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The word "toxin" has become a signal for pseudoscientific medicine, so I also furrowed my brow at that. But the original use of the word is much more clear in c

by scott_s 13y ago

The word "toxin" has become a signal for pseudoscientific medicine, so I also furrowed my brow at that. But the original use of the word is much more clear in context. From the abstract which tokenadult kindly linked to: Thus, the restorative function of sleep may be a consequence of the enhanced removal of potentially neurotoxic waste products that accumulate in the awake central nervous system. Also, regarding the dangers of sleep deprivation, the first paragraph of the paper are relevant (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/373.full http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/373.full): Sleep deprivation reduces learning, impairs performance in cognitive tests, prolongs reaction time, and is a common cause of seizures (3, 4). In the most extreme case, continuous sleep deprivation kills rodents and flies within a period of days to weeks (5, 6). In humans, fatal familial or sporadic insomnia is a progressively worsening state of sleeplessness that leads to dementia and death within months or years (7). Reference 7 is http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(03)00323-5/fulltext http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-44..., but I found the Wikipedia article more consumable for someone who is not up on medical research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia

deleted 13y ago
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sillysaurus2 13y ago
Direct link to reference 7, "Familial and sporadic fatal insomnia": http://a.pomf.se/7Uu7.pdf http://a.pomf.se/7Uu7.pdf From the paper, "Phenotypic variability is another issue. In some patients, insomnia, one of the cardinal symptoms, was not reported." The other half of that sentence is obviously "... but Dementia and death still occurred." Therefore, this research demonstrates that fatal familial insomnia results in Dementia and death, but with insomnia as a secondary effect. The insomnia is a symptom, not the cause. I'm only trying to show how tricky it is to base an argument on scientific research. There are all sorts of corner cases and gotchas. In this case, the fact that insomnia is unrelated to the Dementia and death is buried on page 8 of a 10-page article, embedded in a gigantic paragraph. A rather important point for such little treatment by the article!

by scott_s 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

sillysaurus2 13y ago

Direct link to reference 7, "Familial and sporadic fatal insomnia": http://a.pomf.se/7Uu7.pdf http://a.pomf.se/7Uu7.pdf From the paper, "Phenotypic variability is another issue. In some patients, insomnia, one of the cardinal symptoms, was not reported." The other half of that sentence is obviously "... but Dementia and death still occurred." Therefore, this research demonstrates that fatal familial insomnia results in Dementia and death, but with insomnia as a secondary effect. The insomnia is a symptom, not the cause. I'm only trying to show how tricky it is to base an argument on scientific research. There are all sorts of corner cases and gotchas. In this case, the fact that insomnia is unrelated to the Dementia and death is buried on page 8 of a 10-page article, embedded in a gigantic paragraph. A rather important point for such little treatment by the article!