Sleep tablets may ward off Alzheimer’s

precedes other symptoms, such as memory loss and cognitive decline. And by the time the rst symptoms develop, levels of abnormal amyloid-beta are almost peaking, forming clumps called plaques that clog up brain cells.

Researchers think promoting sleep could be one avenue to stave o Alzheimer’s disease, by allowing the sleeping brain to ush itself of leftover proteins and the day’s other waste products.

While sleeping pills may help in that regard, “it would be premature for people who are worried about developing Al- unusual warmth to the Paci c Northwest and the northern Great Plains. Kristie L. Ebi, a professor of global health at the University of Washington, said warmth is often the determining factor in how far north vectors of disease move.

“We know that mosquitoes don’t control their internal temperature,” she said. “When it’s hotter they’re going to see opportunities to move into new ranges. If the El Niño lasts long enough they get established and nd habitat, then you can see an expansion in geographic range.” A study on the link between infectious disease in the U.S. and El Niño, published in 2016, found a link between tickborne illnesses such as rickettsiosis — an infection that can damage the brain, lungs and skin — and El Niño in the western US.

Vibrio cholerae, the waterborne bacteria that causes cholera, is another area of concern, experts told Grist — both in areas that see more rain during El Niño and those that see less rain.

As the planet shifts into an El Niño year, Barker said the areas to keep a close eye on are ones where moderate or heavy rains are followed by dry, warm months. If the past is any indication, countries like India and Pakistan are especially at risk.

So is California. After years of drought, recent storms in the Golden State have generated a lot of ooding and cooler-than- normal conditions. If that leads into a hotter-thannormal summer, “that may set things up for bad conditions for West Nile virus,” Barker said of the mosquito-borne illness that is becoming more prevalent in the U.S. El Niño is projected to bring zheimer’s to interpret it as a reason to start taking suvorexant every night,” says neurologist Brendan Lucey, of Washington University’s Sleep Medicine Centre, who led the research. e study spanned just two nights and involved 38 middle-aged participants who showed no signs of cognitive impairment and had no sleep issues.

Using sleeping pills for prolonged periods is not an ideal solution for those short on sleep either, as it’s quite easy to become dependent on them.

Sleeping pills may also lull people into shallower bouts of sleep rather than deep sleep phases. is could be problematic as earlier research from Lucey and colleagues found a link between less good quality, slow-wave sleep and elevated levels of tau tangles and amyloid-beta protein.

In their latest study, Lucey and colleagues wanted to see if improving sleep with

Flooding aids the spread of the cholera bacteria from open sewers and other waste containers — still prevalent in many underdeveloped parts of the world — into drinking water systems. Drought also leads to an uptick in cholera cases in poor countries, because restricted access to fresh water forces people to use less water for personal hygiene practices like handwashing and turn to unsafe sources of drinking water.

“Cholera can be a devastating infectious disease that causes a very severe diarrhoea that can dehydrate people so badly that they die,” Vora said. “In the setting of an El Niño extreme weather event, there might be impacts on sewage systems or on access to clean water, and that can lead to the spread of water-borne diseases such as cholera.” the aid of sleeping pills could lower levels of tau and amyloid-beta in the cerebrospinal uid that bathes the brain and spinal cord. Past research shows that even just one night of disrupted sleep can send amyloid-beta levels rising. e researchers continued to collect samples every two hours for 36 hours while the participants slept and during the next day and night, to measure how protein levels changed. ere were no di erences in sleep between the groups, and yet amyloidbeta concentrations were reduced by between 10 and 20 percent with a dose of suvorexant usually prescribed for insomnia, compared to a placebo.

A group of volunteers aged 45 to 65 years old received one of two doses of suvorexant or a placebo pill, an hour after researchers tapped their cerebrospinal uid to collect a small sample.