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Sleep Quality and Dementia; importance of the use of appropriate anaesthetics in surgery


Saul

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Dear ALL,

The following fascinating article appeared in a University of Rochester publication this morning:

https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/5508/not-all-sleep-is-equal-when-it-comes-to-cleaning-the-brain.aspx

It describes the cleansing of the brain of debris by cerebral spinal fluid during slow wave sleep, discovered previously at UR; and notes that, during surgery, especially on older adults, it's important to use the appropriate anaesthetics, ketamine and xylazine, so that the glymphatic system should work as it usually works during deep slow wave sleep, to clear the brain.  (The wrong anaesthetics can allow plaques to accumulate.  Clinical examples are given.

An obvious observation, not mentioned in the article (for obvious reasons):  Might it be conceivably eventually a method of helping people having difficulty achieving slow wave sleep, to be take (orally take or inject ?) these two anaesthetics in (who knows what ?) quantity before bed to achieve better quality sleep?

(I don't recommend experimenting with this on yourselves; but it would be fascinating if some qualified sleep researcher managed to start a clinical study of this possible method of improving sleep quality on patients at risk of Alzheimers.  Probably would be VERY hard to get FDA approval).

  --  Saul

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Interesting article, Ketamine has other medicinal uses as well.  But its also quite addictive from what I've read, and many people have died after taking it from stupid things like drowning, going outside in the cold and freezing to death, falling, walking into traffic - but I guess that could happen with any sleep meds, it seems popular sleeping pills like Ambien might actually be even worse in that regard: https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/02/27/study-popular-sleeping-pill-ambien-linked-to-increased-death-rate

 

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Yeah, I believe that.

But, perhaps it's possible to create a pill with a small amount of ketazine and a small amount of the other drug to make a reasonably safe sleeping pill that would tend to put people into a state resembling slow wave sleep?

For sure, such a pill, if possible, is VERY far away from being available, if ever -- it isn't even suggested in the article that I posted, and I didn't suggest it either -- but of course, it was in the back of my mind.

  --  Saul

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Interestingly enough, this showed up in my news feed today:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ketamine-for-depression-approved-by-fda-today-2019-03-05/

Apparently the FDA is in an approving mood for Ketamine (this one in particular seems almost ridiculous, they have only weak clinical data to support the approval, and everything has to be done at the doc's office only, not allowed to take it home, haha).

 

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