Poor Sleep Linked to Brain’s Waste-Removal Breakdown

 What is your competent? doctors EXACT SLEEP PROTOCOL? Oh, you don't have one, do you?  You're getting sleeping pills in the hospital, which doesn't count.

Your doctor should be prescribing sex instead.  

For Some, Sex Is Better Sleep Aid Than Pill, Small Survey Finds

Two-thirds of people who use sleep meds said they slept just as well or better after sex

This is a reason why;

Sleep medications associated with higher risk for dementia in white individuals February 2023

My hospital had the nurses handing out sleeping pills like candy at 10pm. I would have much preferred sex. 

The latest here: 

Poor Sleep Linked to Brain’s Waste-Removal Breakdown

Summary: A new study reveals that poor sleep in older adults disrupts the brain’s glymphatic system, responsible for clearing harmful waste and toxins. Researchers found that compromised sleep quality leads to dysfunction in this crucial system, potentially increasing risks for memory decline and cognitive impairments.

Using advanced brain imaging in 72 older adults, the research highlighted that poor sleep negatively impacts connections within brain networks linked to memory performance. These insights emphasize the importance of maintaining good sleep hygiene to support brain health and healthy aging.

Key Facts:

• Sleep and Brain Health: Poor sleep quality impairs the brain’s glymphatic system, crucial for clearing harmful proteins.
• Cognitive Impact: Dysfunctional glymphatic activity due to poor sleep correlates with memory decline in older adults.
• Neural Networks: Sleep quality directly influences brain networks, affecting overall cognitive health and aging.

Source: University of Hong Kong

Poor sleep among older adults is linked to disruptions in the brain’s “waste removal system”, according to researchers at The University of Hong Kong (HKU).  

A recent study led by Professor Tatia M.C. Lee, Chair Professor of Psychological Science and Clinical Psychology and May Professor in Neuropsychology at HKU, offers valuable insight into how sleep quality impacts brain functioning.

Many studies have linked poor sleep with a decline in brain functioning. Professor Lee’s team focused on the glial-lymphatic (glymphatic) system, a fluid transport pathway that plays a vital role in clearing waste from the brain. The system’s efficiency is a critical determinant of brain health, particularly in ageing populations.

Professor Lee and her team sought to understand the glymphatic-brain relationship in poor sleepers, which underlies memory decline. Dysfunction of the glymphatic system leads to the accumulation of toxic proteins, and this process has recently been implicated in several neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.

“Sleep quality, brain activities, and glyphamtic functioning are related. Understanding how sleep quality influences the glymphatic system and human brain networks offers valuable insight into the neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning age-related memory change,” Professor Lee said.

The research team studied 72 older adults using functional MRI scans and sleep recordings.  The findings indicate that poor sleep quality adversely affects normal brain function by deactivating the restorative glymphatic system.

“The results clearly reveal the effect of sleep on the human brain’s network through the glymphatic system, which in turn affects memory performance in older adults,” said Professor Lee.

“Therefore, maintaining efficient glymphatic functioning seems crucial for promoting healthy aging.”

The results of the study add important evidence that sleep quality affects cognitive health through the underlying neural relationships.

“Impaired memory is a common complaint among older adults with poor sleep quality,” Professor Lee noted.

“Our results provide a novel perspective on the interplay between sleep, the glymphatic system and multimodal brain networks.”

This study was recently published in Molecular Psychiatry in an article entitled “Effects of sleep on the glymphatic functioning and multimodal human brain network affecting memory in older adults”.

About this aging and sleep research news

Author: Jaymee Ng
Source: University of Hong Kong
Contact: Jaymee Ng – University of Hong Kong
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Open access.
“Effects of sleep on the glymphatic functioning and multimodal human brain network affecting memory in older adults” by Tatia M.C. Lee et al. Molecular Psychiatry

Upper Body Strength Predicts Sexual Partner Count in Men and Women

 With your vast need for sex post stroke, your doctor is responsible for you retaining your upper body strength. My left arm hasn't exercised in 18 years, how the hell am I supposed to attract a partner?

All this is why you need to be doing lots of sex, why the hell can't your doctor get you fucking again? In fact you should be doing it in the hospital.

Sexual Frequency Predicts Greater Well-Being, But More is Not Always Better

 

Sex after stroke

 

Sex linked to better brain power in older age

Sex: The Ultimate Full Body Workout

 

Better Memory From This Extremely Pleasurable Activity - Sex

 

WHY SEX IS BETTER FOR YOUR BRAIN THAN SUDOKU 

 

Sex linked to better brain power in older age

 

Good News About Sex- It Doesn't Cause a Stroke

 

Sex Does Not Increase Heart Attack Risk - What about stroke?

 

Frequent orgasms may protect against heart attacks

Sex linked to better brain power in older age  (Put this in here twice because it's so important!)

 

An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away!

In case you don't have a partner she could prescribe this.

Electrosex

And the benefits of marijuana for sex here:

Sex, Marijuana and Baby Booms

New study highlights the benefit of touch on mental and physical health

The latest here:

Upper Body Strength Predicts Sexual Partner Count in Men and Women

Summary: A study revealed that both men and women with greater upper body strength report more lifetime sexual partners, challenging the sexual selection hypothesis, which emphasizes male physical competition for mates.

