Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Dr Grant Fourie.

In 2013, 5.2 million Americans were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a severe form of dementia, and diagnoses are projected to triple by 2050.

 

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. Considering there’s no known cure and few, if any, effective treatments, it’s 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 Lipton 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 (including South Africans) 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 ADDL's 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, 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.

As reported by The Huffington Post:

“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,' explains 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 build-up of beta-amyloid plaque in your brain. According to researcher Timothy Hughes, “the process of vascular aging may predispose the brain to increased amyloid plaque build-up.” 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. 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.

 
Source: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/08/13/sugar-alzheimers-disease-link.aspx
 

Dr Joseph Mercola | Osteopathic physician

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Mercola is an osteopathic physician, also known as a DO. Osteopathic physicians practice a "whole person" approach, treating the entire person rather than just symptoms. Focusing on preventive health care, DO’s help patients develop attitudes and lifestyles that don't just fight illness, but help prevent it, too.

Dr Mercola is board-certified in family medicine and served as the chairman of the family medicine department at St. Alexius Medical Centre for five years. He is trained in both traditional and natural medicine.

In addition, he was granted fellowship status by the American College of Nutrition (ACN) in October 2012. He has been interviewed several times on national and local news, and has authored three New York Times Bestsellers. In 2009, he was named the top Ultimate Wellness Game Changer by the Huffington Post.