Obesity Diabetes and Dementia

[Art Of Flowers]

There was am article in today's Daily Express linking obesity, diabetes and dementia. See https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-express/20170325/281479276243188
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-express/20170325/281479276243188
Research in the University of Tel Aviv is linking increased insulin resistance with dementia later in life.

 

[Freema]

Yes sounds sad , really worth excercising and building muscles as that can reduce insuline resistance with as much as 30%

 

[serenity648]

this links high carb and dementia, which may possibly be a contributory factor in the obesity and diabetes mentioned in the article you have linked to:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15082091

 

[Bluetit1802]

I wonder how many of those diabetics in the studies were also on statins?

 

[Brunneria]

Yes, this has been under discussion for quite a while.

Have a google for Type 3 diabetes, and you will see what I mean. There have been suggestions to re-name Dementia as Type 3 diabetes, although of course Type 3 is already in use for other types of D.
http://www.alzheimer.ca/en/About-de...ase/Risk-factors/Diabetes-dementia-connection
This is a good DCUK page which explains it very simply.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/type3-diabetes.html

I find it rather sad that most of the discussions on the subject link Dementia to obesity, rather than looking at the underlying cause which is insulin resistance and causes both the Dementia and the obesity.

 

[Art Of Flowers]

High blood sugars does cause neuropathy and also seems to affect brain function. I started to take Alpha Lipoic Acid 300Mg tablets recently because I was experiencing some pins and needles in my hand. I did notice that ALA does also improve cognitive function by reducing "brain fog". My memory improved.

 

[Brunneria]

High blood sugars does cause neuropathy and also seems to affect brain function. I started to take Alpha Lipoic Acid 300Mg tablets recently because I was experiencing some pins and needles in my hand. I did notice that ALA does also improve cognitive function by reducing "brain fog". My memory improved.

Yes, the couple of years before I really clamped down and went very low carb are a kind of foggy blur.
I had always had a great memory. An associative memory, where I would remember things that were happening as I did something else (what I ate while I read a particular passage in a book, or what we talked about when visiting a particular place, and stuff like that). But that completely disappeared. I struggled to learn new things (difficult when starting a new job), and my short term memory was shockingly hopeless. I couldn't remember a list of 3 things, and started writing everything down.

It took a while, but keeping my bg low and steady has helped a lot of it recover, but I still have memory gaps and vagueness for that 2 year period. I was half way through a book recently before I realised that I had actually read it during my 'foggy years'. Very disturbing.

All I can say is thank heaven for this forum. Without it, I would still have been blundering about in a kindoflowcarb way, no testing, no very low carb, no supplements, etc. etc.

 

[EllsKBells]

@Brunneria yes, and also those in the field, as opposed to members of the media, dislike the term 'type 3 diabetes' because it is misleading, and also encourages the bringing of all dementia under one umbrella, when actually they are pathologically distinct diseases.

SITraN, based in Sheffield, are rather more interested in insulin resistance as a cause of obesity and also dementia, primarily dementia, particularly with regard to Alzheimer's Disease. If you search for papers by Garwood, C., Wharton, S., Chambers, A.L., or Simpson, J., to name but a few, their body of work is gaining quite some traction. They've been on about this for a good few years now, but it is becoming particularly significant in wake of last year's CFAS paper, which showed amyloid beta and tau in people without AD.

But then of course, promoting low carb high fat would not fit with the general consensus that it is fat that is evil.

 

[kokhongw]

I believe various groups of researchers have noticed the link between insulin resistance/impaired glucose uptake in the brain and dementia/alzheimer for a while...obesity would just be a natural extension of that association.

Association of Insulin Resistance With Cerebral Glucose Uptake in Late Middle–Aged Adults at Risk for Alzheimer Disease
http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2398420

Converging evidence suggests that Alzheimer disease (AD) involves insulin signaling impairment. Patients with AD and individuals at risk for AD show reduced glucose metabolism, as indexed by fludeoxyglucose F 18–labeled positron emission tomography (FDG-PET).

