Mounting research suggests Alzheimer’s disease is
intricately connected to insulin resistance; even mild
elevation of blood sugar is associated with an elevated risk
for dementia
Diabetics have double the risk of developing Alzheimer’s
disease. Heart disease also elevates your risk, as all three
conditions are rooted in insulin resistance
Three new studies looking at exercise and Alzheimer’s show
that not only can exercise reduce your risk of the disease,
it appears to be an important part of treatment as well
By Dr. Mercola
As of 2013, 5.2 million Americans had been diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s disease, a severe form of dementia,1
and Alzheimer’s diagnoses are projected to triple by 2050.2,3
Over half a million Americans die from the disease each year,
making it the third leading cause of death in the US, right behind
heart disease and cancer.4,5
Considering there’s no known cure and few if any effective
treatments, it’s really important to pay attention to prevention if
you want to avoid becoming an Alzheimer’s statistic.
The good news is that your lifestyle choices such as diet,
exercise, and sleep can have a significant impact on your risk.
As noted by Dr. Richard Lipton6
of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where they study healthy
aging, lifestyle changes “look more promising than the drug studies
so far.”
High-Sugar Diet Raises Your Risk of Alzheimer’s
Mounting research suggests our modern diet is playing a
significant role in the skyrocketing prevalence of Alzheimer’s.
Processed foods tend to be nearly devoid of healthy fat while being
excessive in sugar, and this combination appears to be at the heart
of the problem.
Most people (especially Americans) are on a processed food diet,
and this virtually guarantees you’ll end up getting inverted ratios
of carbs and fats, not to mention both are typically inferior due to
processing and adulteration.
The connection between sugar and Alzheimer’s was first broached
in 2005, when the disease was tentatively dubbed "type 3 diabetes.”
At that time researchers discovered that your brain produces insulin
necessary for the survival of your brain cells.
A toxic protein called ADDL removes insulin receptors from nerve
cells, thereby rendering those neurons insulin resistant, and as
ADDLs accumulate, your memory begins to deteriorate.
Previous research has also shown diabetics have a doubled risk of
developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Now, researchers are again warning that Alzheimer’s appears to be
intricately linked to insulin resistance. In one recent study,7
the researchers used brain scans to assess 150 middle-aged people
who were at risk of Alzheimer’s but showed no signs of it at the
outset of the study.
“Brain scans revealed that greater insulin resistance was
linked to less sugar in key parts of the brain, often affected
by Alzheimer's.
Insulin is the hormone that helps your body use sugar
from the foods you eat, and either converts it into energy or
stores it away. Insulin resistance is when your body's response
to a regular level of the hormone is reduced, creating a need
for more insulin.
‘If you don’t have as much fuel, you’re not going to be
as adept at remembering something or doing something,’ the
study's lead author Auriel Willette...
‘This is important with Alzheimer’s disease, because over
the course of the disease there is a progressive decrease in the
amount of blood sugar used in certain brain regions. Those
regions end up using less and less.
When this happens, the study's authors believe, certain
parts of the brain can't carry out complex processes, like
forming memories.”
Alzheimer’s and Heart Disease Share Risk Factors
Insulin resistance also raises your risk for heart disease, so
it’s not surprising to find that heart disease is associated with
Alzheimer’s as well.
Arterial stiffness (atherosclerosis) is associated with a
hallmark process of Alzheimer’s, namely the buildup of beta-amyloid
plaque in your brain. According to researcher Timothy Hughes,9
“the process of vascular aging may predispose the brain to increased
amyloid plaque buildup.”
Recent research also points out that heart disease increases your
odds of developing Alzheimer’s — in fact, these two diseases share a
number of risk factors.
According to a study published in the journal Radiology,
shared risk factors include smoking, alcohol use, diabetes, high
fasting blood sugar levels, and obesity.
10
These kinds of findings dovetail with the conclusions reached by
neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter, author of the two books:
Grain Brain, and
Brain Maker.
From his research, Dr. Perlmutter has concluded that Alzheimer’s
disease is primarily predicated on lifestyle choices and, in a
nutshell, anything that promotes insulin resistance will ultimately
also raise your risk of Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer's Is Directly Related to Elevated Blood Sugar Levels
A study11
published in the New England Journal of Medicine in August
2013 demonstrates that even mild elevation of blood sugar — a level
of around 105 or 110 — is associated with an elevated risk for
dementia. Dr. Perlmutter believes a blood sugar level of 92 or
higher is too high, and that the ideal fasting blood sugar level is
somewhere around 70 to 85, with 95 as the maximum.
If your fasting blood sugar is over 95 mg/dl, it's definitely
time to address your diet to lower it. If you're fat adapted,
there's no reason to shun fasting blood sugar levels below 70, as
your body is then able to tap into body fat as an energy source.
