How Sugar Harms
Your Brain Health and Drives Alzheimer’s Epidemic
July 24, 2014
Story at-a-glance
One in nine seniors over the age of 65 has Alzheimer’s, and
the disease is now thought to be the third leading cause of
death in the US, right behind heart disease and cancer
A growing body of research suggests there’s a powerful
connection between your diet and your risk of developing
Alzheimer's disease, via similar pathways that cause type 2
diabetes
Recent research shows that sugar and other carbohydrates can
disrupt your brain function even if you’re not diabetic or
have any signs of dementia
Long-term, sugar can contribute to the shrinking of your
hippocampus, which is a hallmark symptom of Alzheimer's
disease
The researchers propose that lowering glucose levels, even
if they’re within the “normal” range, may have a positive
influence on cognition in older people
By Dr. Mercola
Alzheimer's disease, a severe form of dementia, affects an
estimated 5.2 million Americans, according to 2013 statistics.1
One in nine seniors over the age of 65 has Alzheimer's, and
the disease is now thought to be the
third leading cause of death in the US, right behind heart
disease and cancer.
A growing body of research suggests there's a powerful
connection between your diet and your risk of developing
Alzheimer's disease, via similar pathways that cause type 2
diabetes.
Contrary to popular belief, your brain does not require
glucose, and actually functions better burning alternative
fuels, especially
ketones, which your body makes in response to digesting
healthy fats.
According to some experts, such as Dr. Ron Rosedale,
Alzheimer's and other brain disorders may in large part be
caused by the constant burning of glucose for fuel by your
brain.
Alzheimer's disease was tentatively dubbed "type
3 diabetes" in early 2005 when researchers discovered that
in addition to your pancreas, your brain also produces
insulin, and this brain insulin is necessary for the survival of
brain cells.
Sugar Damages Brain Structure and Function
In your brain, insulin helps with neuron glucose-uptake and
the regulation of neurotransmitters, such as acetylcholine,
which are crucial for memory and learning. This is why reducing
the level of insulin in your brain impairs your cognition.
Research2
has also shown that type 2 diabetics lose more brain volume with
age than expected—particularly gray matter. This kind of brain
atrophy is yet another contributing factor for dementia.
Studies have found that people with lower levels of insulin
and insulin receptors in their brain often have Alzheimer's
disease. But according to recent research published in the
journal Neurology,3
sugar and other carbohydrates can disrupt your brain function
even if you're not diabetic or have any signs of dementia.
To test their theory, they evaluated short- and long-term
glucose markers in 141 healthy, non-diabetic, non-demented
seniors. Memory tests and brain imaging were administered to
assess their brain function and the actual structure of their
hippocampus. As reported by Scientific American:4
"Higher levels on both glucose measures were
associated with worse memory, as well as a smaller
hippocampus and compromised hippocampal structure.
The researchers also found that the structural
changes partially accounted for the statistical link between
glucose and memory. According to study co-author Agnes
Flöel, a neurologist at Charité, the results 'provide
further evidence that glucose might directly contribute to
hippocampal atrophy.'"
The findings suggest that even if you're not diabetic or
insulin resistant (and about 80 percent of Americans fall into
the latter category), sugar consumption can still disrupt your
memory.
Long-term, it can contribute to the shrinking of your
hippocampus, which is a hallmark symptom of Alzheimer's disease.
(Your hippocampus is involved with the formation, organization,
and storage of memories.)
The authors of the study suggest that "strategies aimed at
lowering glucose levels even in the normal range may
beneficially influence cognition in the older population."
'Normal' Blood Sugar Levels May Still Be High Enough to Cause
Problems
Normally, a fasting blood sugar level between 100-125 mg/dl
is diagnosed as a pre-diabetic state. A fasting blood sugar
level of 90-100 is considered "normal." But in addition to the
featured research, other studies have also found that brain
atrophy occurs even in this "normal" blood sugar range.
