Latest news with #Pase
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
One Stage of Sleep Seems Critical For Reducing Risk of Dementia
The risk of getting dementia may go up as you get older if you don't get enough slow-wave sleep. A 2023 study found that over-60s are 27 percent more likely to develop dementia if they lose just 1 percent of this deep sleep each year. Slow-wave sleep is the third stage of a human 90-minute sleep cycle, lasting about 20–40 minutes. It's the most restful stage, where brain waves and heart rate slow and blood pressure drops. Deep sleep strengthens our muscles, bones, and immune system, and prepares our brains to absorb more information. Another recent study discovered that individuals with Alzheimer's-related changes in their brain did better on memory tests when they got more slow-wave sleep. "Slow-wave sleep, or deep sleep, supports the aging brain in many ways, and we know that sleep augments the clearance of metabolic waste from the brain, including facilitating the clearance of proteins that aggregate in Alzheimer's disease," said neuroscientist Matthew Pase from Monash University in Australia. "However, to date we have been unsure of the role of slow-wave sleep in the development of dementia. Our findings suggest that slow-wave sleep loss may be a modifiable dementia risk factor." Pase and colleagues from Australia, Canada, and the US examined 346 Framingham Heart Study participants who had completed two overnight sleep studies between 1995 and 1998 and between 2001 and 2003, with an average of five years between testing periods. This community-based cohort, who had no record of dementia at the time of the 2001-2003 study, and were over 60 years old in 2020, gave researchers a chance to look into the link between two factors over time by comparing the datasets from the two in-depth polysomnography sleep studies, and then monitoring for dementia among participants up until 2018. "We used these to examine how slow-wave sleep changed with aging and whether changes in slow-wave sleep percentage were associated with the risk of later-life dementia up to 17 years later," said Pase. In the 17 years of follow-up, 52 dementia cases were recorded among the participants. Participants' slow-wave sleep levels recorded in the sleep studies were also examined for a link to dementia cases. Overall, their rate of slow-wave sleep was found to decrease from age 60 onward, with this loss peaking between the ages of 75 and 80 and then leveling off after that. By comparing participants' first and second sleep studies, researchers discovered a link between each percentage point decrease in slow-wave sleep per year and a 27 percent increased risk of developing dementia. That risk increased to 32 percent when they zeroed in on Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. The Framingham Heart Study measures multiple health data points over time, including hippocampal volume loss (an early sign of Alzheimer's) and common factors contributing to cardiovascular disease. Low levels of slow-wave sleep were linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, taking medications that can impact sleep, and having the APOE ε4 gene, which is linked to Alzheimer's. "We found that a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, but not brain volume, was associated with accelerated declines in slow wave sleep," Pase said. Although these are clear associations, the authors note this type of study doesn't prove that slow-wave sleep loss causes dementia, and it's possible dementia-related brain processes cause sleep loss. For these factors to be fully understood, more research is required. We certainly can prioritize getting enough sleep in the meantime – it's important for more than strengthening our memory. There's even steps you can take to boost your chances of getting more of this crucial slow-wave sleep. The study has been published in JAMA Neurology. An earlier version of this article was published in November 2023. World First: US Baby Treated With Personalized CRISPR Gene-Editing Men Are Dying From 'Broken Heart Syndrome' at Twice The Rate of Women Your Walking Style Can Have Surprising Health Benefits, Study Says
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Yahoo
'A healing time': Honor Flight brings veterans of Vietnam, Korea and World War II to D.C.
