Sleep disturbances can be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease. A small, two-night study has shown that people who took a sleeping pill before bed time experienced a drop in the levels of key Alzheimer's proteins, since higher levels of such proteins tracks with worsening disease. The study, involved a sleeping aid known as suvorexant is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for insomnia. This drug is already available and proven safe. Suvorexant belongs to a class of insomnia medications known as dual orexin receptor antagonists. Orexin is a natural biomolecule that promotes wakefulness. When orexin is blocked, people fall asleep. Three orexin inhibitors have been approved by the FDA, and more are in the pipeline. As a first step to assess the effect of orexin inhibitors on people, researchers included 38 participants ages 45 to 65 and with no cognitive impairments to undergo a two-night sleep study. The participants were given a lower dose (10 mg) of suvorexant (13 people), a higher dose (20 mg) of suvorexant (12 people), or a placebo (13 people) at 9 p.m. and then went to sleep in clinical research. Researchers withdrew a small amount of cerebrospinal fluid via spinal tap every two hours for 36 hours, starting one hour before the sleeping aid or placebo was administered, to measure how amyloid levels changed over the next day and a half. Amyloid levels dropped 10% to 20% in the cerebrospinal fluid of people who had received the high dose of suvorexant compared to people who had received a placebo. If we can lower amyloid every day, we think the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain will decrease over time. The study is preliminary since it only looked at the effect of two doses of the drug in a small group of participants. The researcher has studies underway to assess the longer-term effects of orexin inhibitors in people at higher risk of dementia.

As people get older, their heart function often slows down and they are more likely to have arrhythmias-irregular heartbeats that can be mild or even life-threatening. But new research brings surprising news: not all changes in the aging heart are bad. In fact, some changes may help protect it. A new study published in JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology found that a tiny structure between heart cells, called the perinexus gap, becomes naturally smaller with age. This small gap helps heart cells send electrical signals to each other. When it narrows, it seems to improve this communication and helps keep the heartbeat steady. This narrowing may be the body’s way of keeping the heart working properly as it gets older. Arrhythmias happen when the heart’s electrical signals are too fast, too slow, or mixed up. They can lead to serious problems like stroke, heart failure or even sudden death. The most common type, atrial fibrillation, affects more than 2 million adults in the U.S. To study this, scientists used hearts from young and old guinea pigs. They found that older hearts with narrower perinexus gaps were less likely to develop arrhythmias. But when the gap was made wider, the older hearts quickly developed irregular beats. This shows that the narrower gap helps protect the aging heart. Physicians also say this might explain why arrhythmias can be difficult to detect in older adults-the body may correct the issue before it can be identified through testing. This discovery shows that aging doesn’t always weaken the heart. Instead, some small changes may actually help keep it strong. In the future, doctors might use this finding to create new treatments for heart rhythm problems.