Can Ketones Help Rescue Brain Fuel Supply in Later Life? Implications for Cognitive Health during Aging and the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnmol.2016.00053/full

We propose that brain energy deficit is an important pre-symptomatic feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that requires closer attention in the development of AD therapeutics. Our rationale is fourfold:

• (i) Glucose uptake is lower in the frontal cortex of people >65 years-old despite cognitive scores that are normal for age.
• (ii) The regional deficit in brain glucose uptake is present in adults <40 years-old who have genetic or lifestyle risk factors for AD but in whom cognitive decline has not yet started. Examples include young adult carriers of presenilin-1 or apolipoprotein E4, and young adults with mild insulin resistance or with a maternal family history of AD.
• (iii) Regional brain glucose uptake is impaired in AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), but brain uptake of ketones (beta-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate), remains the same in AD and MCI as in cognitively healthy age-matched controls. These observations point to a brain fuel deficit which appears to be specific to glucose, precedes cognitive decline associated with AD, and becomes more severe as MCI progresses toward AD. Since glucose is the brain’s main fuel, we suggest that gradual brain glucose exhaustion is contributing significantly to the onset or progression of AD.
• (iv) Interventions that raise ketone availability to the brain improve cognitive outcomes in both MCI and AD as well as in acute experimental hypoglycemia.

 

[Freema]

seems people with the specific dementia called alzheimers are lacking omega 3 fatty acids in their brains... maybe some have an inherited higher need for omega 3 fatty acids..or a harder time getting them into their brains., maybe the brain can not use and metabolize the blood glucose if its cells lack these kinds of fatty acids ... mainly found in krill fisk and walnuts

https://scitechdaily.com/diets-lacking-in-omega-3-fatty-acids-may-cause-your-brain-to-age-faster/
so even another good reason to eat ones daily krill-oil

http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Omega-3-backed-for-Alzheimer-s-disease-potential

 

[Gannet]

I wonder how many of those diabetics in the studies were also on statins?

That's exactly what I thought!

 

[Brunneria]

Came across this just now.

Pretty interesting:
http://www.tuitnutrition.com/2017/03/alzheimers-diet.html

Obviously, we are talking human diets here, and human Alzheimers.

But my experience has been of taking a significantly Alzheimers/Dementia cat of 12 years, and switching him to an All Raw diet, rich in salmon oil and healthy fats (processed pet food is often very carb heavy, and what fat there is, is processed and cheap). He lived another 7 years with minimal further mental deterioration. He had strong claws and a coat than shone like a mirror. Eventually passed away suddenly, with a stroke. I just wished I had been feeding him the Raw stuff before the mental decline began...

 

[Speedbird]

Now this is interesting. I found this on the Alzheimer's Society

 

[NatJS]

Came across this just now.

Pretty interesting:
http://www.tuitnutrition.com/2017/03/alzheimers-diet.html

Obviously, we are talking human diets here, and human Alzheimers.

But my experience has been of taking a significantly Alzheimers/Dementia cat of 12 years, and switching him to an All Raw diet, rich in salmon oil and healthy fats (processed pet food is often very carb heavy, and what fat there is, is processed and cheap). He lived another 7 years with minimal further mental deterioration. He had strong claws and a coat than shone like a mirror. Eventually passed away suddenly, with a stroke. I just wished I had been feeding him the Raw stuff before the mental decline began...

Do you have detials of the diet you fed you cat? I'd be interested for my own moggie actually!

 

[Brunneria]

@NatJS

Sure!

I started off making my own as per a raw food recipe book. If I recall correctly it was 80% muscle meat, 10% organ meat and 10% meaty bones (raw chicken wings mainly), with added kelp, brewers yeast, probiotics and garlic. Nope, I have remembered wrong. There were veg too. But I can't recall the% of that. Sorry - but there are lots of articles and books available nowadays.

After a few years I found some websites that sell it pre made. Delivered to your door still frozen, with the bone part ground up and mixed in. This was better for Toed (the cat) because his teeth weren't great by then and he struggled with the chicken wings. Raw bones (not cooked) are vital in a raw diet because it gives them firm poos.

We still use the same brands now - Natural Instinct dot com and Wolf Tucker dot com, but now we are feeding two v healthy and enthusiastic dogs instead of cats

Edited for sense!

 

[SimonCrox]

An interesting topic and thanks for the israeli reference.
Insulin resistance has been linked to development of cognitive impairement in FInland and in Denmark:-

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2017/04/03/dc16-2001

http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2017/04/04/db16-1444

So far as I can see, the risk of a diabetic person for getting dementia is increased by uncontrolled hypertension (Norwegian data) and by hypos needing hospital attendance eg the Whitmer paper.

The role of obesity leading to future dementia seems confirmed in many but not all studies.

As above, there is possibly less risk of dementia if one exercises, and this would be reduicing insulin resistance.

best wishes