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Inhaling high-dose CO2 clears Alzheimer's proteins from the brain

40 points by leumon

by garciasn

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> The researchers found that intermittent exposure to high carbon dioxide levels caused the brain’s blood vessels to pump as they do during deep sleep, driving the glymphatic system.
[...]
> But an around an hour after the intervention ended, the amyloid and tau-clearing benefits had returned to baseline. Further studies need to explore whether this has an impact on Alzheimer’s disease risk or progression in the long-term, and how often you’d need to do it, says Vincent Tay at Changi General Hospital in Singapore.
> Further studies need to explore whether this has an impact on Alzheimer’s disease risk or progression in the long-term, and how often you’d need to do it, says Vincent Tay at Changi General Hospital in Singapore.

by awakeasleep

1 subcomments

“Carbogen” has an interesting history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbogen
It has some sort of mind altering effect, and in the early days of psychedelic psychotherapy it was used to determine whether someone would freak out under the influence of mind altering substances.
https://www.erowid.org/chemicals/carbogen/carbogen.shtml

by EdwardCoffin

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I can't find it at the moment (edit: found it [2]), but I am sure I read something about Jerome Lettvin [1] doing some experimenting with CO2 but for something like schizophrenia, and that despite having good results he had to stop due to legal liability reasons or the like. I think it came up in an interview with him which I read a transcript of.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Lettvin
[2] https://www.mindstrengthbalance.com/learn/interviews/jeromel... (search for Laszlo to find the bit where they start talking about this)

by leumon

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by Shalomboy

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I would assume that all sorts of proteins would clear out of the brain in cases of prolonged oxygen depletion.

by pvaldes

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Also can stop ongoing epileptic attacks it seems. The secondary risk of suffocation makes it impractical in any case.
A more sophisticated version of breathing in a bag to stop anxiety attacks. It seems that more CO2 than normal resets our system and put us on calm mode to save oxygen.
If the mechanism is that the CO2 tells the body to get rid of some chemical substance by the blood, I wonder if all this things could have a similar trigger in form of some toxic, or if the origin is alive and it needs some oxygen supply.

by happyPersonR

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