According to Dr. Perlmutter:
"This notion that your brain needs sugar is really old
news. Fat, specifically ketones, which your body produces by
metabolizing your fat, is now called a 'brain superfuel.' There
is even a pharmaceutical product; a medical food that you can
write as a prescription, which raises the level of ketones or
fat in the bloodstream of patients, offered up now as a
treatment for Alzheimer's disease. Who knew? The point is the
brain loves to burn fat. That's what we have to shift it over
to..."
Three New Studies Highlight the Importance of Exercise
In related news,12
three new studies looking at exercise and Alzheimer’s show that not
only can exercise reduce your risk of the disease, it appears to be
an important part of treatment as well. According to Maria Carrillo,
chief science officer of the Alzheimer's Association:
“Based on the results we heard reported... at AAIC 2015,
exercise or regular physical activity might play a role in both
protecting your brain from Alzheimer's disease and other
dementias, and also living better with the disease if you have
it.”
Findings from these studies include:
Patients diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s who
participated in a four month-long supervised exercise program
had significantly fewer neuropsychiatric symptoms associated
with the disease than the control group that did not exercise.
As noted in the featured article:13
“In particular, participants attending 80 percent of
exercise classes who exercised vigorously experienced
significant improvements in their mental speed and
attention.”
The second study focused on how exercise impacts tau tangles
— brain lesions that are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s.
The brain lesions (tau tangles) form when the protein tau
collapses into twisted strands, which ends up killing brain
cells. Here, sedentary adults diagnosed with mild cognitive
impairment were randomly divided into one of two groups. Four
times a week, the first group did supervised aerobic workouts,
while the other did stretching exercises.
After six months, the aerobic exercise group had
statistically significant reductions in tau levels compared with
those who only did stretching. They also experienced improved
attention, planning, and executive function, courtesy of
improved blood flow in brain regions associated with memory and
processing. According to co-author Laura Baker:
"These findings are important because they strongly
suggest a potent lifestyle intervention such as aerobic
exercise can impact Alzheimer's-related changes in the
brain. No currently approved medication can rival
these effects." [Emphasis mine]
In the third study, patients with mild vascular cognitive
impairment (the second leading cause of dementia) who did
supervised aerobic exercise for six months significantly
improved their cognitive function compared to patients who
received the standard care. Lead researcher Teresa Liu-Ambrose
noted that:
“[T]he fact that aerobic exercise can improve
cognitive function in VCI means that people with the
condition have hope there may soon be a proven tool they can
use to prolong their independence and improve their quality
of life."
It's also been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the
way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,14
thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer's.
Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha. Research
has shown that people with Alzheimer's have less PGC-1alpha in their
brains15
and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic
amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's.
Exercise also leads to hippocampus growth and memory improvement.16
On the whole, it seems quite clear that exercise is an important
part of any Alzheimer’s prevention plan. For guidance on setting up
an effective fitness regimen, please review my
Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
Sleep Quality and Quantity Also Plays a Role
A number of studies have linked poor sleep or lack of sleep to an
increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. One reason for this is
because your brain’s waste removal system only operates during deep
sleep.17,18
This waste-removal system has been dubbed the
glymphatic system.19,20,21,22,23
By pumping cerebral spinal fluid through your brain’s tissues, the
glymphatic system flushes the waste (including the harmful proteins
amyloid-beta) from your brain back into your body’s circulatory
system, from where it is then eliminated.
However, in order for it to do this work effectively, you
have to enter deep sleep for a long enough time. During sleep,
the glymphatic system becomes 10 times more active than during
wakefulness. Your brain cells also shrink by about 60 percent,
allowing for greater efficiency of waste removal. During the day,
the constant brain activity causes your brain cells to swell in size
until they take up just over 85 percent of your brain’s volume,24
thereby disallowing effective waste removal.
It’s not so surprising then that, as noted in the featured CNN
video,
poor sleep appears to drive the buildup of amyloid plaques in
the brain. In short, people who sleep poorly tend to have higher
amounts of amyloid plaques in their brain, which in turn are
associated with worse performance on memory tests. As such, poor
sleep may actually be an early indicator sign of amyloid buildup,
which could be causing very subtle brain changes long before disease
develops.
So just how much sleep do you need for optimal health? Based on a
review of 300 studies assessing sleep and health outcomes, the
latest
sleep guidelines state that adults aged 18 to 64 need 7 to 9
hours, and seniors over the age of 65 need 7 to 8 hours each night.
School-age children need 10 to 13 hours, and teens, who tend to be
among the most sleep deprived, need 8 to 10 hours of sleep per
night. Considering the ramifications of sleeping poorly over
decades, it would be wise to address your children’s sleeping habits
early on, and to teach them the value of getting enough quality
sleep on a regular and consistent basis.