Neurologist
Dr. David Perlmutter, MD insists that being very strict in
limiting your consumption of sugar and non-vegetable carbs is
one of THE most important steps you can take to prevent
Alzheimer's disease for this very reason.
He cites research from the Mayo Clinic, which found that
diets rich in carbohydrates are associated with an 89
percent increased risk for dementia. Meanwhile, high-fat
diets are associated with a 44 percent reduced risk.
Sugar Lobby Threatens Organizations and Buries Science on Health
Effects
Compelling research shows that your brain has great
plasticity, which you control through your diet and
lifestyle choices. Unfortunately, the American public has been
grossly brainwashed by the sugar and processed food industries
into believing that sugar is a perfectly reasonable "nutrient"
that belongs in a healthy diet.
Without accurate information, it's certainly more difficult
to make health-affirming choices. Newsweek5
recently ran an article revealing just how far the sugar
industry will go to defend its market share:
"According to a new report6
from the Center for Science and Democracy... industry groups
representing companies that sell sweeteners, like the Sugar
Association and the Corn Refiners Association... have poured
millions of dollars into countering science that indicates
negative health consequences of eating their products.
For example, when a University of Southern California
study from 2013 found that the actual high fructose corn
syrup content in sodas 'varied significantly' from the sugar
content disclosed on soda labels, the Corn Refiners
Association considered paying for its own counter research.
A consultant suggested that the counter research
should only be published if the results aligned with their
goal of disputing the USC study: 'If for any reason the
results confirm [the University of Southern California
study], we can just bury the data,' the consultant wrote,
according to the report."
According to the Center for Science report, the Sugar
Association even threatened the director general of the World
Health Organization (WHO). WHO had published a paper on sugar,
recommending a 10 percent limit on added sugars, stating that
added sugars "threaten the nutritional quality of diets."
The Sugar Association shot off a letter to the director
general, warning him that, unless WHO withdrew the study, the
Sugar Association would persuade the US Congress to withdraw the
WHO's federal funding. The following year, when WHO published
its global health strategy on diet and health, there was no
mention of the offending sugar study.
The Sugar Lobby Deserves Blame for Fueling Chronic Disease
Epidemics
Indeed, despite overwhelming evidence showing that sugar, and
processed fructose in particular, is at the heart of our
burgeoning obesity and chronic disease epidemics, the sugar
lobby has been so successful in its efforts to thwart the impact
of such evidence that there's still no consensus among
our regulatory agencies as to the "factual" dangers of sugar...
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
data,7
13 percent of the average American's diet is sugar. In the UK, a
recently published report8
by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN)
recommends limiting your added sugar intake to five percent, in
order to avoid obesity and type 2 diabetes. They calculate this
to be the equivalent of 25 grams of sugar (5-6 teaspoons) per
day for women, and 35 grams (7-8 teaspoons) for men.
This matches my own recommendations for healthy, non-insulin
resistant individuals—with one key difference. I recommend
restricting sugar/fructose
consumption to 25 grams from ALL sources, not just added sugar.
This includes limiting your non-vegetable carbohydrates as well.
Crazy enough, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition
still recommends you get 50 percent of your daily energy intake
in the form of starchy carbohydrates, which will undoubtedly and
significantly raise your risk of insulin resistance. If you're
insulin/leptin
resistant, diabetic, overweight, or have high blood pressure,
heart disease, or cancer, I recommend restricting your
sugar/fructose consumption to a maximum of 15 grams per day from
all sources, until your insulin/leptin resistance has been
resolved.
Dietary Guidelines for Maintaining Healthy Brain Function and
Avoiding Alzheimer's Disease
It's becoming increasingly clear that the same pathological
process that leads to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes may
also hold true for your brain. As you over-indulge on sugar and
grains, your brain becomes overwhelmed by the consistently high
levels of glucose and insulin that blunts its insulin signaling,
leading to impairments in your thinking and memory abilities,
eventually causing permanent brain damage.
