05/01/2025
🧠 A Personal and Professional Challenge: Let’s Rethink Brain Health Together
A close acquaintance of mine is living with a neurodegenerative disorder—Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia, post-COVID-19 syndrome, CTE, or another inflammatory neurological condition. Sadly, they’re not alone. These disorders are increasing, while cost-effective, accessible tools for diagnosis and monitoring remain out of reach for many.
🔍 What We’re Learning
Emerging research underscores the glymphatic system’s role in clearing neuroinflammatory waste and facilitating blood-brain barrier (BBB) repair via M2 macrophage activity. This system may be key to preventing or slowing neurological decline.
⚠️ The Problem
Despite its importance, direct assessment of BBB integrity remains costly and inaccessible. We urgently need low-cost, non-invasive methods to monitor glymphatic and BBB function—especially in early or at-risk cases.
💡 Open Questions:
What defines an optimally functioning glymphatic system?
Could spontaneous 4 AM awakening (without caffeine or alarms) be a biomarker of enhanced glymphatic clearance or brain homeostasis?
📣 Call to Action:
I’m reaching out to neurologists, sleep scientists, immunologists, and fellow researchers:
What are your thoughts on natural indicators of glymphatic efficiency?
What diagnostic or observational tools show promise in this space?
Let’s connect ideas, evidence, and innovation to make brain health monitoring more affordable and accessible.
👇 Share your insights in the comments or message me directly.
Together, we can move this conversation—and the science—forward.
—Dr. David Yoder
