Center for Healthy Ageing

There is a common link between cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, high blood pressure, high triglycerides and Alzheimer’s disease and that link is sugar.   Scientific studies from all over the world have made this connection for many years but most people would never know it because the food companies and the sugar industry go to enormous lengths, spending a lot of money, to hide it and instead placing the blame on fat.  They have been hugely successful and their efforts have paid off.  Most people don’t know whether they should be eating ‘full fat’ or ‘low fat’, dairy or no dairy, meat or no meat.  The food and sugar industry have managed to confuse the public to such an extent that they can carry on adding sugar and selling products that are killing 75% of us.  Outside the scientific community nobody seems any wiser and nothing is being done to stop it.

All we have to do is look across the world and see the growing pandemic that is obesity and type 2 diabetes.  Type 2 diabetes used to be considered an old person’s disease.  It wasn’t unusual for people to develop it in their 60’s.  Now it’s becoming quite common in children as young as 7 or 8.  When children that young are obese the only culprit can be excess sugar as they can’t eat enough other calories.

When sugar is added to food, and it is added in large quantities to most processed foods on our supermarket shelves, it comes from fructose that has been extracted from sugar beets, sugar cane or corn.  The fibre and the nutrients are removed and the amounts of this refined sugar that are then added to processed foods are usually too high for our bodies to deal with.  Fructose is metabolised by our liver.  When it’s released into the blood our pancreas must produce insulin to deal with it.  But the pancreas quickly becomes overwhelmed and our blood sugar rises quickly.  The sugar is shoved into the fat cells to be dealt with another time and this usually starts to show up around our tummies.  When our children get too much sugar they start to develop a ‘sugar-belly’ similar to an adult ‘beer-belly’ (which comes from the excess sugar in alcohol).  This is a clear sign of excess sugar in the diet.  Over time, this will lead to liver disease, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer and possibly Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is an inflammatory disease, sometimes referred to as type 3 diabetes and it’s referred to as this because it routinely follows type 2 diabetes.

“ We know that if you get pre-diabetes then you’ll get pre-dementia or mild cognitive impairment.  We know that what’s driving this is inflammation.  Inflammation is caused by insulin resistance which is caused by eating too much sugar.  There are clear linkages between eating too much sugar and Alzheimer’s disease”  Mark Hyman MD

Where is all this sugar coming from and how much is enough?

Most of the sugar in our diets comes from fizzy drinks and refined carbs such as breakfast cereals, white flour, white bread, biscuits, cakes, white rice and pasta.  All these are made with refined flour and this has the same effect as pure sugar on our systems and contributes to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease later in life.  Sugar and refined carbs have a dramatic and quick effect, raising our blood sugar levels.  If this happens  regularly it will lead to insulin resistance and in turn to chronic inflammation.  “Inflammation is the root cause of every chronic disease including Alzheimer’s disease”  Sara Gottfried, MD,  and it happens in our organs and in our blood vessels, it promotes diabetes and heart disease and it goes to our brains.

One average size fizzy drink has about 35gm of sugar.  That’s just about the daily maximum total sugar intake from all sources for an adult male.  For an adult woman it’s 28gm and for children over 8 it’s 24gm and under 8 it’s 19gm.   So if you are allowing your kids a can of soda per day then you are putting them at risk of chronic disease later in life.

Diet drinks are no better because they contain artificial sweeteners that damage our gut microbiome, cause inflammation and can make diabetes worse.  They are toxins to our system and should be avoided.

The path to chronic disease starts very early in life.  There are children as young as 7 and 8 that are already obese and have plaque build-up in their arteries.  So the younger we start on a path to good health the better.  By the same token, it’s never too late to start either.  Our bodies have amazing recuperative properties if given the right ingredients.  Reversal of type 2 diabetes and cognitive decline is possible by making changes to our lifestyles such as exercising regularly, reducing sugar and refined carbs dramatically and eating a healthy, predominately plant based diet rich in whole grains, healthy fats such as salt-free nuts, seeds, avocados, natural yogurt, oily fish and plenty of fruit and vegetables.

Remember,  the sugar that’s in fruit and vegetables, naturally occurring fructose, does not fall into the same category as the refined added sugar.    When we eat a piece of fruit or vegetables the fructose comes naturally wrapped in fibre and antioxidants and does not cause the spike in insulin that refined sugar does and is not damaging to our health or our waistlines for that matter.  Eat fruit and vegetables regularly and with every meal.  They bestow enormous health benefits and most of us do not eat nearly enough.  New research suggests that we should be eating close to 10 portions of fruit and vegetables daily.

Changing our lifestyles will help us reduce inflammation and improve our health, especially our brain health.  Every little thing we do every day counts.  We have the power to be healthier, stronger, more active and free of chronic disease.  It’s never too early or too late to start taking care of our brains.

Neil Hogan

The Center for Healthy Ageing

Everyone is at risk for Alzheimer’s disease and there is no cure or remedy for it. But you are the captain of your own ship.  Don’t wait for the symptoms of cognitive impairment to show before you take action.  You can impact your brain every moment of every day of your life.  “Everything you do will either make or break your brain” according to Ayesha Sherzai, M.D., Director of the Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Alzheimer’s disease is not down to the roll of the dice; we determine it by our actions.  Be active in preventing it.