Additionally, when your liver is busy processing fructose
(which your liver turns into fat), it severely hampers its
ability to make
cholesterol, an essential building block of your brain that
is crucial for optimal brain function. Indeed, mounting evidence
supports the notion that significantly reducing fructose
consumption is a very important step for
preventing Alzheimer's disease.
Because of the very limited treatments, and no available cure
as of yet, you're really left with just one solid
solution, and that is to prevent Alzheimer's from happening to
you in the first place. As explained by neurologist
Dr. David Perlmutter, Alzheimer's is a disease predicated
primarily on lifestyle choices; the two main culprits being
excessive sugar and gluten consumption.
Another major factor is the development and increased
consumption of
genetically engineered (GE) grains, which are now pervasive
in most processed foods sold in the US. The beauty of following
my
optimized nutrition plan is that it helps prevent and treat
virtually ALL chronic degenerative diseases, including
Alzheimer's. Dr. Perlmutter's book,
Grain Brain, also provides powerful arguments for
eliminating grains from your diet, particularly if you want to
protect the health of your brain. In terms of your diet, the
following suggestions may be among the most important for
Alzheimer's prevention:
Avoid sugar and refined fructose.
Ideally, you'll want to keep your total sugar and
fructose below 25 grams per day, or as low as 15 grams
per day if you have insulin resistance or any related
disorders. In one recent animal study, a junk food diet high
in sugar resulted in impaired memory after just one week!9
Place recognition, specifically, was adversely affected.
As a general rule, you'll want to keep your fasting
insulin levels below 3, and this is indirectly related to
fructose, as it will clearly lead to insulin resistance.
However, other sugars (sucrose is 50 percent fructose by
weight), grains, and lack of exercise are also important
factors. Lowering insulin will also help lower leptin levels
which is another factor for Alzheimer's.
Avoid gluten and casein (primarily wheat and
pasteurized dairy, but not dairy fat, such as
butter). Research shows that your blood-brain
barrier, the barrier that keeps things out of your brain
where they don't belong, is negatively affected by gluten.
Gluten also makes your gut more permeable, which allows
proteins to get into your bloodstream, where they don't
belong. That then sensitizes your immune system and promotes
inflammation and autoimmunity, both of which play a role in
the development of Alzheimer's.
Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate,
such as the one described in my
nutrition plan. Vegetables, without question, are your
best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh
raw veggies every day. Avoid supplements like folic acid,
which is the inferior synthetic version of folate.
Increase consumption of all healthful fats,
including animal-based
omega-3.
Beneficial health-promoting fats that your
brain needs for optimal function include organic butter
from raw milk, clarified butter called ghee, organic grass
fed raw butter, olives, organic virgin olive oil and
coconut oil, nuts like pecans and macadamia, free-range
eggs, wild Alaskan salmon, and
avocado.
Contrary to popular belief, the ideal fuel for your brain
is not glucose but ketones.
Ketones are what your body produces when it converts
fat (as opposed to glucose) into energy. The
medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) found in coconut oil are a
great source of ketone bodies, because coconut oil is about
66 percent MCTs. In 2010, I published
Dr. Mary Newport's theory that coconut oil might offer
profound benefits in the fight against Alzheimer's
disease. She has since
launched one of the first clinical trials of its kind to
test this theory.
Also make sure you're getting enough animal-based omega-3
fats, such as krill oil. (I recommend avoiding most fish
because, although fish is naturally high in omega-3, most
fish are now severely contaminated with mercury.) High
intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA help by preventing
cell damage caused by Alzheimer's disease, thereby slowing
down its progression, and lowering your risk of developing
the disorder.
Optimize your gut flora by regularly
eating
fermented foods or taking a high-potency and
high-quality probiotic supplement
Eat blueberries. Wild blueberries,
which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content, are
known to guard against Alzheimer's and other neurological
diseases.
