Researchers Make a Major Breakthrough in Predicting Neurodegenerative Diseases

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Briana Mercola

Health & Fitness, Health, Alternative Health

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Acting out dreams during sleep is an early warning sign of Parkinson's or dementia with Lewy bodies, offering a window for early detection and prevention
Advanced MRI scans now reveal that your brain's waste-clearing system slows down years before symptoms like tremors, stiffness, or memory loss appear
One study found that people with impaired brain waste clearance were more likely to develop Parkinson's, while another discovered that excess fluid between brain cells predicted future dementia
These findings show that subtle changes in brain fluid balance — not just loss of dopamine or brain shrinkage — predict who develops neurodegenerative disease and how fast it progresses
Supporting your brain's "cleaning system" through deep sleep, regular movement, hydration, and toxin avoidance helps protect memory, balance, and mental clarity for life

Transcript

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0:00.0	What if the way you move in your sleep could forecast Parkinson's or dementia years before the first tremor or memory slip?
0:07.0	Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen summaries of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go.
0:15.0	No reading required. Subscribe for free at Mercola.com for the latest health insights.
0:20.0	Hello, and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. I'm Ethan Subscribe for free at mercola.com for the latest health insights.
0:24.1	Hello, and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom.
0:25.5	I'm Ethan Foster.
0:30.6	Today we're looking at new imaging research, showing that your brain's nightly waste clearing network can slow down long before symptoms appear, and how acting out dreams may be one of the earliest
0:36.9	warnings that you should pay attention to sleep, fluid balance, and how acting out dreams may be one of the earliest warnings that you should pay
0:38.1	attention to sleep, fluid balance, and toxin exposure. I'm Alara Sky. This conversation centers on
0:47.0	isolated REM sleep behavior disorder, when you shout, thrash, or act out dreams. It isn't just
0:54.0	restless sleep. Most people diagnosed with
0:56.6	it go on to develop Parkinson's disease or dementia with Lewy bodies within roughly 15 years.
1:02.7	That timeline makes early detection and prevention strategies practical for you right now.
1:08.3	A neurology study followed 250 people with this dream enactment disorder and 178 healthy
1:14.7	controls across centers in Canada, the UK, France, and Chiquia.
1:19.6	Over about six years, 65 of those with the sleep disorder developed a neurodegenerative
1:24.5	disease, most commonly Parkinson's.
1:27.4	The key signal wasn't brain shrinkage.
1:29.3	It was weaker function in the brain's glymphatic system,
1:32.3	the network that washes out toxins during deep sleep.
1:36.3	Researchers used a specialized MRI approach to assess that waste clearance efficiency.
1:41.3	People who later developed Parkinson's had distinctly lower glymphatic activity,
	...

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