Apart from getting enough sleep, any tips for how to support or enhance this maintenance process?
How the Brain Dumps Its Trash (2016) [video]
11–17 of 17 posts
Re: How the Brain Dumps Its Trash (2016) [video]
#12anyone have a transcribed version of this?
Re: How the Brain Dumps Its Trash (2016) [video]
#13Is this also how substances like caffeine get removed from the brain?
No. Drug-breakdown processes have long been studied, whereas this is something new. Drugs like caffeine are removed by metabolic enzymes in multiple stages - e.g. here is a flowchart of caffeine's metabolic pathway https://s3.pgkb.org/pathway/PA165884757.png?versionId=XtszC7...
Re: How the Brain Dumps Its Trash (2016) [video]
#14Apart from getting enough sleep, any tips for how to support or enhance this maintenance process?
My very uninformed and probably incorrect hunch is to increase the amount of water flow in your body before bed - i.e. drink a glass of water or two. Counterbalance in the case of any frequent urges to wake up in the middle of the night to urinate..
Re: How the Brain Dumps Its Trash (2016) [video]
#15Is this also how substances like caffeine get removed from the brain?
No. Drug-breakdown processes have long been studied, whereas this is something new. Drugs like caffeine are removed by metabolic enzymes in multiple stages - e.g. here is a flowchart of caffeine's metabolic pathway https://s3.pgkb.org/pathway/PA165884757.png?versionId=XtszC7...
But that's not how caffeine is removed from the brain - that entire flowchart says "liver cell". Is one to understand that as the liver cleans blood of caffeine, and this low-caffeine blood eventually goes up to the brain, caffeine diffuses somehow (across the blood/brain barrier) into the bloodstream and is then carried to the liver?
Re: How the Brain Dumps Its Trash (2016) [video]
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Drug-breakdown processes have long been studied, whereas this is something new. Drugs like caffeine are removed by metabolic enzymes in multiple stages - e.g. here is a flowchart of caffeine's metabolic pathway https://s3.pgkb.org/pathway/PA165884757.png?versionId=XtszC7...
But that's not how caffeine is removed from the brain - that entire flowchart says "liver cell". Is one to understand that as the liver cleans blood of caffeine, and this low-caffeine blood eventually goes up to the brain, caffeine diffuses somehow (across the blood/brain barrier) into the bloodstream and is then carried to the liver?
Re: How the Brain Dumps Its Trash (2016) [video]
#17Anyone have a tl;dr?
Recent research shows that a major function for sleep may be to facilitate the brain’s janitorial functions. Waste products and the detritus of daily thinking can be removed during nightly sleep. This cleaning function allows our brains to work properly and may account for why we generally feel brighter and happier in the mornings.
Other organs and tissues are "cleaned" using the lymphatic system that almost works as a sewage system for the body. The lymphatic system does not extend into the brain. The so-called "blood-brain barrier" limits fluid channel exchanges between the brain and the rest of the body to protect the brain.
The extracellular fluid in the brain – the wetness between the neurons – is part of a system that essentially flushes the brain and removes waste. This has been named the glymphatic system. It was previously thought that waste products were metabolized and broken down by the neurons themselves and the results of that breakdown carried away in capillaries and ultimately removed by the kidneys.