Could high blood sugar be a cause of Alzheimer's disease?
by Catharine Paddock PhD
Last updated: Thursday 7 May 2015 at 3am PST

"While nobody knows exactly what causes the complex brain changes that lead to Alzheimer's disease, scientists suspect one of the drivers is the accumulation of plaques of a faulty protein called beta-amyloid. Now, a new study of mice shows how too much sugar in the blood can speed up the production of the protein."

More....http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/293581.php

Related: Scientists reveal molecule that links high blood sugar to metabolic disease
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/293518.php

Some have suggested that Alzheimer's is just one more member of the "metabolic syndrome" family. I suppose one way to rule that idea out would be to find people who only have Alzheimer's, but none of the other problems. Good luck on that one. Some have also suggested that statins can cause dementia.

There's a new documentary (crowd funded) called Bread head that I suspect is going to look at the blood sugar connection.

Alzheimer's is called Diabetes III by researchers. To me, that says a LOT.

By *which* researchers, Pam?

Gives new meaning to the argument "but the brain needs glucose". Yeah, to forget? Now we need complementary research with a brain swimming in ketones, but starved of glucose. I think this could have extensive consequences especially in medicine. For example, the condition we call hypoglycemia. Is it really about glucose? Unlikely especially if BG is still within normal range. Glucose IV? Raises BG above normal. Now since eating carbs raises BG above normal, and since the argument "but the brain needs glucose" is always invoked to support eating carbs, are we really saying "the brain needs hyperglycemia"?

My paradigm sounds better by the minute, doesn't it.

This was a seminal paper from 2008:

Alzheimer's Disease Is Type 3 Diabetes–Evidence Reviewed



At the link, there's papers off to the right which tie into it. And there were many cites in Dr. Perlmutter's book, Grain Brain.

On a personal note, it resonates with me, because my dad dutifully kept his Type II diabetes in "normal" ranges that the doctor told him to, until his brain sent him into dementia.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11875249

The first one is a free text paper on amyloid plaque in the beta cells.

http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/a...ia-and-diabetes



Amylin actually lowers blood glucose by reducing levels of glucagon--so that it takes less insulin to regulate blood glucose. It's also been shown to increase sensitivity to leptin--which is interesting, because rodent studies have shown that animals totally lacking insulin can be given leptin in place of insulin to regulate their blood glucose. So the red bit is potentially misleading, too much amylin could be a sign of insulin resistance (or, logically, amylin resistance) in and of itself. Excess amylin sometimes gloms together, becoming less active as well as forming a core for amyloid plaque formation, that's one way "too much" amylin might coincide with reduced amylin signalling.

There was a 60 Minutes episode a few months ago that reported on a study (the 90+ Study) being done at UC Irvine that tracked a group of very elderly people in a retirement community who had been the subjects of a study back in the 1980s. Years later, researchers came across the old health records from that study and learned that many of the subjects were still alive and living in the same retirement community. Now, the researchers are keeping careful track of these folks, all of whom are past the age of 90 and a few over 100 years old.

These elderly subjects have agreed to frequent exams and tests as they age further and have agreed to donate their brains to the scientists when they die. One of the interesting findings reported on the show was that some people with very obvious signs of dementia turn out to not have the amyloid plaques in their brains. Others, who seem fine mentally, have many plaques.

I wonder if the plaques will turn out to be a side effect of whatever is causing the dementia, and not the primary cause, or maybe there are multiple types of dementia and different causes of each.

Things said to reduce amyloid plaques include a ketogenic diet, curcumin, caffeine, a Thiamine (B vitamin) derivative, vitamin D3, Omega 3 fatty acids, beta-sheet-breaking amino acids (like proline), N-methylated aminos, but the stuff that seems like a rather robust helper are the proteases (like serrapeptase) that break down amyloid plaques, or something like that.

Probably in a perfect world we would get such a diverse array of nutrients that it wouldn't be an issue to start with. I can see though how 'clean up' stuff (like the proteases) could be especially useful in today's environ and for older bodies.

In the end everything we call a cause (like the AP's) is likely a symptom, as you said.

PJ

It is more likely totally related to low fat high carb diets that the government says is good for you.

Dr. Perlmutter Email and post today: