The Startling Link Between Sugar and Alzheimer's

[Cattledog]

In recent years, Alzheimer’s disease has occasionally been referred to as “type 3” diabetes, though that moniker doesn’t make much sense. After all, though they share a problem with insulin, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, and type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease caused by diet. Instead of another type of diabetes, it’s increasingly looking like Alzheimer’s is another potential side effect of a sugary, Western-style diet.

In some cases, the path from sugar to Alzheimer’s leads through type 2 diabetes, but as a new study and others show, that’s not always the case.

A longitudinal study, published Thursday in the journal Diabetologia, followed 5,189 people over 10 years and found that people with high blood sugar had a faster rate of cognitive decline than those with normal blood sugar—whether or not their blood-sugar level technically made them diabetic. In other words, the higher the blood sugar, the faster the cognitive decline.

“Dementia is one of the most prevalent psychiatric conditions strongly associated with poor quality of later life,” said the lead author, Wuxiang Xie at Imperial College London, via email. “Currently, dementia is not curable, which makes it very important to study risk factors.”

Melissa Schilling, a professor at New York University, performed her own review of studies connecting diabetes to Alzheimer’s in 2016. She sought to reconcile two confusing trends. People who have type 2 diabetes are about twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s, and people who have diabetes and are treated with insulin are also more likely to get Alzheimer’s, suggesting elevated insulin plays a role in Alzheimer’s. In fact, many studies have found that elevated insulin, or “hyperinsulinemia,” significantly increases your risk of Alzheimer’s. On the other hand, people with type 1 diabetes, who don’t make insulin at all, are also thought to have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s. How could these both be true?

Entire article at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/01/the-startling-link-between-sugar-and-alzheimers/551528/?utm_source=wdfb&mbid=social_fb

[TexasProgresive]

1. Right off the bat they make a false statement

“type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease caused by diet“
Type II diabetes is caused by underlying metabolic disfunctions. Diets high in carbohydrates in persons with this predisposition to T2D leads to abdominal fat and attended insulin resistance. This is a vicious cycle.

To attribute T2D to diet is to blame the victims.

[Bluepinky]

2. Being overweight or obese is a risk factor for type 2 DM.

And weight loss frequently normalizes glucose levels. That’s a fact, not victim shaming.

[TexasProgresive]

4. It's not the cause of T2D but a symptom

There is something else at work in a person that develops T2D and it is not over eating. People who develop T2D are often suffering from hypoglycemia. When their blood glucose goes low they often self medicate by eating and drinking high carbohydrates. Because there is a timing issue with the body's response to BG rising the BG rises too high and the pancreas secretes to much insulin. Too thinks happen; 1st the person's blood glucose plummets leading to more self medication, 2nd the insulin causes the excess carbs to be stored as fat. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat until blindness, kidney failure, heart failure, stroke and or amputation.

I am T2D for 26 years. Many T2D including myself are able to maintain good control with a high fat, low carb diet with exercise and meds if necessary. It is a progressive disease. When I was first diagnosed I was able to get off of meds because I limited carbohydrates and began to bicycle regularly. This was good for about 10 years. With no change in weight, diet and exercise by sugars began to spike again requiring me to start Metformin and later a long lasting insulin.

After I retired I was able to reduce the amount of insulin because the toxic stress in my life went down. I am still diabetic and I still am on Metformin and Lantus insulin.

I repeat T2D is not caused by obesity.

[Bluepinky]

5. Obesity/overweight is a risk factor for type 2 DM, not a cause, which is what I said.

Weight loss is one recommended treatment for many people with type 2DM, because in many cases (not all) it lowers blood sugars. Due to other lifestyle factors (along with metabolic derangements) that often go hand in hand with obesity/overweight, including poor diet and inactivity, overweight people are at increased risk for getting type 2DM. But no, it’s not the cause.
One interesting reason that overweight people are at increased risk is that as fat cells enlarge, the shape of the cell changes and the insulin is unable to connect to the cell.
Our Western diets and decreased activity levels puts Americans at increased risk for many diseases/disorders.

[TexasProgresive]

6. Only overweight people with a predisposition towards diabetes with become diabetic

There are lots of people who are obese that will never become diabetic. There is something else at work. People with T2D become obese and YES if they lose weight their blood glucose may normalized. It is a symptom not the cause.

[Bluepinky]

7. Its a risk factor rather than a cause or a symptom.

[TexasProgresive]

8. If that's how you want to say it OK

I do not agree.

[woodsprite]

3. I caught that. It pissed me off.

I was also wondering (haven't researched articles yet) if they've discovered any links of Alzheimer's to cholesterol levels (specifically LDL) and/or statin use. My FIL is rapidly moving from mid- to late-stage Alzheimer's and has been on high dose statins for a long time. My MIL threw herself into making sure they used low-fat this and that ever since his cholesterol diagnosis (38 years ago), really pumped up the carbs, and limited the proteins because of their fat content.