March 22, 2017

Dietary Recommendations for Alzheimer's -- NPR Gets it ... Almost






“There’s a growing body of evidence linking elevated blood sugar to memory problems.”


Mainstream media is catching on, folks. The quote above, taken from this story from NPR over three years ago, is reflective of the growing awareness among the medical community and laypeople alike that there might actually be something to the wild and crazy notion of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive impairment as “type 3 diabetes” or “diabetes of the brain.” I have written about this over and over again and need not rehash the details here. (If you want to know the full story, consider purchasing my book, The Alzheimer’s Antidote.)  Even The New York Times published a piece just the other day profiling a famous chef who is using a low-carb, high-fat diet to fight dementia. (Shout out to liberal use of butter abd MCT oil in her morning coffee!)

The NPR article is pretty good. It gets the point across while being very succinct – a feat I have proven I am totally incapable of. What I like best about it is that it references this paper, the key finding of which is that elevated blood glucose may be a risk for dementia even at levels lower than the diabetic range. This is not news to me, and probably not to you, but it’s nice to see this getting out to the general public, among whom it probably is news. (Or should have been a few years ago when this came out.) It’s not news to us because you and I already know that hyperinsulinemia alone—not high glucose, but high insulin—is an independent risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, compared to people with “normal” insulin levels, those who are not diabetic but are hyperinsulinemic have double the risk of developing AD.




The study subjects had the following characteristics:
N (total number of subjects) = 2067, of which 232 were diagnosed diabetics and 1835 were non-diabetics.
Age range: 71-81
Race: 1863 Caucasian, 100 Black, 67 Asian, and 37 “other”
Treated for hypertension: 1437 subjects, split as follows:
Non­-diabetics*: 1248 out of 1835 (68%)
Diabetics: 189 out of 232 (81.5%)
*For the non-diabetics, my hunch is that although they were not diagnosed “diabetics,” perhaps they had raging hyperinsulinemia. As I wrote about in the insulin series, for many people, glucose and A1c will be the last things to alert a doctor as to the presence of metabolic abnormalities stemming from chronically elevated insulin. Oddly enough, otherwise “idiopathic” hypertension is a big clue that comes first for many people. [Too bad some doctors have no clue.] Almost 24% of these “non-diabetics” also had coronary artery disease and 11% had cerebrovascular disease. Just sayin’.)

According to the study:
In both diabetics and non-diabetics, higher blood glucose 
is correlated with higher risk for dementia. 
“During a median follow-up of 6.8 years, dementia developed in 524 participants (74 with diabetes and 450 without). Among participants without diabetes, higher average glucose levels within the preceding 5 years were related to an increased risk of dementia (P = 0.01); with a glucose level of 115 mg per deciliter (6.4 mmol per liter) as compared with 100 mg per deciliter (5.5 mmol per liter), the adjusted hazard ratio for dementia was 1.18 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04 to 1.33). Among participants with diabetes, higher average glucose levels were also related to an increased risk of dementia (P = 0.002); with a glucose level of 190 mg per deciliter (10.5 mmol per liter) as compared with 160 mg per deciliter (8.9 mmol per liter), the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.40 (95% CI, 1.12 to 1.76).”

Bottom line: higher blood sugar, higher risk for dementia. Is this an association? A correlation? Yes. But as you can imagine, if I didn’t have a very strong suspicion there’s some degree of causation there, I wouldn’t have written a book about it. And I have an even stronger suspicion that if they had measured these subjects’ insulin levels, there would have been an even stronger correlation. (How many of you would join me in wagering money that these people have what Dr. Kraft calls "diabetes in-situ"?)


The NPR article cites another paper that had similar findings:  “… even in the absence of manifest type 2 diabetes mellitus or impaired glucose tolerance, chronically higher blood glucose levels exert a negative influence on cognition, possibly mediated by structural changes in learning-relevant brain areas.” In plain English: people with higher blood glucose had worse cognition than people with lower glucose, and this was probably due to changes to the physical structure of the brain. Also: “… beneficial effects of lower HbA1c on memory are in part mediated by hippocampal volume and microstructure.” People with lower blood sugar literally had larger hippocampi. (Hippocampuses?) Alzheimer’s researchers have noted substantial brain atrophy in AD patients. The brain actually shrinks. Based on these observations, the authors concluded, “Therefore, strategies aimed at lowering glucose levels even in the normal range may beneficially influence cognition in the older population, a hypothesis to be examined in future interventional trials.” I am torn here in my feelings, because on the one hand, I feel quite validated and I trust that my book will help a lot of people. But on the other hand, I am disappointed that there seems to be so little interest in pursuing such trials. Drugs? Yes. Dietary strategies? Not so much.
                                                                                                       
