...these classifications of Alzheimer's give patients, families, and doctors powerful information and a road map for prevention and treatment. The days of palliative care for Alzheimer's are numbered. Herein lies hope.
The ketogenic diet induces ketosis and that’s a good thing because ketosis brings with it a raft of health benefits. It’s a diet in the sense that what you eat is important, but how much you eat isn’t that important. Also there’s the whole weight loss thing, but that’s more of a side note. The importance of this diet lies in its mechanisms to prevent and possibly even treat Alzheimer’s.
Most diets include a high percentage of simple carbs (bread, rice, pasta, etc.). Those carbs along with sugar (in all its forms) are quickly converted to glucose. This glucose is stored in the liver as glycogen and the rest used by mitochondria as the substrate for making energy. This assumes that one is not eating excessive amounts of carbs and sugar as that would produce chronic stress on the system and lead to weight gain on the way to full blown diabetes.
The ketogenic diet is high in fat and has few or even zero carbs. In response to the lack of dietary glucose, the body taps the glycogen stored in the […]
Aspirin changes the metabolism of omega-6 fatty acids such that more anti-inflammatory compounds are produced. Aspirin also changes the metabolism of omega-3s such that even more anti-inflammatory compounds result. Fasting activates PPAR alpha which upregulates TFEB which results in new lysosomes in brain cells. Lysosomes eat the misfolded proteins in cells that cause amyloid-beta plaques and tau tangles. Aspirin appears to produce the same result without fasting. What if we fast and take aspirin? It stands to reason that aspirin may enhance the positive effects of fasting when it comes to brain health.
When Quinolinic acid increases to pathological levels it becomes an exitotoxin that over-activates NMDA receptors. This causes a rapid inflow of calcium into the neuron and the resulting chaos leads to mitochondrial dysfunction, ATP exhaustion, free radical formation, oxidative damage, and cell death signaling.
The NAD/Sirtuin combination influences a wide range of cellular processes such as aging, rRNA transcription, mitochondrial biogenesis, apoptosis, inflammation, stress resistance, and insulin sensitivity.
Compared to placebo, the curcumin group showed significant improvement for primary verbal memory, primary visual memory and measure of attention. PET scans showed strong evidence that amyloid beta deposits and tau tangles in the amygdala declined significantly in the curcumin group. Furthermore, deposits and tangles in the hypothalmus of the placebo group showed a significant increase after 18 months, but the curcumin group was spared this unfortunate result.
Chronic and even acute inflammation may be responsible for dementia. A look at the research certainly points towards a connection.
Alzheimer's subjects given probiotics showed improvement in some (but not all) measures of Alzheimer's pathology. Importantly, the probiotics did improve cognitive function.
A study of probiotic supplementation clearly showed that the probiotic formula protected Alzheimer's mice from neurodegeneration as measured by cognitive function and signs of brain damage.
This 2017 study from the University of Wisconsin compared the microbiota of 25 people diagnosed with Alzheimer's and 25 age and sex-matched control participants. The Alzheimer's group showed decreased levels of "good" bacteria and increased levels of "bad" bacteria.