De La Monte

Dementia and food, the big link.

New reports show that your eating habits and exercise regime could decide weather or not you develop dementia, the supposedly "unlucky" yet relatively common disease that plagues your brain.

There are 2 types of diabetes that we are certain of: type 1; which manifests itself when an autoimmune response kills off the insulin-producing cells in the body, it is usually diagnosed in children and young adults.

The second form is known as type 2; this is the more common, affecting around 95% of sufferers. Type 2 is caused mainly by your eating habits, it either causes a lack of insulin production, or it causes your muscle, liver and fat to refuse insulin, meaning that they do not extract the sugars and fat from the blood stream. this causes bad insulin and sugar levels in your blood which could put you at risk of heart disease, stroke, blindness, amputation and nerve damage. You are more at risk if you have excess fat, abdominal especially, of developing type 2.

The new form of diabetes is, as you have probably guessed type 3, the theory was put forward by Suzanne De La Monte, and is that the brain refuses the insulin thus causing the brain to start deteriorating. the process just stated is better known as Alzheimer's, which is a form of dementia, thus we have come the full circle.

But I haven't finished yet!

De La Monte's rats were confused in a simple water maze due to the fact that she had changed the way that their brains responded to insulin. Later tests showed telltale marks of Alzheimer's. Neurons were crumbling due to a toxic protein, they then disintegrated, lost shape and bonds. this was one of the observations.

Omega 3 is the next pause for thought , rats that were fed foods that contained omega 3, escaped the Alzheimer's even when they were drinking water laced with high frictose corn syrup, a sweetener in soft drinks. It is said that tea, red wine and chocolate have these protecting properties.

Alois Alzheimer's of Germany was first to spot the toxic proteins, he said that fibrils grew from the nucleus, and developed with the disease, until the cell disintegrated, this left folds of fibril deposits.

Papers and tests show that insulin helps neurons in the hippocampus and the frontal lobe mainly to take up glucose for energy, encourages plasticity; the process through which neurons change their shape, make new bonds with each other and strengthen old ones. Finally it seems to regulate neurotransmitters, E.G acetylcholine, which plays a vital roll in memory building.

Type 2 manifests itself when glucose and fat levels in the blood repeatedly peak, this causes the fat, liver and muscle cells to start rejecting insulin which means that they stop extracting fat and glucose from your blood stream, or the pancreas stop creating the insulin.

From some angles type 2 can look like a defense to stop you getting too fat, but if it is left too long then it will take its toll!

Some people have levels of insulin resistance, putting them at a higher risk than others.

Alzheimer's is a harsh disease which causes memories and skills to slip away, it is unpleasant for you, at the start, until you forget that you have it. It is also seriously unpleasant for those around you, in many different ways, and to different people, so avoid fast food!

How we stop the development of diabetes is another matter, by 2050 it is estimated that the sufferer count will reach 115 million. Caring costs will spiral out of control, in 2011 alone the US spent $130 billion on Alzheimer's care.

There is one idea that doesn't appeal to me and has not been talked of much. The plan is to avert our addiction towards fast food, but research in this field is probably at an early stage and will be taken slowly and tentatively. Many religious groups would object to being "changed" from the person you are just because you feel like it, its a bit like unnecessary plastic surgery. I would certainly object to it, I somehow think that it would change the way people look at life, to the point that we would do what we like, when we like, because we've had all the latest scientific changes to our person, WHICH JUST MAKE US MORE LIKE THE NEXT PERSON. We can't just expect science to just mop up after us all the time can we? It would be one step in the wrong direction:- towards becoming robot-like, with injections here, and DNA changes there, just to solve all our problems, plus they would cost the earth.

So... Eat healthy, exercise, and get that belly off!