While men’s strength is often linked to evolutionary advantages like hunting and mate competition, the findings also suggest stronger men are more likely to be in long-term relationships, supporting the “provisioning” theory.

Women’s upper body strength, surprisingly, correlated with higher partner counts, though the reasons remain unclear, with theories including assortative mating or reduced dependency on male support.

Key Facts:

• Cross-Gender Pattern: Stronger men and women both report more lifetime sexual partners, defying traditional evolutionary assumptions.
• Provisioning Theory: Stronger men may have been better long-term partners, supporting families through hunting.
• Unexplained Link: Women’s strength correlates with partner count, but the evolutionary basis requires further study.

Source: Washington State University

While many studies have looked at possible evolutionary links between men’s strength and sexual behavior, a Washington State University study included data on women with a surprising result. Women, as well as men, who had greater upper body strength tended to have more lifetime sexual partners compared to their peers.

The study, published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, was designed to test evolutionary theories for human sexual dimorphism—namely that in early human history there was likely a reproductive advantage selecting for men’s greater upper body strength.  

Another finding in this study did hint at a reason for that physical difference: men with greater upper body strength were also more likely to to be in long-term relationships.

“People have assumptions about men’s sexual behavior and how that’s related to evolution. Besides acquiring more sexual partners, establishing long-term relationships was likely also important for men in evolutionary history,” said lead author Caroline Smith, a recent WSU Ph.D. graduate in anthropology.

For this study, Smith and her advising professor, WSU evolutionary anthropologist Ed Hagen, analyzed data on 4,316 U.S. adults from 2013-2014 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They primarily used grip strength, a common measure to approximate upper body strength, and compared it to participants’ survey responses about their sexual behavior.

The findings present a mixed picture, the authors said.

There are several hypotheses around why men have greater upper body strength. One popular theory, known as the sexual selection hypothesis, is based on competition: that like other primates, human males competed against each other for access to mates so needed to be physically formidable to pass their genes on.

This theory predicts little relationship between women’s strength and their mating success.

“Men are stronger than women, on average, and men report more lifetime partners than women, but men and women are on the same regression line,” said Hagen.

“Regardless of whether they’re males or females, stronger individuals have more lifetime sexual partners. That was a surprising finding and somewhat contrary to the sexual selection hypothesis.”

On the other hand, this study’s finding about long-term partners seems to support another theory based on “provisioning.”

Since human babies require a lot of care and resources, particularly from women during pregnancy and lactation, men were more desirable as partners when they could provide meat through hunting, which for hundreds of thousands of years before the modern era required upper body strength.

The stronger human males, who also stuck around and helped provide more food resources to those children as they grew, also would better ensure their survival.

While there are theories for men’s strength in relation to reproductive success, there are not so many for women’s strength, in part because women are not often included in these types of studies.

There was not an obvious explanation in this study’s data why women with greater upper body strength also had greater number of lifetime partners. The researchers controlled for many variables, including general health and testosterone levels, but the connection still held.

They did cite a few potential theories, including that it is due to “assortative mating,” meaning physically stronger people tend to partner with each other more frequently. It could also be that women who are physically stronger require less male investment or feel like they can take more risks.

Ultimately, more studies involving women would be needed to uncover more evidence for the reasons behind this connection as well as a better understanding of human evolution in general.

“I believe it’s important to continually test our theories, especially by expanding our research questions to include women,” said Smith.

About this relationship and evolutionary neuroscience research news

Author: William Ferguson
Source: Washington State University
Contact: William Ferguson – Washington State University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Closed access.
“Strength, mating success, and immune and nutritional costs in a population sample of US women and men: A registered report” by Ed Hagen et al. Evolution and Human Behavior

‘Please talk about it’: Patients with heart disease want more guidance on sexual health

 Did you get ANY information about sex from your doctor post-stroke?

Like maybe all this?

All this is why you need to be doing lots of sex, why the hell can't your doctor get you fucking again? In fact you should be doing it in the hospital.

Sexual Frequency Predicts Greater Well-Being, But More is Not Always Better

 

Sex after stroke

 

Sex linked to better brain power in older age

Sex: The Ultimate Full Body Workout

 

Better Memory From This Extremely Pleasurable Activity - Sex

 

WHY SEX IS BETTER FOR YOUR BRAIN THAN SUDOKU 

 

Sex linked to better brain power in older age

 

Good News About Sex- It Doesn't Cause a Stroke

 

Sex Does Not Increase Heart Attack Risk - What about stroke?

 

Frequent orgasms may protect against heart attacks

Sex linked to better brain power in older age  (Put this in here twice because it's so important!)

 

An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away!

In case you don't have a partner she could prescribe this.

Electrosex

And the benefits of marijuana for sex here:

Sex, Marijuana and Baby Booms

New study highlights the benefit of touch on mental and physical health

The latest here:

‘Please talk about it’: Patients with heart disease want more guidance on sexual health

Key takeaways:

• Patients with heart disease want more information about their sexual health, according to survey results.
• Only 5% of survey respondents reported receiving this information.

CHICAGO — Results from a new survey highlight a gap between patients’ information needs about sexual health and the actual support provided by health care professionals.

In a small survey of patients with CVD in Sweden, 78% expressed a need for information about sexual health, but only 5% reported receiving this information.

