Diabetes of the Brain?

[Paul_c]

Article in latest (1st Sept 2012) issue of New Scientist alleges that high levels of insulin can result in the brain becoming insulin resistant and ending up with Alzheimer's... they're even considering calling Alzheimers Type 3 Diabetes...

what's really making me furious about the article is the rabid obsession in demonising saturated fats as being a cause of diabetes.

Ask yourselves what's wrong with this paragraph:

Even if someone doesn't develop Diabetes, a bad diet may be enough to set the wheels in motion for brain degeneration, according to an ongoing study by Craft. For one month a group of volunteers - none of whom had diabetes - ate foods that were high in saturated fat and sugar while a control group ate a diet low in sugar and saturated fat. In just four weeks, those gorging on the high-sugar diet had higher levels of insulin and significantly higher beta amyloid levels in their spinal fluid. The control group showed decreases in both.

they did not develop their diet and controls properly. They failed to vary only ONE item for the experiment. The experiment fails to differentiate between the sugar causing the higher insulin levels, or the saturated fats causing it. A proper control diet should have had the same level of saturated fat in both diets, or else the same levels of sugars in both diets.

 

[librarising]

Paul_c wrote
A proper control diet should have had the same level of saturated fat in both diets, or else the same levels of sugars in both diets.

Barry Groves in his Trick and Treat (2008) talks about Alzheimers and Parkinsons

evidence is emerging that dietary change can prevent these devastating brain disorders of ageing ...starchy food may be as much the cause of Alzheimer's disease as diabetes. A report showed that a diet rich in saturated fats and low in carbohydrates can actually reduce levels of a brain protein, amyloid-beta, which is an indicator of Alzheimer's disease in mice with the mouse model of Alzheimer's disease ... the evidence is that the Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases may also be successfully treated, and, more importantly, prevented, with a low-carbohdrate, high-fat, ketogenic diet

So, not the saturated fats then, but the sugar. Who'd have guessed ?

Geoff (posting from planet Dr Who, where fats rock !)

 

[Robinredbreast]

Article in latest (1st Sept 2012) issue of New Scientist alleges that high levels of insulin can result in the brain becoming insulin resistant and ending up with Alzheimer's... they're even considering calling Alzheimers Type 3 Diabetes...

what's really making me furious about the article is the rabid obsession in demonising saturated fats as being a cause of diabetes.

Ask yourselves what's wrong with this paragraph:

Even if someone doesn't develop Diabetes, a bad diet may be enough to set the wheels in motion for brain degeneration, according to an ongoing study by Craft. For one month a group of volunteers - none of whom had diabetes - ate foods that were high in saturated fat and sugar while a control group ate a diet low in sugar and saturated fat. In just four weeks, those gorging on the high-sugar diet had higher levels of insulin and significantly higher beta amyloid levels in their spinal fluid. The control group showed decreases in both.

they did not develop their diet and controls properly. They failed to vary only ONE item for the experiment. The experiment fails to differentiate between the sugar causing the higher insulin levels, or the saturated fats causing it. A proper control diet should have had the same level of saturated fat in both diets, or else the same levels of sugars in both diets.

I did not become diabetic because of eating saturated fats :x I was 8 1/2 st and had gone through a family break up with a suspected illness before that.

So the the volunteers 'gorging' :x on the high-sugar diet had higher levels of insulin and higher bets amyloid levels, but did the other group of volunteers also 'gorge' :x on their low sugar and saturated fat study :shock:

My mum did not have Alzheimer,s but a form of Dementia and she and my dad and brothers and sister, grew up on home cooked food, Pearl Barley soup, mince and tatties with lots of veg, stews ( called casseroles nowadays) no puddings, only on a Sunday after the Sunday roast. We had biscuits and cakes in the house, but as a treat, especially Sunday teatime, this was in the 60's and 70's.

:? RRB