Is Diet-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Type 3 Diabetes?
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Is Diet-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Type 3 Diabetes?
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Re: Is Diet-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Type 3 Diabetes?
#2Is diet-induced (or even diet-associated) Alzheimer's Disease a proven phenomenon in the first place? The article seems to be pretty speculative on the whole thing, and I'm under the impression that the research on lifestyle risk factors is quite inconclusive (e.g. risk factors show up in ecological studies but produce no significant difference in controlled intervention trials).
Re: Is Diet-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Type 3 Diabetes?
#3I'm willing to consider that Alzheimer's Disease may be affected by diet, but this article seems awfully slim on real data and in one instance seems to diverge from actual experimental results.
They claim that Type-2 diabetes and AD are "exacerbated by high fat diets", but the link with regards to the diabetes study specifies diet-induced obesity, not "high fat" diet. Dietary fat has much less effect on blood glucose levels than carbohydrates, so insulin's role is markedly decreased.
Re: Is Diet-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Type 3 Diabetes?
#4Is diet-induced (or even diet-associated) Alzheimer's Disease a proven phenomenon in the first place? The article seems to be pretty speculative on the whole thing, and I'm under the impression that the research on lifestyle risk factors is quite inconclusive (e.g. risk factors show up in ecological studies but produce no significant difference in controlled intervention trials).
>I'm under the impression that the research on lifestyle risk factors is quite inconclusive
Alzheimer's Disease Is Type 3 Diabetes–Evidence Reviewed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/
Conclusions: "Altogether, the results from these studies provide strong evidence in support of the hypothesis that AD represents a form of diabetes mellitus that selectively afflicts the brain."
Re: Is Diet-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Type 3 Diabetes?
#5Is diet-induced (or even diet-associated) Alzheimer's Disease a proven phenomenon in the first place? The article seems to be pretty speculative on the whole thing, and I'm under the impression that the research on lifestyle risk factors is quite inconclusive (e.g. risk factors show up in ecological studies but produce no significant difference in controlled intervention trials).
There is evidence of the neuroprotective effects of a ketogenic diet (low carb, moderate protein, very high fat) [1][2]. The original formulation of the ketogenic diet was for epilepsy, after all [3].
The dogma for decades has been that the brain needs glucose to function. A highly simplified and inaccurate explanation of Alzheimer's is that the brain has diminished capacity to use glucose.
Luckily, the body has an alternate fuel source: ketones. The problem is most people never enter ketosis, where the body is depleted of glycogen and resorts to converting fat to ketone bodies.
[1]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2367001/
Re: Is Diet-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Type 3 Diabetes?
#6It's really important to not forget the genetic factors at play in Alzheimer's. Between 65-80% of all Alzheimer's patients have at least one genetic version of the ApoE4 allele, a genotype found in around 25% of the population [1]. ApoE is made in astrocytes and is involved in cholesterol transport to neurons and in repairing damage done to neurons that occurs with normal aging. That isn't to say there isn't a dietary link or that critical lifestyle factors don't interact with these genetics, however! Insulin resistance leads to inflammation (which has been shown to accelerate brain aging) and may be one way in which type 2 diabetes is linked with Alzheimer's. I think calling Alzheimer's disease "type 3 diabetes" may be a somewhat dramatic oversimplification and a bit misleading, though, since the mechanism would be a bit more general (in this case).
Re: Is Diet-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Type 3 Diabetes?
#7Is diet-induced (or even diet-associated) Alzheimer's Disease a proven phenomenon in the first place? The article seems to be pretty speculative on the whole thing, and I'm under the impression that the research on lifestyle risk factors is quite inconclusive (e.g. risk factors show up in ecological studies but produce no significant difference in controlled intervention trials).
>I'm under the impression that the research on lifestyle risk factors is quite inconclusive Alzheimer's Disease Is Type 3 Diabetes–Evidence Reviewed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/ Conclusions: "Altogether, the results from these studies provide strong evidence in support of the hypothesis that AD represents a form of diabetes mellitus that selectively afflicts the brain."
This seems to be a much better source than the article, but I don't think it's actually claiming to show any clear connection to diet. A high-fat diet is mentioned in the description of a mouse model of type 2 diabetes (which the authors then seem to say didn't actually serve as a good Alzheimer's model), but I don't see the authors actually making a direct case for dietary influence.
The article, by contrast, has a headline worded as though diet-induced Alzheimer's disease is an established phenomenon and the type 3 diabetes hypothesis is a proposed explanation of that phenomenon.
Re: Is Diet-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Type 3 Diabetes?
#8Is diet-induced (or even diet-associated) Alzheimer's Disease a proven phenomenon in the first place? The article seems to be pretty speculative on the whole thing, and I'm under the impression that the research on lifestyle risk factors is quite inconclusive (e.g. risk factors show up in ecological studies but produce no significant difference in controlled intervention trials).
There is evidence of the neuroprotective effects of a ketogenic diet (low carb, moderate protein, very high fat) [1][2]. The original formulation of the ketogenic diet was for epilepsy, after all [3]. The dogma for decades has been that the brain needs glucose to function. A highly simplified and inaccurate explanation of Alzheimer's is that the brain has diminished capacity to use glucose. Luckily, the body has an a…
Blindly encouraging a ketogenic diet can actually be damaging. While the average person slightly benefits from a high-fat, low-carb diet, a small group of people (who have the APOE4 allele) are unable to properly digest fat and thus are greatly harmed by it.
Similarly, light alcohol consumption seems to slightly benefit the majority of people. But, for those with APOE4, it causes significant harm. So, tonic for one group is toxic to another.
It is far better if Alzheimer's treatment is prescribed on a case-by-case basis, based on genetic, environmental, and familial factors. This maximizes the outcomes for all, and not just the average.
Re: Is Diet-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Type 3 Diabetes?
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is evidence of the neuroprotective effects of a ketogenic diet (low carb, moderate protein, very high fat) [1][2]. The original formulation of the ketogenic diet was for epilepsy, after all [3]. The dogma for decades has been that the brain needs glucose to function. A highly simplified and inaccurate explanation of Alzheimer's is that the brain has diminished capacity to use glucose. Luckily, the body has an a…
Blindly encouraging a ketogenic diet can actually be damaging. While the average person slightly benefits from a high-fat, low-carb diet, a small group of people (who have the APOE4 allele) are unable to properly digest fat and thus are greatly harmed by it. Similarly, light alcohol consumption seems to slightly benefit the majority of people. But, for those with APOE4, it causes significant harm. So, tonic for one g…
Do you have sources for those?
I've never heard that.
Re: Is Diet-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Type 3 Diabetes?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is evidence of the neuroprotective effects of a ketogenic diet (low carb, moderate protein, very high fat) [1][2]. The original formulation of the ketogenic diet was for epilepsy, after all [3]. The dogma for decades has been that the brain needs glucose to function. A highly simplified and inaccurate explanation of Alzheimer's is that the brain has diminished capacity to use glucose. Luckily, the body has an a…
Blindly encouraging a ketogenic diet can actually be damaging. While the average person slightly benefits from a high-fat, low-carb diet, a small group of people (who have the APOE4 allele) are unable to properly digest fat and thus are greatly harmed by it. Similarly, light alcohol consumption seems to slightly benefit the majority of people. But, for those with APOE4, it causes significant harm. So, tonic for one g…
So you think apoe4's should eat a high carb diet?