Patients with heart disease want more information about their sexual health, according to survey results. Image: Adobe Stock

“A large number of patients, independent of age and gender, really feel that their condition is [affecting] their sexual health and that they currently do not get enough information and support,” Tiny Jaarsma, PhD, professor of nursing at Linköping University, Sweden, told Healio.

Three-quarters of respondents reported that their sexual health was impacted by their CVD and also had an effect on their overall mood and well-being, Jaarsma reported at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. Men were more likely than women to say their CVD impacted their sexual health (65% vs. 35%; P = .02) and that sexual health affected their mood and well-being (64% vs. 36%; P < .01), according to the survey results.

Eighty-seven percent of men and 64% of women cited a desire for information on sexual health (P = .02 for comparison).

Topics that patients with CVD most want to discuss included:

• adverse events of medications (60%);
• erectile dysfunction (50%);
• impact of sex on relationships (47%);
• anxiety before sex (35%); and
• pain during sex (13%).

Overall, patients wanted to receive information on sexual health from a health care professional (79%), particularly during annual check-ups (57%) and/or upon diagnosis (51%) or medication follow-ups (40%).

“People with a cardiac illness ... want to know more about sexual health. Please talk about it!” Jaarsma told Healio.

The results are based on anonymous survey questions about access to sexual health information and perceptions about connections to CV health. Jaarsma reported information from 135 respondents aged 30 to 89 years (mean age, 65 years) in Sweden. Half (47%) had hypertension, 35% had an MI, 30% had atrial fibrillation and 24% had HF.

Jaarsma told Healio the researchers “were curious to know what the current status of providing [sexual health] information is, and what patients want and need.”

The survey was administered only to patients in Sweden, so the results may not be generalizable elsewhere.

The AHA recommends that people who have had an MI or who have a diagnosis of CVD and/or stroke should check with a health care professional before resuming sexual activity, according to a press release from the AHA.

Looking ahead, we need “more studies on how to equip patients better to be able to ask their questions and health care professionals on how to bring up the subject in a professional and safe way,” Jaarsma told Healio.

Published by:

Sources/Disclosures

Collapse

Source:

Jaarsma T, et al. Abstract MDP1162. Presented at: American Heart Association Scientific Sessions; Nov. 16-18, 2024; Chicago.

Disclosures: Jaarsma reports no relevant financial disclosures.       

‘Please talk about it’: Patients with heart disease want more guidance on sexual health

 Your competent? doctor has already given you all this information post stroke on sex, right? NO? So, you don't have a functioning stroke doctor, do you? I can't really tell if they are incorrectly including stroke in their CVD category. 

Stroke has been called neurological disease by the WHO since 2006

My recreational therapist was worthless, he did nothing to solve any of the problems I eventually encountered. 

Missionary style sex just doesn't work anymore, or the Queens's throne, or the Mare, or the Swing(Look up Kama Sutra). Problems:

1.  Fingers and thumb will not stay flat.
2. Wrist collapses.
3. Elbow collapses.
4. Bicep spasticity pulls everything out of line.

 

All this is why you need to be doing lots of sex, why the hell can't your doctor get you fucking again? In fact you should be doing it in the hospital.

Sexual Frequency Predicts Greater Well-Being, But More is Not Always Better

 

Sex after stroke

 

Sex linked to better brain power in older age

Sex: The Ultimate Full Body Workout

 

Better Memory From This Extremely Pleasurable Activity - Sex

 

WHY SEX IS BETTER FOR YOUR BRAIN THAN SUDOKU 

 

Sex linked to better brain power in older age

 

Good News About Sex- It Doesn't Cause a Stroke

 

Sex Does Not Increase Heart Attack Risk - What about stroke?

 

Frequent orgasms may protect against heart attacks

Sex linked to better brain power in older age  (Put this in here twice because it's so important!)

 

An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away!

In case you don't have a partner she could prescribe this.

Electrosex

And the benefits of marijuana for sex here:

Sex, Marijuana and Baby Booms

New study highlights the benefit of touch on mental and physical health

The latest here:

‘Please talk about it’: Patients with heart disease want more guidance on sexual health

Key takeaways:

• Patients with heart disease want more information about their sexual health, according to survey results.(The information is out there, your incompetent doctor just doesn't know about it!)
• Only 5% of survey respondents reported receiving this information.

CHICAGO — Results from a new survey highlight a gap between patients’ information needs about sexual health and the actual support provided by health care professionals.

In a small survey of patients with CVD in Sweden, 78% expressed a need for information about sexual health, but only 5% reported receiving this information.

Patients with heart disease want more information about their sexual health, according to survey results. Image: Adobe Stock

“A large number of patients, independent of age and gender, really feel that their condition is [affecting] their sexual health and that they currently do not get enough information and support,” Tiny Jaarsma, PhD, professor of nursing at Linköping University, Sweden, told Healio.

Three-quarters of respondents reported that their sexual health was impacted by their CVD and also had an effect on their overall mood and well-being, Jaarsma reported at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. Men were more likely than women to say their CVD impacted their sexual health (65% vs. 35%; P = .02) and that sexual health affected their mood and well-being (64% vs. 36%; P < .01), according to the survey results.

Eighty-seven percent of men and 64% of women cited a desire for information on sexual health (P = .02 for comparison).

Topics that patients with CVD most want to discuss included:

• adverse events of medications (60%);
• erectile dysfunction (50%);
• impact of sex on relationships (47%);
• anxiety before sex (35%); and
• pain during sex (13%).

