Formula for preventing Alzheimers?

A combination of sleep, exercise and alcohol could help prevent the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists have discovered that a good night’s sleep, increasing heart rate through exercise and 25ml of wine per day can help stimulate the brain’s own cleaning system.

Previous studies have shown that Alzheimer’s disease is associated with the toxic build-up of proteins in the brain, which causes the neuron cells to die.

Studies are now focusing on the link between the brain’s self-cleaning, known as the glymphatic system, and the formation of proteins that leads to the cell death linked to the onset of Alzheimer’s.

Dr Ian Harrison, from University College London, told the Cheltenham Science Festival that research was now focusing on finding ways of preventing the glymphatic system from failing.

He said studies on the cerebrospinal fluid of mice had shown that a combination of sleep, exercise and alcohol stimulated the brain’s selfcleaning.

The scientists treated mice with low-level, intermediate and high-level doses of alcohol for 30 days and looked at the impact upon the glymphatic function.

He said that with low-level doses of alcohol – the equivalent of a third of a unit a day – there was a 30 per cent to 40 per cent increase in the brain’s self-cleaning.