Part 2=More Tips for Avoiding Alzheimer’s Disease
The beauty of following a healthy diet is that it helps treat and prevent all chronic degenerative diseases, from the common ones like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer’s to the ones you have never heard of or can’t even pronounce.
The first step is to eat healthy, maintaining exercise balanced with rest and practice healthy habits in addressing Alzheimer’s disease, which is currently at epidemic proportions, with 5.4 million Americans – including one in eight people aged 65 and over – living with the disease. By 2050, this is expected to jump to 16 million, and in the next 20 years it is projected that Alzheimer’s will affect one in four Americans. People we need to live healthier if not to help ourselves our future young ones.
In spite of how common memory loss is among Westerners, it is NOT a “normal” part of aging. While even mild “senior moments” may be caused by the same brain lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, these cognitive changes are by no means inevitable! People who experience very little decline in their cognitive function up until their deaths have been found (post-mortem) to be free of brain lesions, showing that it’s entirely possible to prevent the damage from occurring in the first place and one of the best ways to do this is by leading a healthy lifestyle.
- Fructose. As mentioned, most everyone will benefit from keeping their total fructose consumed to below 25 grams per day.
- Improve Magnesium Levels. There is some exciting preliminary research strongly suggesting a decrease in Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of magnesium in the brain. Unfortunately most magnesium supplements do not pass the blood brain levels, but a new one, magnesium threonate, appears to and holds some promise for the future for treating this condition.
- Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun exposure. Strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer’s patients and poor outcomes on cognitive tests have been revealed. Researchers believe that optimal vitamin D levels may enhance the amount of important chemicals in your brain and protect brain cells by increasing the effectiveness of the glial cells in nursing damaged neurons back to health.
Vitamin D may also exert some of its beneficial effects on Alzheimer’s through its anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties. Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation that is also associated with Alzheimer’s.
- Vitamin B12: According to a small Finnish study recently published in the journal Neurology,people who consume foods rich in B12 may reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s in their later years. For each unit increase in the marker of vitamin B12 (holotranscobalamin) the risk of developing Alzheimer’s was reduced by 2 percent. Very high doses of B vitamins have also been found to treat Alzheimer’s disease and reduce memory loss.
- Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate. Vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day.
- High-quality animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. (I recommend avoiding most fish because, although fish is naturally high in omega-3, most fish are now severely contaminated with mercury.) High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA help by preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease, thereby slowing down its progression, and lowering your risk of developing the disorder.
- Avoid and remove mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50% mercury by weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity, however you should be healthy prior to having them removed.
- Avoid aluminum, such as antiperspirants, non-stick cookware, vaccine adjuvants, etc.
- Exercise regularly. It’s been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized, thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha. Research has also shown that people with Alzheimer’s have less PGC-1alpha in their brains and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer’s. I would strongly recommend reviewing the Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
- Avoid flu vaccinations as most contain both mercury and aluminum, well-known neurotoxic and immunotoxic agents.
- Eat plenty of blueberries. Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content, are known to guard against Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.
- Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
- Avoid anticholinergic and statin drugs. Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers.
Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of coenzyme Q10 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein.
The foods we eat that has calories, sugars, starches, carbohydrates and some fats are made up of sugar molecules either single or in groups (glucose and fructose for instance). When food reaches our stomach in time digestion starts to take place where the sugar is broken down in the stomach and the intestines into individual glucose units. It turns out glucose is the most common and important one. The glucose then passes into the liver where 60 to 80 % gets stored=inactive glucose that’s converted to glycogen in this organ. The remainder of glucose not stored goes in our bloodstream=active sugar & is ready to be utilized by the body where it is needed by many organs. It’s used as the principle source of energy (brain for energy, the muscles for both energy and some storage, liver for more glucose storage=that’s converted to glycogen, and even fat tissue using it for triglyceride production). Glucose does get sent to other organs for more storage. Insulin plays an important role in the glucose being distributed throughout the body. Without insulin the glucose has nowhere to go. When digestion occurs a process happens = Breakdown of the sugars , released into the circulatory system which gives you extra glucose, than the pancreas senses that and releases insulin, the insulin allows sugar to pass into the blood cells & to be stored somewhere or utilized by the body (without this process hyperglycemia would occur, like in a diabetic). When the glucose in the blood reaches the liver a cell sensor picks it up and allows the glucose to go into the organ where glucose is stored as glycogen. Insulin plays a key role in multiple parts of your metabolism. Insulin allows protein synthesis, fat synthesis and cell growth to occur in the body. Now understanding how the body works lets understand how this has anything to do with controlling obesity.
When you eat a meal let’s say breakfast (fasting from the night before) your sugar level in a normal person is about 80. After the meal in 1hr the sugar level starts peaking as soon as the pancreas senses glucose it starts releasing insulin that does its storage in the different ways previously discussed and by 2 hrs after the meal the glucose level is down again but in people eating 3 large hyperglycemic meals a day you cause these spikes in your glucose levels and are turning on insulin by the pancreas which stimulates up your FAT STORAGE system. You need to make a change in that diet by eating 6 small low glycemic meals a day (have one meal every 2 to 3 hours). This shuts down your fat storage. When eating low glycemic foods like lentils they raise sugar in the body 28% (slightly) as opposed to high glycemic (sugar) foods like pizza, soda, bread, cornflakes. Your body can handle high glycemic foods occasionally but not daily since it will allow constant high levels of glucose with the pancreas stimulated to frequently release insulin into the bloodstream and this turns on fat storage and converts all extra energy to FAT. This extra energy is because the meal was high glucose and what the body needed was used but the excess glucose from the high glycemic meals goes to FAT storage=weight.
So what’s the key resolution to weight loss eat 6 low glycemic meals a day= low fat, low carbohydrates, low sugar keeping your baseline glucose and the metabolism of the body at a low sugar level and steady rate on a regular basis with still treating yourself to occasional high glycemic meals, when your body weight is therapeutic. Follow this plan and in the first week eating like this I lost 5lbs and in the second week another 5lbs and since 1 to 2 lbs. per week . Remember don’t start occasional high glycemic meals till you reach your ideal weight that you want to be at. If you don’t, you put your diet back 2-3 days. To learn more about healthy habits in your life with diet, some exercise, and how to reach your ideal weight like I am almost at come to my website. I lost 22lbs already and I’m not obese by the body mass index. Join me and go to healthyusa.tsfl.com. No charge, no fee, no gimmick, no donations and no hacking. It’s just you obtaining information about how to live your life healthier, even your family or friends (if interested) who can get involved in being healthier with you possibly spreading this great news to make a healthier USA for all age groups. Thank you for your time and I hope I have spread some light on someone. When I made this a routine in my life it got so EASY! Take a peek;) at healthyusa.tsfl.com.; you may just like what you see.