Overall, patients wanted to receive information on sexual health from a health care professional (79%), particularly during annual check-ups (57%) and/or upon diagnosis (51%) or medication follow-ups (40%).

“People with a cardiac illness ... want to know more about sexual health. Please talk about it!” Jaarsma told Healio.

The results are based on anonymous survey questions about access to sexual health information and perceptions about connections to CV health. Jaarsma reported information from 135 respondents aged 30 to 89 years (mean age, 65 years) in Sweden. Half (47%) had hypertension, 35% had an MI, 30% had atrial fibrillation and 24% had HF.

Jaarsma told Healio the researchers “were curious to know what the current status of providing [sexual health] information is, and what patients want and need.”

The survey was administered only to patients in Sweden, so the results may not be generalizable elsewhere.

The AHA recommends that people who have had an MI or who have a diagnosis of CVD and/or stroke should check with a health care professional before resuming sexual activity, according to a press release from the AHA.

Looking ahead, we need “more studies on how to equip patients better to be able to ask their questions and health care professionals on how to bring up the subject in a professional and safe way,” Jaarsma told Healio.

Published by:

Sources/Disclosures

Collapse

Source:

Jaarsma T, et al. Abstract MDP1162. Presented at: American Heart Association Scientific Sessions; Nov. 16-18, 2024; Chicago.

Disclosures: Jaarsma reports no relevant financial disclosures. 

New study highlights the benefit of touch on mental and physical health

If your doctor was competent at all, s/he would ensure sex was available in the hospital. 

All the benefits of sex are in this post: 

For Some, Sex Is Better Sleep Aid Than Pill, Small Survey Finds

And all these:

Sexual Frequency Predicts Greater Well-Being, But More is Not Always Better

 

Sex after stroke

 

Sex linked to better brain power in older age

Sex: The Ultimate Full Body Workout

 

Better Memory From This Extremely Pleasurable Activity - Sex

 

WHY SEX IS BETTER FOR YOUR BRAIN THAN SUDOKU 

 

Sex linked to better brain power in older age  (Put this in here twice because it's so important!)

The latest here: If your competent? doctor isn't getting both done at the same time, I would question the use of the word competent!

New study highlights the benefit of touch on mental and physical health

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience - KNAW

image: 

Through a large-scale analysis, researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have uncovered the ways in which consensual touch can benefit a person’s physical and mental wellbeing.

view more 

Credit: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

Through a large-scale analysis, researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have uncovered the ways in which consensual touch can benefit a person’s physical and mental wellbeing.

You might recognize the comforting feeling when someone offers you a hug at the end of a stressful day or strokes your shoulder when you’re feeling down. But the question remains: can touch really help you feel better, and does it matter who it’s from or how they touch you? To explore these questions, researchers from the Social Brain Lab at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and the University Hospital Essen conducted a large-scale analysis of studies exploring touch interventions.

The benefits of touch on mental and physical health

Does touch truly improve someone’s wellbeing? It is an easy question to ask but more complicated to answer. Individual studies often only focus on specific instances and may contradict each other. Combining all these studies together for a large-scale analysis offers a clearer answer: yes, touch substantially improves both physical and mental wellbeing, for example via reduction of pain, anxiety, depression, and stress in adults. But in fact, those with physical or mental health problems (and therefore most in need of support) benefit even more from touch than healthy adults. “This is especially relevant considering how often touch interventions are overlooked” Packheiser, first author, adds.

“A key question of our study is to leverage the hundreds of individual studies out there to identify what type of touch works best,” adds professor Keysers, director of the Social Brain Lab. “What if you don’t have a friend or partner close by to hug you? Would touch from a stranger or even a machine also help? And how often?. The study clearly shows that touch can indeed be optimized, but the most important factors are not necessarily those we suspect.”

Interestingly, the person touching you, how they touch you, and the duration of their touch doesn’t make a difference in terms of impact. A long-lasting massage by a therapist could therefore be just as effective as a quick hug offered by a friend. That is, until the frequency of the intervention is considered. The more often a touch intervention is offered, the greater the impact. A quick hug could therefore be even more impactful than a massage if it is offered more frequently.

Human or non-human touch?

The next question was whether touch intervention needs to be human at all. As it turns out, object or robot interventions can be equally effective at improving physical wellbeing. “There are lots of people in need of wellbeing improvements, perhaps because they’re lonely but also because they may be inflicted by clinical conditions. These results indicate that a touch-robot, or even a simple weighted blanket has the potential to help those people”, last author Frédéric Michon explains. However, the benefits of robot and object interventions are less effective for mental wellbeing. Mental health disorders like anxiety or depression might therefore require human touch after all, “perhaps suggestive of the importance for an emotional component associated with the touch”, Michon point out.

While the researchers were equally curious about human-to-animal contact, studies exploring this question are still lacking. “It would be useful to see whether an animal’s or pet’s touch could improve wellbeing, and inversely if they also benefit from it, but unfortunately there simply aren’t enough studies, or properly controlled ones, for us to draw any general conclusions on these topics”, Michon clarifies.

