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Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

medicalxpress.com

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Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: how? I've never seen anyone who's obese and having a diet that made me go "huh that's odd how can they be obese?" While the inverse occasionally has been true, generally people who I consider in good shape appear to eat less, and less greasy food. So while there might be exceptions it seems to be a damn good rule of thumb to me.

> I've never seen anyone who's obese and having a diet that made me go "huh that's odd how can they be obese?" Your question isn't refuting OPs claim: the people you are observing to be fat are fat because of their carb/sugar intake, not fat. i.e. if you just fed someone large amounts of protein and fat they would be lean; it is the sugar and carbs that make them fat.

> if you just fed someone large amounts of protein and fat they would be lean;

A large amount of protein would make them fat - experiments have shown that about 8% of ingested protein gets converted to glucose in the liver:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3636610/

    The authors calculated that ∼18 g (79%) of the 23 g of ingested protein could be accounted for by deamination; thus those carbon skeletons were available for gluconeogenesis and release of new glucose into the circulation. The remainder, presumably, was used for new protein synthesis.

    The total amount of glucose entering the circulation from all sources was calculated to be 50 g over the 8-h period. However, only 4 g (8%) could be attributed to the ingested protein.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#122
post #113

As a former Alzheimer's researcher, this is a big fucking deal. It puts together a lot of clues (APOE risk, microglia) and finds a theory that makes a lot of sense. All around the world, there are labs pulling late nights trying to figure out how to drug this.

> All around the world, there are labs pulling late nights trying to figure out how to drug this. I dont know why, but I've been under the impression for years that it was fat build-up. I remember I saw images of alzheimer brains with clogged arteries. Sure drugging would be nice, but why not figure out what in our modern diet and habits is responsible for this? Why not tell people that the insane amount of oils/fats…

You are assuming this is a modern disease? Why?

Folks have had different sorts of dementia for centuries, though. We simply didn't have the knowledge nor the tools to differentiate one from another and tended to call things by different names.

Not as many people die young now, either, so more folks are actually getting diseases that present in old age. You can't observe many old folks if there aren't any, and you won't notice as many diseases that hit mostly women if a lot of women die in childbirth.

And a note: Food of yesteryear wasn't really better/healthier than now. It was different, more risky, and for most folks, was just made of whatever they happen to have and not very varied.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#123

As a former Alzheimer's researcher, this is a big fucking deal. It puts together a lot of clues (APOE risk, microglia) and finds a theory that makes a lot of sense. All around the world, there are labs pulling late nights trying to figure out how to drug this.

Silly question, but could this be aided by simply reducing body fat down to extremely low levels?

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#124
post #113

As a former Alzheimer's researcher, this is a big fucking deal. It puts together a lot of clues (APOE risk, microglia) and finds a theory that makes a lot of sense. All around the world, there are labs pulling late nights trying to figure out how to drug this.

> All around the world, there are labs pulling late nights trying to figure out how to drug this. I dont know why, but I've been under the impression for years that it was fat build-up. I remember I saw images of alzheimer brains with clogged arteries. Sure drugging would be nice, but why not figure out what in our modern diet and habits is responsible for this? Why not tell people that the insane amount of oils/fats…

[deleted]

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#125
post #123

As a former Alzheimer's researcher, this is a big fucking deal. It puts together a lot of clues (APOE risk, microglia) and finds a theory that makes a lot of sense. All around the world, there are labs pulling late nights trying to figure out how to drug this.

Silly question, but could this be aided by simply reducing body fat down to extremely low levels?

This is not a silly question, might be one of the most important questions for those of us who are going to live long enough.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#126
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans are bad at lipogenesis: we can only convert tiny fraction of the carbs into fat. Thus: the fat your eat is largely the fat you wear. You cannot explain it otherwise (without showing a undiscoverd way humans can convert carbs into fat). > i.e. if you just fed someone large amounts of protein and fat they would be lean; it is the sugar and carbs that make them fat. This is dangerous. It may work on the short ter…

High fat and protein is keto right? What's so dangerous?

