Not really news - but news to me - is that there are/have been (very small) clinical trials on devices that produce sound and light pulsed at 40 Hz for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. Exposure to sound and light at this frequency causes the brain to sync up and generate gamma brain waves. Similar treatment in mouse models resulted in beta amyloid and tau clearance. I haven't come across research on this treatment's application to other types of protein aggregate clearance, but if it works by making microglia function better, it might be useful.
Brain wave stimulation may improve Alzheimer's symptoms
No really compelling reason comes to mind. Perhaps the trial didn't actually go all that well (the results were not published AFAIK) and the the person just had a really good placebo effect? They were overly concerned about someone taking the device apart and reverse engineering it? They were worried due to her advanced age that she would become ill or her AD would progress anyway and it would be blamed on the device? That's all I can think of...
There's another possibility - the device needs to be calibrated frequently and perhaps they are working on improving the device such that it doesn't need calibration. Well, that's the only non-depressing reason I can think of....
Wow. It sounds different on different headphones. On my slightly nicer headphones, it sounds really powerful and weird. It's a different experience than with my cheap headset for my smart phone.
By the way, here is the earlier study published in Nature:
TITLE: How flashing lights and pink noise might banish Alzheimer’s, improve memory and more
And quoting from the Salon article, this blows my mind almost as much as this weird noise:
"But after experimental mice [bred to develop Alzheimer’s disease] spent just one hour daily for a week in a box fitted with LED lights flickering at 40 hertz, she said, their gamma brain waves rebounded, and amyloid plaques were reduced by half.
"The mice were also able to learn again. “They can remember an object in an environment, they can remember a place and they can navigate better,” Tsai said."
Holy moly. Check out this comment on the YouTube video (it was posted three hours ago):
Jim Buchanan
"it has helped to remove my involuntary muscle movement / twitching and jerking. I have early onset of Lewey Bodies Parkinson Disease...I was extremely skeptical at first, but now listen 2x per day. Doing much better."
And the response from the person who posted the video:
The Sound Library
"I believe there is an effect. However, as far as neural entrainment is concerned, this is it as far as I know. There are a lot of claims on YouTube about effects of frequencies and tones which aren't based on anything. Most of my videos are based on some variation of this or harmonics. There is a link somewhere in the comments for a tutorial to make your own 40Hz track, which is rather simple."
"It’s not clear how, Tsai went on, but restoring the mice’s gamma brain waves also revived their microglia, the brain immune cells that clear toxic substances like amyloid and that are “on strike” in Alzheimer’s disease."
Wow! I've never heard of microglia before, but I'm learning a lot really quickly. They are some nifty and important cells in the brain. They also seem to be very important for the PATHOLOGY of Parkinson's disease. Holy holy moly. Look at this.
"Chronic inflammation mediated by microglial cells is the fundamental process contributing to the death of dopamine (DA)-producing neurons in the brain."
Why have I never heard of this before?!! This is a game changer!!
A quick trip over to Wikipedia tells us that microglia are the main agents of the immune system of the brain. They account for 15% of the cells in the brain. They come in different forms, and they do different things. They can act as macrophages, doing the same thing as white blood cells in the rest of the body: engulfing bad shit.
What is important is that they can also do two other things, called the M1 phase in the M2 phase--. In the M1 phase, they cause inflammation and release neurotoxins (!). In the M2 phase, they are involved in cleaning up the brain and promoting repair and regeneration (!). GET THIS: THE SAME CELLS CAN BE SWITCHED INTO VERY DIFFERENT MODES DOING VERY DIFFERENT THINGS.
Check out this paper from 2017. Wow.
TITLE:Targeting Microglial Activation States as a Therapeutic Avenue in Parkinson’s Disease
This is how they describe the M1 and M2 modes for the microglia:
"Upon activation to the M1 phenotype, microglia elaborate pro-inflammatory cytokines and neurotoxic molecules promoting inflammation and cytotoxic responses.
"In contrast, when adopting the M2 phenotype microglia secrete anti-inflammatory gene products and trophic factors that promote repair, regeneration, and restore homeostasis."
Could it be? Could this low-frequency home switch our microglia friends from being cell killers to cell repairers?
This is exciting. I am truly feeling enjoy reading about this. I dare to hope.
Wow. You could be onto some great ideas here. I have a scenar device which I use on temples, in front of ears, and corner of jaw as well as 3rd eye and top of spine. I have always used 300hz. I also have one of those near infrared helmets which I also use. I've not been satisfied with results though I haven't deteriorated. This sounds exciting.
You can find a lot of gamma music on YouTube and on Apple Music . I bought a gamma flashing light after listening to a lecture at a conference for PD / Alzheimer’s on YouTube . I found the flashing gamma light at 40 Hz disturbing and gave me bad headache. I then found the audio gamma sound on YouTube- they can set it to pleasant music so it’s easier to listen. You hv to wear earphones to hv the effect because 2 frequencies are played at the same time and volume is low. Start with 30 mins n increase to no more than 90 mins. Nothing to lose trying
I was wondering about combining light and sound - my guess is they would have to be synchronized (or perhaps on a slight off-set? depending on whether the auditory and visual stimuli are processed at different rates). Anyway, thanks for reporting your experiences.
You can buy the 40 Hz flashing light at gammalighttherapy.com at $99
They also have earphones with gamma sound at 40 hz. I feel the music is easier to apply than the light which gave me a severe headache even though I wasn’t looking at it. It’s supposed to be the only light source in the room though you are not supposed to be looking at it directly
Important to have both aural and visual stimulation together (from a Tsai MIT study):
Furthermore, combined auditory and visual GENUS, but not either alone, produced microglial-clustering responses, and decreased amyloid in medial prefrontal cortex. Whole brain analysis using SHIELD revealed widespread reduction of amyloid plaques throughout neocortex after multi-sensory GENUS. (gamma entrainment using sensory stimulus)
GammaLightTherapy products are not synced and the company offers this unlikely account:
"Our audio and light devices are not perfectly in sync. Many of our customers still choose to use them together even though they are not synced with positive results. Customers who are concerned about the devices being perfectly in sync can use them at different times. These groups of customers have seen equal positive results."
I doubt they are in sync at all, let alone "perfectly", as the audio and visual products are not connected AFAIK.
Thank you for sharing. I hope Bolt has read your post because he is really into Binural beats. I found the flashing light too uncomfortable so did not pursue this. We are doing well on PS 128 and the Redlight light plus vitamin B1
Hey! There is actually a new study – it was published two days ago! In the Journal Cell! It's the next publication by Tsai's team. They looked at sound alone, and sound with flashing lights.
Here is the New York Times write up:
TITLE: A Possible Alzheimer’s Treatment With Clicks and Flashes? It Worked on Mice
Holy mackerel. Scroll down on the New York Times article. There's an example of the sound that Dr. Tsai's team played to the mice.
They are clicks rather than sine waves, which makes the sound much more rough than the one linked here on YouTube. Maybe both work. I don't know for sure.
Wow! I would not be able to put up with that at all and I have no problems with seizures etc. Hope the little lamp I ordered is not flashing like that.
I am doubtful as to whether this is actually 40Hz flickering lights. That would be 40 flashes per second. The fastest frame rate that YouTube offers is 60 frames per second. If each flash was one frame long, that would take 40 frames, leaving only 20 frames for the black space in between. That's not enough.
You would need to be able to show a minimum of 80 frames per second in order to have flashes at 40 Hz.
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