 1: of a mystery to solve. So how does this waste
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  Speaker 1: cross the blood brain barrier? So the blood brain barrier
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  Speaker 1: is exactly this thing. It is a barrier between the
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  Speaker 1: brain and the blood and the rest of the body,
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  Speaker 1: and it's very selective for what it allows to pass
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  Speaker 1: through because obviously your brain is pretty sensitive. So another
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  Speaker 1: study from Kipness's group provided the answer. They discovered that
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  Speaker 1: structures in the brain were similar to what you think
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  Speaker 1: of them as like aner port security checkpoint that actually
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  Speaker 1: allows molecules and fluids to pass through what's called the
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  Speaker 1: irachnoid barriers a membrane that separates the brain tissue from
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  Speaker 1: the bloodstream, and these checkpoints are crucial for waste removal,
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  Speaker 1: allowing that cerebral spinal fluid to exit the brain with
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  Speaker 1: its toxins and then dumping into the layer's lymph node.
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  Speaker 1: And in order to confirm this, the researchers injected mice
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  Speaker 1: with these little light emitting molecules what call that you
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  Speaker 1: and they observed how the molecules actually passed through the
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  Speaker 1: security gates at the blood brain barrier, and then MRI
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  Speaker 1: scans of healthy humans can that a similar process happens
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  Speaker 1: in our brains, suggesting if these gates become clogged, that
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  Speaker 1: could potentially lead to a build up of waste and
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  Speaker 1: then potentially contribute to neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and
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  Speaker 1: other forms of cognitive decline. So understanding the glymphatic system
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  Speaker 1: it's not just about satisfying scientists and geeks like me.
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  Speaker 1: It has real world implications. So for instance, research by
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  Speaker 1: a guy called Jeffrey Illif who was part of the
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  Speaker 1: team that discovered the glymphatic system, originally showed that traumatic
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  Speaker 1: brain injuries, such as those caused in war or from
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  Speaker 1: trauma to the head, can actually imper the glymphatic system,
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  Speaker 1: and this empowerment might be a key factor in post
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  Speaker 1: concussive symptoms that we see from many veterans, and I
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  Speaker 1: would presume have a role in CTE which we're now
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  Speaker 1: seeing that's happening in lots of board such as American football, rugby,
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  Speaker 1: Aussie rules, and even soccer. So this constant knocks to
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  Speaker 1: the brain can actually screw up this system and then
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  Speaker 1: accumulate the metabolic damage. And this pretty exciting discovery opens
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  Speaker 1: up new possibilities for treating a whole range of neurological conditions.
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  Speaker 1: So by targeting this glymphatic system and making sure that
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  Speaker 1: it's working really well, we might be able to find
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  Speaker 1: ways to alleviate symptoms or even slow the progression of
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  Speaker 1: diseases like Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia and CTE
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  Speaker 1: in people who are doing sport. So, in conclusion, our
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  Speaker 1: brain still has a shit heap of mysteries to cough up,
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  Speaker 1: and for me, the discovery of the glymphatic system and
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  Speaker 1: this major step forward in understanding how it works, is
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  Speaker 1: a really critical piece in the puzzle that brings us
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  Speaker 1: closer to developing therapies that could improve the lives of
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  Speaker 1: millions and millions of people who are suffering from neurodegenerative
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  Speaker 1: diseases and from traumatic brain injury. So that's it for
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  Speaker 1: this week. Until next time, make sure that you put
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  Speaker 1: a lot of focus on prioritizing your sleep. Catch you
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  Speaker 1: next time.