Why the Glymphatic System Just Earned Science’s Highest Honors, and What It Means for Our Work
If you work in lymphatics, you already know how much of our field’s story is about fluid: where it moves, what drives it, and what happens when it stalls. This week, that story got a major spotlight.
University of Rochester neuroscientist Maiken Nedergaard, MD, DMSc, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in health and medicine. The recognition is for her discovery of the glymphatic system, the brain’s waste-clearance pathway.
What the research showed
More than 14 years ago, Nedergaard and her colleagues found that the brain has its own clearance system. Cerebrospinal fluid moves through the spaces surrounding blood vessels and into brain tissue, flushing out waste products that build up while we’re awake. This process is primarily active during sleep.
That finding changed how scientists think about sleep. In Nedergaard’s words, it is “an active biological state, not simply a period of rest.” The Academy’s citation also notes that her work established impaired brain clearance as a unifying mechanism across neurodegeneration, stroke, trauma, and chronic neurological disease.
Her research has opened new avenues for understanding and potentially treating conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. She is careful to add that sleep disturbances may be associated with higher dementia risk, but the relationship is still being worked out. That honesty about what we don’t yet know is worth keeping in mind as this field grows.
For lymphedema and manual therapy practitioners
Our clients’ bodies don’t stop at the neck. Therapists who understand fluid dynamics, the lymphatic system, and the role of the nervous system are well placed to engage with this research. The questions it raises are ones many of us are already asking:
How do the brain’s clearance pathways relate to the lymphatic system we treat every day?
What does the research on MLD, sleep, posture, breathing, sound, cervical lymph and movement mean for clients with neurological conditions?
Where can manual therapy fit into a client’s broader strategy for supporting brain and body health, and where is the evidence still emerging?
Clients are beginning to ask about all of this. A therapist who can speak accurately about the science, including its limits, builds trust and sets themselves apart.
Bringing it into your practice
This is exactly the territory we explore in Monarch’s The course walks through the glymphatic system and its relationship to the lymphatic system, what happens when clearance falters neurodegenerative conditions, and how manual therapy, movement, and lifestyle strategies may apply. We keep the evidence front and center, so you leave with clinical context you can use and the confidence to explain it to clients and referring providers.
Next course: Practical Applications of Neuro-lymphatic Therapy, On-demand any time, or Live April 1-2nd, 2027, Charleston, SC
Register here: monarchce.com/register
A takeaway for you and your clients
One piece of Nedergaard’s advice applies to everyone: treat regular, sufficient sleep with the same seriousness as nutrition and physical activity. She also points to consistency, noting that the brain responds strongly to predictable patterns of light, activity, meals, and sleep. It’s a simple message, and it fits well alongside the hands-on work we do.
Source: University of Rochester Medicine, “Maiken Nedergaard Elected to National Academy of Medicine for Pioneering Brain Research,” Oct. 19, 2026.