Apr. 17—WASHINGTON — Charlie Pase considers himself "unusually lucky." He was just 17 when he joined the Marine Corps in 1943, hoping to help free his older brother, a prisoner of war in Japan. In the years that followed, he survived the battles of Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa — despite being a machine gunner "right in the middle of it" — and stayed in Japan once World War II ended as part of the force that occupied Nagasaki after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city. When he arrived on the National Mall on Thursday, now 99, Pase was the eldest of the 94 veterans who spent the day visiting memorials to those who have served in the U.S. military. He said the experience helped him reflect on his own life and the lives of his fellow veterans and their fallen comrades. "It takes us back and gives us a sense of what this was all about. I think that, perhaps, is the most important thing," Pase said. "I'm amazed at the friendship, and it makes you realize that it's all been worth it and nothing is ever free." The trip was organized by Inland Northwest Honor Flight, which charters a plane from Spokane to the nation's capital each year for scores of veterans — who travel free of charge — and volunteer "guardians" who accompany them. Tony Lamanna, who founded the nonprofit in 2009, said he and his team have organized about 50 of the trips, which began by taking smaller groups on more frequent commercial flights. Thursday's group included two World War II veterans, seven Korean War veterans and 85 veterans of the Vietnam War. The nonprofit gives priority to veterans of earlier wars and those with terminal illnesses. At the World War II Memorial, Pase met Bill Beckstrom, who was also 17 when he joined the Navy in 1944 and served in the Battle of Okinawa. Now 98, Beckstrom said he had never been to the eastern half of the United States and wishes he had made the trip sooner. "I should have done it before," he said. "I wasn't going to come at all, but everyone wanted me to come so I finally said, 'OK, let's see how it goes.' And I'm glad I did. It's been wonderful." Norval Figy, 93, was one of the Korean War veterans who made the trip. He said he didn't want to miss the chance to see the memorials for the first time in his life. His son Dan Figy, a fellow Air Force veteran, was one of the guardians who accompanied the veterans along with the nonprofit's board, six medics, a comfort dog named Isaac and his handlers. Mike Jones, a Navy veteran from Spokane Valley who has returned for multiple trips as a guardian since he benefitted from an Honor Flight himself, recalled taking a fellow Vietnam veteran a year earlier to the wall that bears the names of those who died in that war. "He had a lot of trauma," Jones said. "He left a lot of pain at that wall, like a lot of the vets do. It's a healing time." As Beckstrom and Jones left the World War II Memorial and walked to their bus, they passed through a cheering group of students that applauded and waved signs that read "Thank You Veterans." When the group disembarked at its next stop, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, some of the younger members remembered receiving a different welcome when they returned home from a war that much of the public opposed. Gray Wolf, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians who also goes by Joseph Parker, grew up on the Qualla Reservation in North Carolina and joined the Army when he was 18. Staring at the thousands of names on the memorial wall, he said that in nearly eight years in Vietnam as a sniper and Special Forces soldier, he witnessed the deaths of so many of his comrades that he wasn't sure which name to look for first. The experience left him with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, he said. The attitude many Americans had toward Vietnam veterans made his return to the country he had left as a teenager even harder. "People just don't realize how much it rips somebody apart," he said. "And then getting back here and getting called all kinds of names, spit on." As Gray Wolf stood in front of the wall, several children stopped to thank him for his service. After he thanked them in return and they moved on, he said the gesture touched his heart. "It makes me feel a little bit better that some people care, but there's still a lot of people that don't give a crap about a Vietnam vet," said Gray Wolf, who lives in Airway Heights. Then, watching families strolling in front of the memorial, he said quietly, "I wish I could be as normal as they are." Also at the wall, Joe Hemmerich struggled to stand up from his wheelchair with the help of his son, Aaron. The Navy veteran, who lives in Colville, stretched to touch the name of Lloyd G. Howie, a friend whose story Hemmerich said he hadn't told until that day. In 1970, Hemmerich was working as a radar operator on the USS Bon Homme Richard, an aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam. Howie, who would chat with the younger Hemmerich in the combat information center, was flying a patrol mission in his F-8 Crusader that turned disastrous when he couldn't safely land on the carrier's deck and ran out of fuel, crashing into the sea. When he recalled seeing his friend's remains, Hemmerich broke down. Now battling advanced cancer that he believes is connected to his exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange, the Navy veteran said the trip was an opportunity to reconnect with that formative part of his life. Orion Donovan Smith's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. 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