New Research Offers a Potentially Simple Solution to Alzheimer’s Treatment
It could be that light and sound may help in treating Alzheimer’s. For the last thirty years, researchers have focused on finding drugs to address the buildup of a form of plaque in an Alzheimer’s patient’s brain. Studies that are coming out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) show that electrical approaches, rather than drugs, may be the answer.
Researchers previously knew that Alzheimer’s patients have particularly weak gamma waves, which affects that part of the brain that clears away pathogens and toxic waste. They wanted to reintroduce gamma waves to the brain to reawaken its ability to cleanse itself of the toxins.
They exposed mice to flickering lights and rapidly clicking sounds at the same frequency of gamma waves, and saw significant cognitive improvements in mice’s ability to navigate a maze. Other studies are showing evidence that it is working with people in various stages of Alzheimer’s.
The irony is that if this new approach is successful, light and sound may cure a complicated disease.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200519-alzheimers-can-flashing-lights-provide-a-new-treatment