Touch interventions across ages

When the team looked into the impact of touch on newborns, they found out that newborns also benefited significantly from touch. However, the person conducting the touch intervention was more important: the benefits of touch are higher when done by a parent instead of a healthcare worker. “This finding could be impactful”, Packheiser adds. “Death rates due to premature births are high in some countries and the knowledge that a baby benefits more from the touch of their own parent offers another easily implementable form of support for the baby’s health”.

Due to a lack of studies, it proved difficult to draw conclusions about children and teenagers. “Large scale studies like this help us draw more general conclusions but they also help us identify where research is lacking”, Michon explains. “We hope that our findings can steer future research to explore lesser-known questions. This includes animal touch, but also touch across ages, and in specific clinical settings like autistic patients, another category that has not been explored extensively”.

Source: Nature Human Behaviour

New Data Support Viagra for Alzheimer’s Prevention

 

But is it the drug or the amount of sex they are having? An easy piece of research to accomplish; WHOM will do that? What about for women?

Sex linked to better brain power in older age

 My doctor said it wasn't proven enough to do this.

But this for the negative view: Does Viagra really help prevent Alzheimer’s? Not so fast

The latest here:

New Data Support Viagra for Alzheimer’s Prevention

A new study provides more evidence that sildenafil (Viagra) which is used to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) may help protect against Alzheimer's disease (AD).

The large real-world analysis of patient data from two databases showed a 30%-54% reduced prevalence in AD among patients who took sildenafil (Viagra) than those who did not, after adjusting for potential confounding factors.

This observation was further supported by mechanistic studies showing decreased neurotoxic protein levels in brain cells exposed to the phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor (PDE5i).

"Our findings provide further weight to repurposing this existing FDA-approved drug as a novel treatment for Alzheimer's, which is in great need of new therapies," Feixiong Cheng, PhD, director of the Cleveland Clinic Genome Center, who led the research, said in a news release. 

"We used artificial intelligence to integrate data across multiple domains which all indicated sildenafil's potential against this devastating neurological disease," Cheng noted. 

The study was published online on March 1, 2024, in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. 

Neuroprotective?

Using real-world patient data from the MarketScan Medicare Supplemental database (2012-2017) and the Clinformatics database (2007-2020), the researchers conducted propensity score-stratified analyses after adjusting for gender, age, race, and comorbidities. 

They searched for all individuals with pharmacy claims for sildenafil or four comparator drugs — bumetanide, furosemide, spironolactone, and nifedipine. Results showed that sildenafil use was associated with reduced likelihood of AD relative to the control drugs. 

For example, sildenafil use was associated with a 54% reduced incidence of AD in MarketScan (hazard ratio [HR], 0.46; 95% CI, 0.32-0.66) and a 30% reduced prevalence of AD in Clinformatics (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.49-1.00) compared with spironolactone.

The findings support a study published earlier this year that found a potential protective effect of PDE5i treatment on AD risk, as previously reported by Medscape Medical News.

However, this research and the current study are contradicted by another paper published in Brain Communications in late 2022 which showed no such link between ED meds and reduced AD risk.

The investigators also found that sildenafil reduces tau hyperphosphorylation (pTau181 and pTau205) in a dose-dependent manner in both familial and sporadic AD patient induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons. 

They further demonstrated through RNA-sequencing data analysis that sildenafil specifically targets AD related genes and pathobiological pathways, mechanistically supporting the beneficial effect of sildenafil in AD.

"We believe our findings provide the evidence needed for clinical trials to further examine the potential effectiveness of sildenafil in patients with Alzheimer's disease," Cheng said. 

The study was primarily supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Cheng had no relevant disclosures.

Sildenafil(Viagra) as a Candidate Drug for Alzheimer’s Disease: Real-World Patient Data Observation and Mechanistic Observations from Patient-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neurons

 

But is it the drug or the amount of sex they are having? An easy piece of research to accomplish; WHOM will do that?

Sex linked to better brain power in older age

 My doctor said it wasn't proven enough to do this.

But this for the negative view: Does Viagra really help prevent Alzheimer’s? Not so fast

The latest here:

Sildenafil as a Candidate Drug for Alzheimer’s Disease: Real-World Patient Data Observation and Mechanistic Observations from Patient-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neurons

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Gohel, Dhruv^{a; 1} | Zhang, Pengyue^{b; 1} | Gupta, Amit Kumar^{a; 1} | Li, Yichen^a | Chiang, Chien-Wei^c | Li, Lang^c | Hou, Yuan^a | Pieper, Andrew A.^{d; e; f; g; h} | Cummings, Jeffreyⁱ | Cheng, Feixiong^{a; j; k; *}

Affiliations: [a] Genomic Medicine Institute,Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA | [b] Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science, Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA | [c] Department of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA | [d] Brain Health Medicines Center, Harrington Discovery Institute, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA | [e] Department of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA | [f] Geriatric Psychiatry, GRECC, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA | [g] Institute for Transformative Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA | [h] Department of Neurosciences, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA | [i] Chambers-Grundy Center for Transformative Neuroscience, Department of Brain Health, School of Integrated Health Sciences, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA | [j] Department of Molecular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA | [k] Cleveland Clinic Genome Center, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Feixiong Cheng, PhD, Cleveland Clinic Genome Center, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA. Tel.: +1 216 4447654; Fax: +1 216 6361609; E-mail: chengf@ccf.org.