Still, overall, the article does a good job of conveying the pertinent information quickly and clearly. Higher blood sugar ---> worsening cognitive function. That’s all people really need to know, except that they might benefit from some tips on how to not have high blood sugar. Enter the dietary recommendations:

“What we eat is important. ‘Consuming a diet rich in fiber, vegetables, fruit, fish, and whole-grain products’ is recommended, Floel wrote to us in an email.” (Flöel being Agnes Flöel, one of the authors of the latter study.)

Fiber, vegetables, fruit, fish, and whole-grain products.

Let me rewrite that, boiled down to its essential elements: carbohydrate, carbohydrate, carbohydrate, fish, and carbohydrate.

Before anyone gets the wrong message here, no, I am not saying that fiber, vegetables and fruit are “bad” for us. I’m simply pointing out that, having authored a paper showing an association between higher blood glucose levels and “lower memory and reduced hippocampal microstructure,” Dr. Flöel then recommends a diet that is almost entirely “rich in” carbohydrate, with the exception of fish.

The cognitive dissonance is profound.

I don’t know why it is so, so difficult for doctors and researchers to even acknowledge the possibility that it’s okay to eat more fat, more egg yolks, and more animal protein, and to decrease consumption of fruit and those “healthy whole grains,” especially for individuals whose cognition is becoming compromised from a reduced ability to harness energy from glucose. (Certainly the answer is not to flood their bodies with yet more glucose, in the way they give hyperinsulinemic type 2 diabetics more insulin and wonder why their health only continues to deteriorate.) I suspect it’s because we are still dealing with the prudish dietary mores that insist there’s something sinful and unforgivable about consuming juicy, fatty, delicious animal flesh.


I am starting to see that the need for my book is much, much greater than I had any appreciation for.







Disclaimer: Amy Berger, MS, CNS, NTP, is not a physician and Tuit Nutrition, LLC, is not a medical practice. The information contained on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition and is not to be used as a substitute for the care and guidance of a physician. Links in this post and all others may direct you to amazon.com, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through my affiliate links.

14 comments:

  1. Good article. Amazon has notified me that I'll be getting your book around the first week in April. Exciting! Glad to see the word is actually getting out about some of this information.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Was it Perlmutter in Brain Grain that nuked the whole "healthy whole grains" thing? Could take a couple generations to get this thing turned even a little. Have you noticed the pet food ads that are promoting grain-free food now? My book's on the way too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. D***, all these doctors breaking ranks. Don't they realize MD's are doing the country a service by killig off all those sheeple before they cam collect social security. They don't need to live past 2031 when SSA goes bankrupt anyway.(tongue in cheek) If they were smart, they would just in invest in the parma compay with the next great diabetes, and make a killing, literally. Me, I'am investing in pharma companies and doing my best to make sure I never take one of their drugs, unless I'm in an auto accident and am unconcious.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good article. Yes, I'm getting really sick of the unimaginative, standard recommendations as well! It's ridiculous how fruit, vegetables and "healthy whole grains" have this halo effect; everybody just recommends those things as a matter of course. Why aren't they recommending eggs and coconut oil? How about offal, or cream yogurt? It's a shame that these biases keep people from being scientific.....
    Oh: have you heard that in England, they are now recommending 10 servings of fruit and vegetables per day?- (because 5 servings only show minimal benefit in tests I guess, and they "know" that fruit and vegetables are healthy, so probably we're just not eating enough of them?.....) Just curious what you have to say about that.
    Anyway, I would like to get your book; and my birthday is coming up soon, so maybe it will be my present to myself!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I couldn't agree more! Yes, 5 servings a day didn't do anything...that must mean they need even *more.* (Many research papers do the same with exercise... 60 minutes a day wasn't enough; maybe people need 90 minutes...) Oy. And yes, you are absolutely right about the "health halo" of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It's insane at this point and I'm glad to have my book out and maybe start educating people that's okay - beneficial, even - to consume certain foods that are high in saturated fat and cholesterol.