Ketosis is probably our rudimentary "wintersleep mode". Rudimentary as we are basically tropical animals (look at our lack of fur).

We should not eat for ketosis. But we can eat (restricted to fat and protein) and still stay in ketosis, which is marketed as the keto diet and is not well tested in long term studies. You are a guinea pig when you do this long term.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#127
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've never seen anyone who's obese and having a diet that made me go "huh that's odd how can they be obese?" Your question isn't refuting OPs claim: the people you are observing to be fat are fat because of their carb/sugar intake, not fat. i.e. if you just fed someone large amounts of protein and fat they would be lean; it is the sugar and carbs that make them fat.

Humans are bad at lipogenesis: we can only convert tiny fraction of the carbs into fat. Thus: the fat your eat is largely the fat you wear. You cannot explain it otherwise (without showing a undiscoverd way humans can convert carbs into fat). > i.e. if you just fed someone large amounts of protein and fat they would be lean; it is the sugar and carbs that make them fat. This is dangerous. It may work on the short ter…

> Humans are bad at lipogenesis: we can only convert tiny fraction of the carbs into fat.

Because historically food is scarce or difficult to obtain, in general organisms develop mechanisms to make good use of it: when excess food ("energy") is available, it is stored rather than wasted.

This is also true in particular for mammals, and for humans. It's quite obvious that humans are very effective at storing excess energy.

It is said that sumo fighters maintain their body mass (muscle + lots of fat) by eating rice (i.e. carbohydrates) and protein.

Lipogenesis (fat generation from carbohydrates) takes place mostly in the liver. "Excess acetyl CoA generated from excess glucose or carbohydrate ingestion can be used for fatty acid synthesis or lipogenesis."

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ap2/chapter/lipid-met...

The conclusion being: "Humans are great at lipogenesis. That's how we store excess energy."

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#129
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All around the world, there are labs pulling late nights trying to figure out how to drug this. I dont know why, but I've been under the impression for years that it was fat build-up. I remember I saw images of alzheimer brains with clogged arteries. Sure drugging would be nice, but why not figure out what in our modern diet and habits is responsible for this? Why not tell people that the insane amount of oils/fats…

You are assuming this is a modern disease? Why? Folks have had different sorts of dementia for centuries, though. We simply didn't have the knowledge nor the tools to differentiate one from another and tended to call things by different names. Not as many people die young now, either, so more folks are actually getting diseases that present in old age. You can't observe many old folks if there aren't any, and you won…

It's not a modern disease, it simply has exploded in occurrence. This explosion is modern. This is likely due to our diet. There's a book called "the blue zones" that dives into healthy diets and lifestyles that have historically helped people grow old.

> Food of yesteryear wasn't really better/healthier than now.

Not all food was. But Okinawans do pretty well for a long, long time.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#130
post #127
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans are bad at lipogenesis: we can only convert tiny fraction of the carbs into fat. Thus: the fat your eat is largely the fat you wear. You cannot explain it otherwise (without showing a undiscoverd way humans can convert carbs into fat). > i.e. if you just fed someone large amounts of protein and fat they would be lean; it is the sugar and carbs that make them fat. This is dangerous. It may work on the short ter…

> Humans are bad at lipogenesis: we can only convert tiny fraction of the carbs into fat. Because historically food is scarce or difficult to obtain, in general organisms develop mechanisms to make good use of it: when excess food ("energy") is available, it is stored rather than wasted. This is also true in particular for mammals, and for humans. It's quite obvious that humans are very effective at storing excess en…

Nope. If humans eat both carbs and fat (most of us do), the excess calories of fat goes mainly into the storage (or plaques to your arteries), while the carbs are used in the sort term (converted into glucose).

> Lipogenesis is mostly derived from carbohydrates and is a relatively minor contributor to whole-body lipid stores, contributing 1–3% of the total fat balance in humans consuming a typical diet.

From:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biolog...

Believe what you will. "It is said" wrt sumo fighters does not sound very scientific.

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