'40 minutes' on special mattress could 'clear Alzheimer’s plaques from brain'

'40 minutes' on special mattress could 'clear Alzheimer’s plaques from brain' Experts have said it's like the brain is taking out its own trash Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in the UK. There are many risk factors associated with it, and while the exact cause of the disease is not yet fully understood, a 40-minute habit could help "clear" your brain of "Alzheimer's plaques." The Scientific Report shared a study that was published on November 3, 2026, explaining "40 minutes on a vibrating mattress triggers the body to clear Alzheimer's plaques from the brain". But the study didn't just use a mattress; participants also took a pill. It explains that a team at the University of Oulu in Finland tested it on 29 dementia-free adults. During the test, a nitric oxide pill was placed under the tongue, then the adults spent 40 minutes on a gently vibrating mattress, with a second pill halfway through. It explains: "Afterwards, blood levels of beta-amyloid 42 jumped 35% on average. That’s the sticky protein behind Alzheimer’s plaques." The study's lead researcher, Vesa Kiviniemi, believes the glymphatic system, the brain’s built-in waste network, was flushing it out into the blood. Brain scans showed fluid moving harder through those channels, The Scientific Report shared. In separate analysis, New Scientist reports that "additional experiments by Kiviniemi and his colleagues tested either only the mattress vibrations or only the nitric oxide pills on the same participants, at least a week before or after they underwent the combined approach. Based on brain scans, these solo interventions seemed to have less than half the effect on the glymphatic system than when they were combined." Now, researchers hope to trial the combined approach in 60 people with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease next year. This could produce results in the following two years. New Scientist adds that if this is a success, researchers "hope to conduct a trial where a similar group of people has the treatment regularly for several months, rather than as a one-off intervention. This should be long enough to detect any improvements in cognitive abilities, like memory and problem-solving, says Kiviniemi." Tuunanen, J., Hautamäki, K., Väyrynen, T. et al. Vasomechanic treatment is associated with increased efflux of human brain proteins. Nat Commun 17, 11164 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78894-y https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78894-y