      Delete
  5. Amy, I just found this blog and post - I've been doing some Jason Fung-style fasting for 6 months now, primarily motivated by avoiding the "Type 3 Diabetes" that killed my mother two years ago at age 73. I am so ANGRY now, knowing what I now know about hyperinsulimia, to think back on the food she was served in the hospital and assisted living facilities -- carbs, carbs, carbs, sugar-free taste-free fake garbage, fake margarine instead of real butter, low fat everything. I think of the "diabetes educator" that advised her to have a half a banana & half a bagel for breakfast, with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and Sweet & Low in her bowl of Rice Krispies. If she had been told to have bacon and eggs fried in real butter, would I still have her now? Would she have been able to know me and her grandson in her final months?

    Thank you for this book. I just ordered it on Amazon and will read it voraciously.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for your information. One of my student had this disease and it was affecting her studies badly. After taking the stem cells alzheimer's treatment, she's seems quite improved and well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I suffered from this horrible sydrome (ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE)...and it was horrible...for the past 3 years this has taken over pretty much all of my walking moments along with other medical issues. My family/friends have been with me through it all. But Today I am 107 days pain free!! I can't even believe how this all happended...I am just as amazed as, my family/friends are...none of us can believe how long I suffered and now in literally a matter of 107 days I was completely pain free.
    How? Well let me tell you.....Months ago my Friend told me about something called ZOMO HERBS....I heard him, but I didn't listen.....I went on just suffering along, Then My friend Raval, talked to my wife about it one night, when I was at my lowest point.....just wanting to give up...this wasn't the way I wanted to live...always in constant pain..Raval said, I will send you ZOMO HERBS..... I started using it and the rest is history my friends, There was a light at the end of the Tunnel... The results were immediate, it did take my pain away, but not completely....it was not until I upped the dosage to 3 times daily that I saw complete results.....NO PAIN.....I became so thrilled over the results that I decide to share my testimony.....If I can help even one person and that person helps one person and so on...we can all be out of pain and regaining our lives back....sound good? I have my life back!!!! I want you to have yours back too! Simply try to reach the doctor on (charantova@gmail.com) for more information about his treatment process or how to get his medicine.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you so much for the information. I appreciate you effort. Many people are still unawaare of this treatment which has make a extraordinary positive impact on the patient after taking it. So the alzheimer's patient should start alzheimer's treatment.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nootropics can also do wonders in helping treat Alzheimer's. There are some good brain pills made purely from natural substances.

    ReplyDelete
  10. In my own case it was just over four years ago when my Mum began to sound different on the phone. She lived back East with my siblings and my husband and I were living on the West coast and in phone calls it became apparent that my Mum's voice no longer had the same tones of excitement and humor that she used to; and instead it was very flat. At the same time she began to tell us about a situation at work that just didn't seem possible; she was complaining that a group of fellow workers were conspiring to get her. Although Mum had much academic success as a teenager, her behavior had become increasingly odd during the past years. She quit seeing her friends and no longer seemed to care about her appearance or social pursuits. She began wearing the same clothes each day and seldom bathed. She lived with several family members but rarely spoke to any of us. Obviously this whole story seemed very unbelievable and we sensed something was wrong but had no clue as to what it could be. We recommended that my Mum quit her job and look for something else - as we began to wonder if she had a "mental breakdown" and would get better once out of the stressful job situation.
    In the case of Mum, she was having persecurtory delusions, auditory hallucinations and negative symptoms that had lasted for at least Three years. All of these symptoms fit with a diagnosis of Dementia. Her story reflects a common case, in which a high-functioning young adult goes through a major decline in day-to-day skills. Although family and friends may feel this is a loss of the person they knew, the illness can be treated and a good outcome is possible as it all got better when we started using a herbal medicine for her through Aparajita.
    My recommendation to people who are either wondering if they have Dementia or wondering if a friend or loved one has Dementia should contact aparajitatan@gmail.com. I think one of our key problems was that we didn't do this in the early days of my Mum's illness as we never thought of a natural alternative for her.

    ReplyDelete
  11. When a doctor only sees you once a year for 15 minutes, how is it possible for them to know you and make the best recommendations for you. If they only see you when you are sick, how do they know that you are fantastic, energetic, optimistic ....person. How much cognitive decline can they glean out of a 15 minute consult. By they time it is noticeable, significant damage has been done.

    ReplyDelete