CHICAGO – Body clock disruptions occur years before memory loss for people with Alzheimer’s disease, US researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found.
The researchers tracked circadian rhythms in 189 cognitively normal, older adults with an average age of 66. Some had positron emission tomography (PET) scans to look for Alzheimer’s-related amyloid plaques in their brains. Others had their cerebrospinal fluid tested for Alzheimer’s-related proteins. And some had both scans and spinal fluid testing.
Fifty of the 139 participants who either had abnormal brain scans or abnormal cerebrospinal fluid all experienced significant disruptions in their internal body clocks, showed the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Neurology.
The study participants, from Washington University’s Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, all wore devices similar to exercise trackers for one to two weeks. Each also completed a detailed sleep diary every morning. (Xinhua)