Note: [1] These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract: 

 Background: 

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease needing effective therapeutics urgently. Sildenafil, one of the approved phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, has been implicated as having potential effect in AD. Objective: To investigate the potential therapeutic benefit of sildenafil on AD. 

Methods: 

We performed real-world patient data analysis using the MarketScan® Medicare Supplemental and the Clinformatics® databases. We conducted propensity score-stratified analyses after adjusting confounding factors (i.e., sex, age, race, and comorbidities). We used both familial and sporadic AD patient induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) derived neurons to evaluate the sildenafil’s mechanism-of-action. 

Results:

We showed that sildenafil usage is associated with reduced likelihood of AD across four new drug compactor cohorts, including bumetanide, furosemide, spironolactone, and nifedipine. For instance, sildenafil usage is associated with a 54% reduced incidence of AD in MarketScan® (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.46, 95% CI 0.32– 0.66) and a 30% reduced prevalence of AD in Clinformatics® (HR = 0.70, 95% CI 0.49– 1.00) compared to spironolactone. We found that sildenafil treatment reduced tau hyperphosphorylation (pTau181 and pTau205) in a dose-dependent manner in both familial and sporadic AD patient iPSC-derived neurons. RNA-sequencing data analysis of sildenafil-treated AD patient iPSC-derived neurons reveals that sildenafil specifically target AD related genes and pathobiological pathways, mechanistically supporting the beneficial effect of sildenafil in AD. 

Conclusions:

These real-world patient data validation and mechanistic observations from patient iPSC-derived neurons further suggested that sildenafil is a potential repurposable drug for AD. Yet, randomized clinical trials are warranted to validate the causal treatment effects of sildenafil in AD.

Keywords: KeywordsAlzheimer’s disease, induced pluripotent stem cells, phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5), real-world patient data, RNA-sequencing, sildenafil, tau phosphorylation

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-231391

Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. Pre-press, no. Pre-press, pp. 1-15, 2024

Accepted 18 January 2024

|

Published: 01 March 2024

Price: EUR 27.50

Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Tied to Less Alzheimer's Risk

But is it the drug or the amount of sex they are having? An easy piece of research to accomplish; WHOM will do that?

Sex linked to better brain power in older age

 My doctor said it wasn't proven enough to do this.

But this for the negative view: Does Viagra really help prevent Alzheimer’s? Not so fast

The latest here:

Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Tied to Less Alzheimer's Risk

Large U.K. study tracked health records of 270,000 men

by Judy George, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Today February 7, 2024

Erectile dysfunction drugs were associated with reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, electronic health record (EHR) data from 270,000 men in the U.K. suggested.

Over a median follow-up of about 5 years, men who started taking phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors were less likely to have an Alzheimer's diagnosis than nonusers (adjusted HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.72-0.93), reported Ruth Brauer, PhD, of the University College London, and co-authors.

Alzheimer's risk dropped further for men who had more than 20 prescriptions for PDE5 inhibitors, the researchers wrote in Neurology. For those issued 21-50 prescriptions, the HR was 0.56; for those with more than 50 prescriptions, the HR was 0.65.

PDE5 inhibitors are anti-hypertensive agents. Four -- sildenafil (Viagra), tadalafil (Cialis), vardenafil (Levitra), and avanafil (Stendra) -- are approved to treat erectile dysfunction because of their vasodilatory effects on the corpus cavernosum. Sildenafil also is approved to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

In rodents, sildenafil has been shown to improve memory and cognitive function, help synaptic plasticity and learning, and reduce amyloid burden. Tadalafil also has improved memory and lowered amyloid in animal studies. "However, evidence of neuroprotective effects in humans is not conclusive," Brauer and colleagues wrote.

The findings conflict with ones reported from a recent NIH DREAM study, which showed no difference in Alzheimer's and dementia diagnosis rates with PDE5 inhibitors compared with other PAH drugs among Medicare recipients.

But they're in line with a previous case-control analysis of insurance claims data that suggested sildenafil users were 69% less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than non-users, noted Sevil Yasar, MD, PhD, and Lolita Nidadavolu, MD, PhD, both of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, in an accompanying editorial.

"One major limitation of all three studies is that they have all used insurance claims or EHR data, which relies heavily on diagnosis by providers, which may lead to underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis of dementia, thus leading to misclassification bias," Yasar and Nidadavolu wrote.

Brauer and colleagues studied 269,725 men in U.K. primary care records with a new diagnosis of erectile dysfunction between 2000 and 2017. Patients with a history of cognitive impairment or dementia were excluded. Those who had a prescription for a PDE5 inhibitor (sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil, or avanafil) were compared with those who didn't.

The mean age at cohort entry was 58.5 years. Median follow-up was 5.1 years, during which 1,119 men were newly diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Overall, 749 men exposed to PDE5 inhibitors developed Alzheimer's, which corresponded to a crude incident rate of 8.1 per 10,000 person-years at risk. Among unexposed men, 370 developed Alzheimer's, corresponding to a crude incident rate of 9.7 per 10,000 person-years.

The primary result was consistent in a sensitivity analysis that included a 1-year lag period to partly account for prodromal Alzheimer's, but not one with a 3-year lag.

In subgroup analyses, Alzheimer's risk was lower than those who started on sildenafil compared with men who didn't use PDE5 inhibitors (adjusted HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.71-0.93). PDE5 inhibitor exposure in men ages 70 and older, and in those with a history of hypertension or diabetes, also was associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's.

