Do you know someone with Alzheimer’s? Ever wondered why some people get Alzheimer’s while others don’t? When we hear people talk about keeping their brain active we often hear about people doing crosswords and playing games to stay mentally alert? But is that really enough?
In this 3-part series, I will go through some of the uncommon truths around how we can reduce our risk of getting certain neurological disorders, and it’s not what you might expect.
But first, let’s talk about stroke and heart disease. If you get a heart attack or a stroke, you get a crushing chest pain or a noticeable weakness immediately, almost certainly leading to a hospital admission. It’s traumatising. Your family hears about it, and then your friends and it sends shockwaves through your personal communities. Imagine when something like that happens everyday around Melbourne, and pretty knowing the risk factors for heart disease is general knowledge. Whether or not people put that knowledge into practice is of course, a different issue altogether.
Sounds great for stroke and heart disease prevention, but what if our brains are silently dying? (I don’t know about you but I have the Fugee’s ‘Killing Me Softly’ running in my head right now.)
Let’s talk about Alzheimer’s. It’s that slow, progressive condition that older people tend to get and affects their memory, cognition and behaviour. It is what they call an amyloid disease, which means that the proteins fold in pathological ways and accumulates in cells, making them less effective and even causing cell death. In Alzheimer’s it is the Tau proteins that become damaged.
It turns out that having diabetes makes you more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s. (Steen et al. 2005) There has been some suggestion since 2005 that the misfolding of proteins in the brain cells of people with Alzheimer’s is the result of abnormal insulin signalling, making it a neuroendocrine disorder, and hence dubbed as type 3 diabetes. (De la Monte and Wands, 2008)
95% of people with diabetes have type 2, which means the body’s cells have become resistant to insulin which is required for the effective uptake of glucose for energy. With a higher concentration of blood glucose, microvascular changes occur which develops into peripheral neuropathy and diabetic retinopathy. Given we know this happens, and that in most sedentary people, glucose is directed mainly at brain function (Selfish brain theory anyone?) and we get this silent onslaught onto the nervous system.
So the short answer to shaking off your first killer of your brain is go find out what your blood sugars are doing, and manage them with a diet low in processed sugars and regular exercise. Only then will you have a reasonable fighting chance at preventing the insidious disease.
Stay tuned next week to find out about what the next brain assassin is. (Hint: you probably just had it in your lunch.)
Resources:
Resources: De la Monte SM and Wands J (2008). Alzheimer’s Disease Is Type 3 Diabetes–Evidence Reviewed. Journal of Diabetes and Science Technology. 2(6): 1101–1113. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/
Steen E et al. (2005). Impaired insulin and insulin-like growth factor expression and signalling mechanisms in Alzheimer’s Disease – Is this type 3 Diabetes? Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease 7(1): 63-80
