What is Your Hard Working Glymphatic System?

Picture of the brain with text talking about detoxifying with the glymphatic system

Table of Contents

The Glymphatic System is your brain’s defense and detoxification!

The glymphatic system and your sleep are a critical component of detoxification and Nervous System (brain) protection. The Lymph System is a system that is more common to many of you. This system is replicated in the brain, called the glymphatic system.

The glymphatic system is KEY to brain health and immunity. Proper sleep is essential for maintaining this system’s optimal functioning. Your brain controls and regulates your sleep. It also regulates the DEPTH of your sleep. According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, there are areas in your brainstem and your hypothalamus that keep you awake. There are other areas that help you wind down and fall asleep. One area of interest is the tuberomamillary nucleus, also known as the TMN. Neurons in this region release histamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in maintaining brain wakefulness.

Our Full Scan looks for stress in the hypothalamus and for energetic imbalances in hormones and neurotransmitters, such as histamine.

The areas responsible for wakefulness and for sleeping need to be in balance and in communication for a proper transition. There are things we do that disrupt this balance.

If you are interested in keeping your brain healthy, it’s essential to understand the role of the glymphatic system during sleep.

This blog post will:

Introduce you to the glymphatic system
Explain how the glymphatic system works
Link the glymphatic system to the lymph system and the nervous system

This system is working hard while you are sleeping. Think of the glymphatic system as the ‘garbage men’ for our brain, clearing out all the waste that has accumulated throughout the day.

What IS the glymphatic system exactly?

Your brain, just like other tissues in the body, creates waste. During our waking hours, this ‘waste’ originates from precursor proteins, known as amyloid-βs, and other metabolites that accumulate in the brain. If this ‘waste’ isn’t removed regularly, these precursor proteins can accumulate, form into plaque, and potentially damage our neurons.

This may be one contributor to the higher risk of dementia and other neurodegenerative issues over time. Brain health is a big concern for post menopausal women and andropausal men. Sleep and sleep hygiene are one way to support the health of your brain and Nervous System, overall.

If our sleep quality and/or duration are poor, our glymphatic system cannot function as effectively.

In any area of the body, there is fluid surrounding tissues, called interstitial fluid. This fluid helps with the balance of the tissue. This fluid exists in interstitial spaces, and its components are funneled into the Lymph System.

The brain also has interstitial fluid. The glymphatic system aids in the clearance of waste in the brain, much like the Lymphatic System of the body. Let’s be more specific. And scientific.

Astroglial cells, also known as astrocytes, are brain cells that help maintain balance, or homeostasis, and protect the nervous system. They are part of this clearance system that removes waste from the central nervous system through channels made by these astroglial cells.

The glymphatic system may also help bring glucose, lipids, and amino acids to the brain (1).

How does the glymphatic system work?

Your cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF, flows alongside arteries in the brain, and exists in spaces beside smaller blood vessels that flow into the brain (2). In these spaces, it mixes with interstitial fluid. There are channels made by those astroglial cells, through which all this fluid flows. Artery pulsing, respiration, and pressure within the brain help this glymphatic system move waste products out of the brain.

In animal studies, it has been shown that while the animals are sleeping, the interstitial space, where interstitial fluid accumulates, increases in volume.

This brain drain system is most active during sleep and least active while you are awake. Therefore, this system can’t do its job if you are up watching too much Netflix at night!

Disrupting circadian rhythms and your sleep means that the brain is not activating the glymph system. The brain needs to be in this state of “inactivity” to carry out the job of eliminating waste products that may be toxic to the brain.

Waste products include dead cells, as well as another substance called β-amyloid. These are proteins that accumulate between nerve cells in the brain. These plaques are thought to be toxic to the brain and are implicated in brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, through the amyloid hypothesis.

The theory or hypothesis says that these plaques, once formed, can’t be broken down by the body.

How does the glymph system connect to the Lymph System?

This drainage system is connected to the body’s lymph system through a lymph network associated with:

the outer areas of the brain
the meninges
nerves of the brain called cranial nerves
blood vessels that run out of the skull

From here, the fluid travels and drains into the cervical lymph nodes, located in the neck. Then the fluid enters the body’s lymph transport system.

As we age, the lymph vessels may narrow and drainage to these lymph nodes may be reduced (3).

What about TOXINS and the Glymph System?

There are many environmental toxins that influence brain and nervous system health. The top Nervous System energetic toxins we see on Bioresonance Scans are Chemicals and Metals, including:

Mercury
Aluminum
Poly-fluorinated compounds
Xenoestrogens
Lead
Cadmium
Borrelia

Chemicals and metals impact the endocrine system, digestive system, endocrine system (which is intimately tied to that nervous system), and all your detox organs.

Support For Your Glymph System:

During aging, meningeal lymphatic vessels exhibit a decrease in vessel diameter and reduced drainage to cervical lymph nodes. These are the lymph nodes in your neck, remember? Your Glymph system drains in here. Keeping your lymphatic system flowing through movement, nutrition, dry brushing, hydration, digestion, elimination, and even posture will support the special draining system of the brain, the glymphatic system.

Does that make you think twice about those late-night Netflix binges?

It does for us!

Have trouble with sleep?

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Sources:

*This post is designed for educational purposes only and is not intended to serve as medical advice.

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