Additional data from in vitro and in vivo studies could strengthen analyses that examine links between PDE5 inhibitors and Alzheimer's, the editorialists noted. "These include in vitro studies exploring the role of inflammation and clearance of beta-amyloid," Yasar and Nidadavolu wrote. Blood and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of inflammation and endothelial function or imaging to assess neuroinflammation and vascular changes also could help evaluate potential mechanisms associated with PDE5 inhibitor use.

"In the end, however, further observational studies exploring mechanisms will not prove a causal association," they emphasized. "A well-designed randomized controlled trial is needed before [PDE5 inhibitors] can be prescribed for Alzheimer's disease prevention."

• Judy George covers neurology and neuroscience news for MedPage Today, writing about brain aging, Alzheimer’s, dementia, MS, rare diseases, epilepsy, autism, headache, stroke, Parkinson’s, ALS, concussion, CTE, sleep, pain, and more. Follow

Disclosures

This study had no targeted funding.

Brauer and co-authors reported no disclosures.

The editorialists had no disclosures.

Primary Source

Neurology

Source Reference: Adesuyan M, et al "Phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors in men with erectile dysfunction and the risk of Alzheimer disease: a cohort study" Neurology 2024; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000209131.

Secondary Source

Neurology

Source Reference: Yasar S, Nidadavolu L "Repurposing erectile dysfunction medication for Alzheimer disease prevention" Neurology 2024; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000209180.

After Antidepressants, a Loss of Sexuality

 

With all the benefits of sex post stroke and your risk of depression post stroke, make sure your doctor knows EXACTLY  how to handle  two competing priorities.

100% recovery and there is no depression to fix!

• 33% survivor depression (28 posts to September 2016)

All the benefits of sex are in this post: 

For Some, Sex Is Better Sleep Aid Than Pill, Small Survey Finds

The latest here:

After Antidepressants, a Loss of Sexuality

Doctors and patients have long known that antidepressants can cause sexual problems. No libido. Pleasureless orgasms. Numb genitals. Well over half of people taking the drugs report such side effects.

Now, a small but vocal group of patients is speaking out about severe sexual problems that have endured even long after they stopped taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the most popular type of antidepressants. The drugs’ effects have been devastating, they said, leaving them unable to enjoy sex or sustain romantic relationships.

More at link.

Study reveals elevated risk of ischemic stroke in women and men with migraine headaches

Wasn't this already proven in September 2017? 

Migraine with aura – but not without – increases risk of stroke  Sept. 2017

And your doctor has you on a migraine prevention protocol? Is sex your doctor's answer?

I think by age 31 my migranes stopped  when I quit being a manager. Never did have them with aura.  If this is you you will need to demand dementia prevention protocols from your doctor. Does your doctor know about the sex link below?

From another piece of research, you might want to have sex.

34% of the patients had experience with sexual activity during an attack; out of these patients, 60% reported an improvement of their migraine attack (70% of them reported moderate to complete relief) and 33% reported worsening.

Dementia Linked to Previous Migraine History

Midlife migraine diagnosis boosted dementia rate by 50%, Danish study shows

 

Study reveals elevated risk of ischemic stroke in women and men with migraine headaches

Women and men who experience migraine headaches also carry an elevated risk of having an ischemic stroke, but women alone may carry an additional risk of heart attack and hemorrhagic stroke, according to a new study led by Cecilia Hvitfeldt Fuglsang of Aarhus University, Denmark publishing June 13^th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine.

People diagnosed with migraine are believed to have a higher risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke before the age of 60. Previous studies have suggested that the increased risk of ischemic stroke – when a blood clot blocks a blood vessel to the brain – mostly affects young women. It was unclear whether women with migraine also carry a higher risk of heart attack and hemorrhagic stroke – when an artery in the brain bursts – compared to men, which was the aim of the new research.

Hvitfeldt Fuglsang's team conducted a nationwide study of Danish medical records collected from 1996 to 2018, from individuals aged 18 to 60. They identified men and women with migraine based on their prescription drug records and compared their risk of a heart attack and ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke before the age of 60 to the risks faced by people in the general population without migraine.

Contrary to earlier findings, the analysis showed that both men and women with migraine had a similarly increased risk of ischemic stroke. However, women with migraine may also carry a slightly higher risk of heart attack and hemorrhagic stroke, compared to men with migraine and the general population.

Drug Discovery eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download the latest edition

Overall, the results suggest that women are more greatly impacted by migraine, especially since the condition is predominantly diagnosed in women. The researchers point out that since they used prescription drug records to identify patients with migraine, they may have missed untreated individuals, which could have resulted in an underestimation of the contribution of migraine to these health problems. Since heart attack and stroke can lead to life-long disabilities or even death, the researchers argue that it is vital to identify persons at increased risk to facilitate targeted preventative therapies.

Hvitfeldt Fuglsang adds, "Migraine was associated with a similarly increased risk of ischemic stroke among young men and women. However, migraine may be associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction and hemorrhagic stroke only among women."

Source:

PLOS

Journal reference:

Fuglsang, C. H., et al. (2023) Migraine and risk of premature myocardial infarction and stroke among men and women: A Danish population-based cohort study. PLOS Medicine. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004238.