Preventing Alzheimer’s disease           

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) now effects about 50 million people worldwide and this figure is set to triple in the next 30 years. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7346354/

Looking back 30-40 years AD was very rare, relatively unheard of and found only in those who lived very long lives, but now symptoms are starting to appear with people in their 50’s and it is set to become the 3rd biggest killer in the world.  It has also replaced cancer and heart disease as the disease most feared by people as they age. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-01-people-alzheimer-years-symptoms.html

There is much to fear because as modern medicine has developed better procedures and better drugs to keep those with chronic disease alive for longer the risk of getting AD has increased.  At the moment 10% of people will develop it in their 60′s while with those who last into their 80′s the likelihood of developing it increases to 50%.  With lifespans increasing, especially as treatment for other diseases improve, many can now expect to live into their 80′s and so will likely develop AD or will have a family member that does.

Does it have to be like this? Is AD inevitable then or is there a way to avoid it? Can we take any preventative measures to reduce our risk or even delay the onset of the symptoms?

Most people I come across would say “no” and still believe that AD is genetic and that there is little that can be done to prevent it.  It also seems to be  accepted by many that the disease only begins when the symptoms first occur.  However, nothing could be further from the truth in both of these cases.  Only about 10% of the population are at a genetic risk of developing AD, and even they can reduce their risk by the leading a healthy lifestyle.  For those with no genetic risk, lifestyle and daily choices are the driving force behind the disease.  

Prevention of disease is always better than a cure and this is particularly so with AD because firstly, there is no cure and more importantly it takes years of neurological damage to build up before symptoms ever begin to show and once they do there is no medication that can reverse it.  According to Alzheimer’s Research UK AD begins 30-40 years before symptoms ever appear.  The amyloid beta plaque build-up and intercellular tau tangles that are found at the advanced stage of the disease start to accumulate while in our 30’s and slowly build.  This plaque build-up eventually blocks the neuronal signals causing these memory black spots that are all too common.

The reason this plaque build-up starts in our 30′s is because this is when the typical ageing process usually begins.  We have finished growing and now start the downward trajectory.  The downward line though, can be steep or it can be slow and gradual and that is up to us and the way we choose to live our lives.

So how do we slow this downward trajectory and delay or prevent the onset of chronic diseases such as AD?  Well, according to Dr. David Katz, MD, founder of the Preventative Medicine Research Center at the University of Yale,  “In common with the other major chronic diseases that plague modern society, Alzheimer’s disease is overwhelmingly preventable with an application of lifestyle as medicine”

Well if lifestyle is the answer then that’s easy to change, right?  Not!

As Jim Rohn, the great motivational speaker used to say, “if it’s easy to do it’s also easy not to do”, and that’s the problem.  Simple things are too easy not to do.  It’s too easy to watch TV instead of going for a walk.  It’s too easy to eat something unhealthy rather than something healthy.  At every choice there are easy options and unfortunately for many the easy option is often the unhealthy one, but it doesn’t have to be.  With a little more knowledge and a greater understanding of the health benefits many would find that taking the healthy option could become easier.

What are these so-called healthy options?

According to Drs. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai, co-directors of the Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center, and authors of ‘The Alzheimer’s Solution’,  the majority of all cases of AD are preventable, and in many cases symptoms are reversible through lifestyle changes.

Drs. Sherzai carried out a study of over 3000 people and found that those who ate a plant based diet had the highest levels of cognitive function, higher than those on a fish based diet, which in turn was higher than those on an omnivore diet.  “If people truly live a healthy lifestyle, 90% should be able to avoid Alzheimer’s within their normal lifespan”, they concluded.  When asked what they meant by a truly healthy lifestyle they gave several behaviours and habits that have a significant impact on cognitive function.  

Firstly, came nutrition, citing numerous studies that supported a whole-food, plant based diet, with a particular emphasis on leafy greens and beans, as being protective for brain health in general and AD and stroke in particular.  

Second was exercise, especially when it came to AD and vascular dementia. Intensive aerobic exercise has been shown to reduce our risk of AD by as much as 40%.

Next came relaxation.  Taking time to unwind and reduce ‘bad’ stress which is toxic to our whole systems.  

The next important behaviour that helps prevent AD is staying social and keeping up contact with friends and family.

Also important is continued learning.  As part of this there needs to be some form of cognitive complexity together with a purpose such as volunteering, managing a project, attending language classes, maybe playing card games with friends or learning to play a music instrument.  

And finally came sleep.  A minimum of 7-8 hours of good quality sleep.  Very important for brain health as it’s during deep sleep that memories are formed and consolidated and also when metabolic waste that has accumulated over the day is washed away before it gets the chance to build up and clump together to cause blockages.

These lifestyle changes are not only protective against AD but also against many of the other chronic diseases that plague society including ageing in general. They are basic healthy living principles and they apply to everyone who is interested in preventing disease and increasing their healthy lifespan.

It is a fact that diet, sleep patterns, circadian rhythm, exercise and stress levels are directly linked to neurodegenerative diseases and specifically Alzheimer’s disease. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7093326/

Now that you know don’t just sit back watching chronic disease approach like a slow train wreck.  Do something to prevent it while you still can because once you start on the first medications for blood pressure or type 2 diabetes it becomes very hard to come off them and they always have side effects that require other medications.  Start choosing the healthy options and divert that approaching train that is chronic disease.

Neil Hogan