Research results from animal experiments indicate that dementia can be prevented through massage instead of surgery or medication. It suggests that light massage of the skin can help eliminate waste accumulated in the brain.
A research team led by Ko Kyu-young, Director of the Vascular Research Center at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and a distinguished professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), announced on the 5th that they had developed a skin stimulation technique that promotes the elimination of waste generated in the brain, in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology. The research results were published in the international academic journal 'Nature' on the same day.
Cerebrospinal fluid protects the brain and spinal cord while eliminating various waste products and remnants of neurotransmitters, as well as toxic proteins such as amyloid beta and tau proteins. Just as a clogged sewer can wreak havoc in a city, a decline in the elimination capacity of cerebrospinal fluid with age increases the risk of degenerative neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
The IBS Vascular Research Center previously revealed in 2019 that cerebrospinal fluid from the back of the brain is expelled through the lymphatic vessels in the meninges at the bottom of the brain to the lymph nodes inside the neck, and that as aging occurs, the lymphatic vessels degenerate and the functionality of cerebrospinal fluid elimination decreases.
Lymphatic vessels are the conduits that carry waste and immune cells, while lymph nodes serve to remove foreign substances at intervals along the lymphatic vessels. In other words, lymphatic vessels are like sewers, and lymph nodes act like nets that catch foreign substances within those sewers.
The research team found a solution to this issue last year. They confirmed that by contracting and relaxing the neck lymphatic vessels connected to the wide network of lymphatic vessels located at the back of the nose, the elimination of cerebrospinal fluid can be increased. They used a drug that regulates the muscle cells surrounding the deeply located lymphatic vessels in the neck to induce contraction and relaxation to control the elimination of cerebrospinal fluid.
The research team anticipated that by physically stimulating the area around the lymphatic vessels close to the skin, the elimination of cerebrospinal fluid could be enhanced without medication. They conducted experiments on mice and confirmed the pathways for cerebrospinal fluid elimination through imaging. As a result, they found that cerebrospinal fluid was collected from lymphatic vessels around the eyes, inside the nose, and the roof of the mouth, eventually draining into the submandibular lymph nodes.
During the experiment, the aggregated lymphatic vessels located beneath the facial skin were lightly stimulated using a mechanical device to promote lymph flow. In older mice, the lymphatic vessels in the nose and roof of the mouth were reduced, resulting in approximately a 30% decrease in cerebrospinal fluid elimination; however, when the mechanical device stimulated the skin around the mouse's eyes and jaw, cerebrospinal fluid elimination increased by up to three times, recovering to the level of young mice. The same effect was confirmed in monkeys, which share a similar anatomical structure to humans.
Yoon Jin-hee, a senior researcher at the IBS Vascular Research Center, noted, "High-intensity stimulation can have the opposite effect, so precise control of the intensity is essential," and added, "We developed equipment to measure the intensity of the stimulation in real time and finely adjusted the stimulation applied to the skin."
Director General Ko Kyu-young said, "This achievement not only completes the map of the pathways for eliminating waste in the brain through cerebrospinal fluid but also proposes a new method of regulating cerebrospinal fluid elimination from outside the brain," and expressed the expectation that it will serve as a milestone in research on degenerative neurological diseases, including dementia.
References
Nature (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09052-5
Nature (2024), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06899-4
Nature (2019), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1419-5