Be the first to rate this article

For Some, Sex Is Better Sleep Aid Than Pill, Small Survey Finds

Your doctor should be prescribing sex instead.  This is a reason why;

Sleep medications associated with higher risk for dementia in white individuals February 2023

My hospital had the nurses handing out sleeping pills like candy at 10pm. I would have much preferred sex. 

You doctor is responsible for getting you fucking again post stroke.

With all the benefits of sex I bet your doctor doesn't know or do a damn thing for your sex life.  I'll have to add this one: Among them are delayed onset of dementia

All this is why you need to be doing lots of sex, why the hell can't your doctor get you fucking again? In fact you should be doing it in the hospital.

Sexual Frequency Predicts Greater Well-Being, But More is Not Always Better

 

Sex after stroke

 

Sex linked to better brain power in older age

Sex: The Ultimate Full Body Workout

 

Better Memory From This Extremely Pleasurable Activity - Sex

 

WHY SEX IS BETTER FOR YOUR BRAIN THAN SUDOKU 

 

Sex linked to better brain power in older age  (Put this in here twice because it's so important!)

 

Good News About Sex- It Doesn't Cause a Stroke

 

Sex Does Not Increase Heart Attack Risk - What about stroke?

 

Frequent orgasms may protect against heart attacks

 

An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away!

In case you don't have a partner she could prescribe this.

Electrosex

And the benefits of marijuana for sex here:

Sex, Marijuana and Baby Booms

 

And how is your doctor ensuring you get enough sex while in the hospital?

The latest here:

For Some, Sex Is Better Sleep Aid Than Pill, Small Survey Finds

Two-thirds of people who use sleep meds said they slept just as well or better after sex

by Salynn Boyles, Contributing Writer June 7, 2023

INDIANAPOLIS -- Having sex at bedtime is perceived by some as being as effective as taking a sleeping pill for getting a good night's sleep, according to findings from a small survey conducted via social media.

When 53 people were asked, 75% reported that they slept better after nighttime sex or orgasm, with or without a partner.

And among the 35 individuals who reported use of sleep medications, almost two-thirds said that having sex and/or an orgasm helped them sleep at least as well as or better than taking a pill.

The findings were presented by Douglas Kirsch, MD, of Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the annual SLEEP meetingopens in a new tab or window here, hosted jointly by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

In an interview with MedPage Today, Kirsch acknowledged that the study was not all that scientific. He said he conducted it, along with co-investigator Seema Khosla, MD, of the North Dakota Center for Sleep in Fargo, in hopes of getting a conversation going within the sleep medicine community about sex and sleep.

"This is an aspect of sleep medicine that has not been well explored, and I am the first to admit that our findings raise a lot more questions than they answer," Kirsch said.

"Obviously this is an uncomfortable topic for many patients and their doctors, and I don't think it's talked about all that much," he said. "Our findings suggest that many people use sex to help them sleep better. That may not be all that surprising, or maybe it is."

The eight-question survey, created with Qualtrics, was distributed through social media -- mostly Twitter, but not Facebook, Kirsch said.

The first two questions related to age and gender. Just over half (53%) of the responding participants were female, and close to 90% were ages 26 to 49. About 9% of respondents were 50 to 64, and none were older than 65.

The survey questions made no distinction between having sex and having an orgasm with or without a partner, and the questions included the following:

• When you have sex/orgasm close to bedtime, do you tend to sleep better? (yes/no)

• If you sleep better after sex/orgasm, which effect on your sleep occurs? (fall asleep faster/stay asleep longer/both)

• If you sleep better after sex/orgasm, how much better does it help you sleep? (small/moderate/large improvement)

• If you sleep better after sex/orgasm, how often do you use sex/orgasm to improve your sleep? (never/monthly/weekly/multiple times a week)

• Do you use sleeping pills to help you sleep at least one time a month (yes/no)

• If you use sleeping pills, how do they compare to the effect of sex/orgasm? (better/similar/worse)

A total of 27% of respondents reported never using sex/orgasm to improve their sleep, while 16%, 33%, and 24%, respectively, reported using sex/orgasm to fall asleep monthly, weekly, or multiple times a week.

Of the 40 individuals who said they slept better after having sex/orgasm, just over 50% reported moderate improvement in sleep and around a third reported a small improvement.

Kirsch said there was no significant difference between males and females in the responses.

And while the small survey suggested a largely positive association between sex and sleep, Kirsch said this certainly may not be the case for many people, such as those who have experienced sexual trauma.

"This isn't one-size-fits-all, and while sex may promote sleep for some it may do the opposite for others," he said. "We need to do the research to better understand this."

Andrew Spector, MD, of Duke Health in Durham, North Carolina, who was not involved with the research, told MedPage Today that he agreed with Kirsch that more research is needed and that the topic is largely ignored within the sleep medicine community.

"I do talk about it with my patients," he said. "I can't say I talk about it often. But in the right setting when I think the patient will be receptive to the conversation I will certainly mention that sex is a non-pharmacological way to treat insomnia. It's perfectly safe, can be used at will, and can be done with and without a partner."

Disclosures

Kirsch reported no support for the study, and had no disclosures.

Primary Source

SLEEP

Source Reference: opens in a new tab or windowKirsch D, Khosla S "Sex as soporific -- Did Hollywood get this right?" SLEEP 2023; Abstract 0405.

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