Ally Bruno
Mr. Ippolito
AP Biology
29 January 2019
Cunningham, Aimee. “Lack of Sleep Is Tied to Increases in Two Alzheimer's Proteins.” Science News, 24 Jan. 2019, www.sciencenews.org/article/lack-sleep-tied-increases-two-alzheimers-proteins-brain?tgt=nr.
Aimee Cunningham, author of “Lack of Sleep Is Tied to Increases in Two Alzheimer's Proteins”, discuss two proteins that are found in the human brain and have links to Alzheimer's disease. She first delves into the cerebrospinal fluid that are affected during sleep and the way sleeping flushes and cleanses the brain of these harmful proteins. She then goes on into advocate for early intervention for insomnia and other sleep disorders, which could decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease as a person ages. She then compares the dangerous of both the Tau and A-Beta and ultimately deems the tau protein more dangerous as far neurodegenerative diseases.
Alzheimer's is a degenerative disease that affects 5.5 million people, causing memory loss and other symptoms, that in its later stages rendering it victims incapable of expression or comprehension. Any information that could be used in early intervention in this terminal illness is extremely important and useful for doctors and scientists around the world. The control of sleep-related illnesses is much more easily acceptable than ever before and if doctors are able to suppress the harmful proteins in any way, this would be an enormous step for Alzheimer’s treatment.
In reviewing this article, I believe that Cunningham did not place enough emphasis on the relevance of her research. She did not include any information, statistical or otherwise about the effects of Alzheimer's disease in the United States or the millions of people around the world who are also suffering. If she would have included this information, the research the article included would have seemed more dramatic and significant in terms of scientific discoveries today. In spite of this though, Cunningham produced a thoughtful and informative response on the lesser known side of a ruthless degenerative diseases, with a perfect balance between data analysis and explanations suitable for all audiences.
Luke Freeman
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
AP Biology Current Events 15 - Comment
February 1st, 2019
Cunningham, Aimee. “Lack of Sleep Is Tied to Increases in Two Alzheimer's Proteins.” Science
News, 24 Jan. 2019,
www.sciencenews.org/article/lack-sleep-tied-increases-two-alzheimers-proteins-brain?tgt
=nr.
This article, reviewed well by Ally Bruno, gives the reader a good insight into the serious implications of a lack of sleep. For starters, Ally does a great job of utilizing scientific terminology. Words such as “cerebrospinal fluid” and “Tau and A-Beta” prove that Ally really delved into the topic, and truly understood the issue. Secondly, Ally gave the reader context about the article. Her summary is near-perfect in capturing the whole article, while keeping it brief. Finally, her analysis of the articles real-world implications are unique and powerful, which shows her insightful thinking.
Only two small things stood out to me when reading Ally’s article, the first being her critique paragraph. I think it is unfair to call out Cunningham for not directly stating the relevance of the research, as the purpose of the article is meant to describe how lack of sleep increases two alzheimer proteins (hence the title). Also, Ally saying that Cunningham should have mentioned the statistics from other countries is unfair. The study that Cunningham is writing about likely took place in the US alone.
This article is incredibly impactful as this issue affects every human on the planet because, well, every human sleeps. The issue is especially pertinent to me, as sleep (or lack thereof) is a big problem. This research reminds us that we still do not fully understand the intricacies of human disease, and provides valuable insight into the one of the possible causes of the infamous disease known as Alzheimer's.