08/28/2026
🧠✨ Your brain has its own cleanup crew… and you can support it!
Did you know your brain has a natural waste-removal system called the glymphatic system? CranioSacral Therapy helps support the gentle rhythms and fluid movement that are part of your body’s natural process of renewal. 🌿
A broken brain clearing system may be driving chronic fatigue syndrome
Researchers in Australia found evidence that people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) may have impaired function in the brain's glymphatic system – a recently discovered network that helps flush waste products and toxins from the brain, particularly during sleep.
The study compared MRI brain scans from 31 people with ME/CFS and 27 healthy volunteers using a non-invasive imaging technique designed to estimate glymphatic function.
People with chronic fatigue syndrome showed reduced activity in this brain-cleaning system, particularly in the right side of the brain.
The researchers also found that people with the greatest glymphatic dysfunction tended to have worse sleep problems and more severe "brain fog."
Scientists believe the glymphatic system plays an important role in clearing waste from the brain. If that process is disrupted, harmful substances may build up and contribute to inflammation and neurological symptoms.
The findings could help explain why many people with ME/CFS experience profound fatigue, cognitive problems, and unrefreshing sleep.
Researchers caution that this was a small, preliminary study and does not prove that glymphatic dysfunction causes chronic fatigue syndrome.
However, they say the discovery could eventually lead to new diagnostic tests and treatments for a condition that has long lacked a clear biological explanation.
Learn more:
"Disrupted glymphatic function and its relationship with sleep and cognitive impairment in ME/CFS assessed via DTI-ALPS." Frontiers in Neuroscience