Other Helpful Dietary Tips and Valuable Supplements
Another helpful tip is to reduce your overall calorie
consumption, and/or intermittently fast.As
mentioned above, ketones are mobilized when you replace carbs
with coconut oil and other sources of healthy fats. A one-day
fast can help your body to "reset" itself, and start to burn fat
instead of sugar. As part of a healthy lifestyle, I prefer an
intermittent fasting schedule that simply calls for limiting
your eating to a narrower window of time each day. By
restricting your eating to a 6-8 hour window, you effectively
fast 16-18 hours each day. To learn more about intermittent
fasting, please see this previous
article.
Also be aware that when it comes to cholesterol levels and
Alzheimer's, lower is NOT better. Quite the contrary. According
to
Dr. Perlmutter, research shows that elderly individuals with
the lowest cholesterol levels have the highest
risk for Alzheimer's. They also have the highest risk for dying.
As he says, the war on cholesterol is fundamentally
inappropriate and harmful.
Finally, there's a short list of supplement recommendations
worth noting for their specific benefits in preventing and
treating dementia. So, although your fundamental strategy for
preventing dementia should involve a comprehensive lifestyle
approach, you may want to take special note of the following
natural dietary agents. These four natural foods/supplements
have good science behind them, in terms of preventing
age-related cognitive changes:
Gingko biloba: Many
scientific studies have found that Ginkgo biloba has
positive effects for dementia. A 1997 study from JAMA
showed clear evidence that Ginkgo improves cognitive
performance and social functioning for those suffering from
dementia. Another 2006 study found Ginkgo as effective as
the dementia drug Aricept (donepezil) for treating mild to
moderate Alzheimer's type dementia. A 2010 meta-analysis
also found Ginkgo biloba to be effective for a variety of
types of dementia.
Alpha lipoic acid (ALA):
ALA has been shown to help stabilize cognitive functions
among Alzheimer's patients and may slow the progression of
the disease.
Vitamin B12: A small
Finnish study published in the journal Neurology10
found thatpeople who consume foods rich in B12 may reduce
their risk of Alzheimer's in their later years. For each
unit increase in the marker of vitamin B12 the risk of
developing Alzheimer's was reduced by two percent. Remember
sublingual methylcobalamin may be your best bet here.
Lifestyle Strategies That Can Help Ward off Alzheimer's Disease
Lifestyle choices such as getting regular sun exposure and
exercise, along with avoiding toxins, are also important factors
when it comes to maintaining optimal brain health. Here are
several of my lifestyle suggestions:
Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun
exposure. Strong links between low levels of
vitamin D in Alzheimer's patients and poor outcomes on
cognitive tests have been revealed. Researchers believe that
optimal vitamin D levels may enhance the amount of important
chemicals in your brain and protect brain cells by
increasing the effectiveness of the glial cells in nursing
damaged neurons back to health.
Vitamin D may also exert some of its beneficial effects
on Alzheimer's through its anti-inflammatory and
immune-boosting properties. Sufficient
vitamin D is
imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to
combat inflammation that is also associated with
Alzheimer's.
Exercise regularly. It's been suggested
that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid
precursor protein is metabolized,11
thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer's.
Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha.
Research has also shown that people with Alzheimer's have
less PGC-1alpha in their brains12
and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of
the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's. I
would strongly recommend reviewing the
Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
Avoid and eliminate mercury from your body.
Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50 percent mercury by
weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal
toxicity. However, you should be healthy prior to having
them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet
described in my optimized
nutrition plan, you can follow the
mercury detox protocol and then find a biological
dentist to have your amalgams removed.
Avoid aluminum, such as
antiperspirants, non-stick cookware,
vaccine adjuvants, etc.
Avoid flu vaccinations as most contain
both mercury and aluminum, well-known neurotoxic and
immunotoxic agents.
Avoid anticholinergics and statin drugs.
Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system
neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of
dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain
relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain
antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and
certain narcotic pain relievers.
Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they
suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of
coenzyme Q10 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent
adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble
antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of
the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density
lipoprotein.
Challenge your mind daily. Mental
stimulation, especially learning something new, such as
learning to play an instrument or a new language, is
associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's. Researchers
suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain,
making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with
Alzheimer's disease.
Copyright 1997- 2014 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.