Key Dietary Considerations for Alzheimer’s Prevention
Getting back to where we started, research25
from the Mayo Clinic has revealed that diets rich in carbohydrates
are associated with an 89 percent increased risk for dementia while
high-fat diets are associated with a 44 percent reduced risk. This
combination of very little sugar and carbs, along with higher
amounts of healthy fat is essential not only to address Alzheimer's,
but
diabetes and heart disease as well, since all of these
conditions are rooted in insulin and
leptin resistance.
Understanding this can make your life a whole lot easier. You
don't need to memorize the dos and don'ts for each and every disease
you seek to avoid; all you need to do is shift over to a mindset
that is focused on optimizing health. Disease prevention then
becomes a beneficial "side effect." My
optimized nutrition plan can set you on the right path in this
regard. In summary, the following four dietary instructions are key
for staving off Alzheimer’s:
Eat REAL FOOD, ideally organic. Avoid
processed foods of all kinds, as they contain a number of
ingredients harmful to your brain, including refined sugar,
processed fructose, grains (particularly gluten), genetically
engineered (GE) ingredients, and pesticides like glyphosate (an
herbicide thought to be worse than DDT, and
DDT has already been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s).
Ideally, you’ll want to keep your added sugar levels to a
minimum and your total fructose below 25 grams per day, or as
low as 15 grams per day if you already have insulin/leptin
resistance or any related disorders. Opting for organic produce
will help you avoid synthetic pesticides and herbicides.
It’s even more important to choose organic grass-fed meats
and animal products, as animals raised in confined animal
operations (CAFOs) are routinely fed GE grains contaminated with
pesticides, along with a variety of drugs. Some researchers have
even suggested Alzheimer’s may be a slow-acting form of
mad cow disease, acquired by eating contaminated meats; and
mad cow disease originated in the CAFO system, which forces
herbivores to eat animal parts...
Replace refined carbohydrates with healthy fats.
Your brain does not need carbs and sugars; healthy fats such as
saturated animal fats and animal-based omega-3 are FAR more
critical for optimal brain function. Healthy fats to add to your
diet include:
Avocados
Butter made from raw, grass-fed organic milk
Raw dairy
Organic pastured egg yolks
Coconuts and coconut oil (coconut
oil actually shows promise as an effective
Alzheimer's treatment in and of itself)
Unheated organic nut oils
Raw nuts, such as pecans and macadamia, which are
low in protein and high in healthy fats
Grass-fed meats or pasture raised poultry
Avoid all trans fats or hydrogenated fats that have been
modified in such a way to extend their longevity on the grocery
store shelf. This includes margarine, vegetable oils, and
various butter-like spreads.
Avoid gluten and casein (primarily wheat
and pasteurized dairy, but not dairy fat, such as
butter). Research shows that your blood-brain barrier is
negatively affected by gluten. Gluten also makes your gut
more permeable, which allows proteins to get into your
bloodstream where they sensitize your immune system and promote
inflammation and autoimmunity, both of which play a role in the
development of Alzheimer’s.
Optimize your gut flora by avoiding
processed foods (sugar, GE ingredients, pesticides, and various
food additives all discourage healthy bacteria in your gut),
antibiotics and antibacterial products, fluoridated and
chlorinated water, and by regularly eating
traditionally fermented and cultured foods, along with a
high-quality probiotic if needed. Dr. David Perlmutter explores
the compelling connection between the microbiome and brain
health in his book, Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes
to Heal and Protect Your Brain for Life, connecting it to a
number of neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's.
Other Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies
Besides the key dietary instructions just mentioned, along with
getting regular exercise and enough restorative sleep, the following
suggestions may also be helpful for the prevention of Alzheimer’s
disease:
Intermittently fast
Ketones are mobilized when you replace carbs with
coconut oil and other healthy fats.
Intermittent fasting is a powerful tool to jumpstart
your body into remembering how to burn fat and repair the
insulin/leptin resistance that is a primary contributing
factor for Alzheimer’s.
Improve your magnesium levels
Preliminary research strongly suggests a decrease in
Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of
magnesium in the brain. Unfortunately most magnesium
supplements do not pass the blood brain levels, but a new
one, magnesium threonate, appears to and holds some promise
for the future for treating this condition and may be
superior to other forms.
Eat a nutritious diet rich in folate
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.
Optimize your vitamin D levels with sensible
sun exposure
Sufficient
vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your
immune system to combat inflammation that is also associated
with Alzheimer's. If you are unable, for whatever reason, to
get enough sensible sun exposure, make sure to take daily
supplemental vitamin D to make your blood level at least 40
to 50 ng/ml. This is typically about 8,000 units of vitamin
D for most adults.
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.
Most flu vaccines contain both mercury and aluminum.
Avoid statins and anticholinergic 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,
vitamin K2, 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.