Diet & Alzheimer’s: Ketones Over Carbs or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Ketogenic Diet*

Grade: Excellent

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.

Moving from Glycolysis to Ketosis

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 […]

By |2018-09-21T09:50:45+00:00September 21st, 2018|Prevention and Treatment|5 Comments

The Link Between Diabetes and Alzheimer’s

Simple Summary

Metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are related disorders that damage (among other things) the brain.  Both conditions contribute to impaired cognitive function, and increase the risk of Alzheimer’s.

More Detail

Metabolic syndrome is characterized by belly fat, elevated cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance, increased risk of blood clots and inflammation.  Metabolic syndrome, if uncorrected, eventually damages the pancreas leading to a decrease of insulin secretion.  “The fall in insulin secretion leading to hyperglicemia occurs as a late phenomenon and, in fact, separates the patients with metabolic syndrome from those with or without overt diabetes.”(R)

Persons with metabolic disorders are at significantly increased risk for cognitive decline and the development of vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.  Those with T2D are at even greater risk.

Into The Weeds

Insulin Resistance:

Insulin is a peptide hormone produced by the Beta cells in the pancreas which also serve as glucose level monitors. As the beta cells in the pancreas detect increasing levels of glucose (a simple sugar) they step up insulin production.

When someone is insulin resistance, their cells are unable to take up glucose, and the result is hyperglycemia (an increase in circulating glucose). 

By |2018-01-04T10:44:15+00:00January 4th, 2018|Causes and Diagnosis|4 Comments
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