Reducing the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease by Understanding Sleep and the Brain

Did you know that according to English scientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology, Mathew Walker, the author of Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams that current research shows “that there appears to be a causal affect between sleep and our risk for Alzheimer’s Disease?”  For this week’s Brain Fact Friday and Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #223 we are going to take some of the most noticeable lessons learned from our recent podcast with Dr. John Denboer, on “This is Dementia: Disrupting the Decline”[i] and see what we can learn from Mathew Walker’s most current research. This way, we can take a proactive approach to our sleep, optimizing our potential for learning, memory and retention, and see what we can learn about this devastating disease that affects “6.5M Americans, and is expected to double by 2050.” This topic goes hand in hand with our theme of Season 8 of our podcast: where our focus is  on Brain Health and Learning with a look at How an Understanding of Our Brain Can Improve Learning in Ourselves (adults, teachers, workers) as well as our future generations of learners. On this episode we will cover: ✔︎What is the difference between Alzheimer's and Dementia ✔︎What the most current research says about the connection between Alzheimer's Disease and sleep. ✔︎11 risk factors that we can learn more about to mitigate Alzheimer's Disease. ✔︎A look at the 2 proteins that damage and change the brain. ✔︎What we can do right now to mitigate Alzheimer's Disease by understanding sleep and our brain.   What is Alzheimer’s and What is Dementia? On our interview with Dr. Denboer, who has spent most of his career working with patients on disrupting dementia, we began our interview defining each of these terms, since many of us aren’t sure exactly what they are, and if we don’t know what they are, how can we be sure we are being proactive with preventing them? Dementia: is a general term for “decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life”[ii] and there’s not just one form of dementia. There’s Alzheimer’s, Vascular Dementia, Lewy Body Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Mixed Dementia. Alzheimer’s is “a degenerative brain disease that leads to dementia symptoms and gradually worsens over time.”[iii] We opened up our interview with Dr. Denboer with a quote from Dr. Babak Nayeri, a clinical associate professor from the University of Arizona who said “Dementia is not an aging disease; however, it is the most common disease of the aging population.” (from the Netflix documentary, This is Dementia).  “Though the greatest known risk factor for Alzheimer’s is increasing age, the disease is not a normal part of aging.”[iv] 11 Risk Facts of Alzheimer’s Disease One of America’s leading psychiatrists and brain health experts, Dr. Daniel Amen, who we’ve spoken often about on this podcast, believes that Alzheimer’s (that damages the hippocampus or memory center of our brain) and is responsible for “the disease-memory impairment”[v] is “a lifestyle disease similar to heart disease and type 2 diabetes and that our everyday habits contribute to our everyday risk.”[vi] Dr. Amen lists 11 risk factors that increase our probability for Alzheimer’s (with the acronym Bright Minds) and sleep is the S in this acronym. You can read the rest of the risk factors here[vii] but to review them quickly, they are: B: For blood flow problems R: For retirement and aging I: For inflammation G: For genetics H: For head trauma T: For toxins M: For mental health problems I: For immune system problems N: For neurohormone problems D: For diabesity (that seriously impacts brain health and memory) S: For sleep that we will dive deeper into today. Which leads us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday, that we opened up this episode with. Did you know that according to English scientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology, Mathew Walker, that current research shows “that there