Diabetes Diagnosis Before Age 60 Triples Dementia Risk

Diabetes does terrible things to your brain. The earlier in life a person develops type 2 diabetes, the greater their risk of dementia. Individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes before they turn 60 are almost three times more likely to develop dementia than those without diabetes. This finding comes from a longitudinal community based study. Epidemiologists in the US have also found that dementia risk declines as the age of diabetes onset increases, with a risk of 73 percent and 23 percent for individuals in the 60 to 69 and 70 to 79 age groups, respectively.

The study authors have said, “Taken together, our findings suggest that preventing pre-diabetes progression, especially in younger individuals, may be an important way to reduce the dementia burden.” Dementia is definitely an increasing burden in almost all countries of the world. It is becoming a leading cause of death.

How diabetes harms the brain

Most type 2 diabetics are overweight at the time of diagnosis, and they continue to gain weight as they get older. Sometimes they don’t look very overweight, but if you did a scan of their torso, you’d find they carry a lot of deep internal fat called visceral fat. This type of fat produces inflammatory chemicals that cause wear and tear to all parts of the body, including the brain.

Several studies have shown that overweight people are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. In time, dementia patients usually lose weight and can become quite slim, but when the disease first develops, most patients are overweight. The brain is mostly composed of fat, and fat is most at risk from free radical damage. Diabetes causes high blood sugar. Sugar is sticky and it can adhere to proteins in the brain, causing them to tangle and damaging them. High blood sugar also creates a lot of wear and tear in the body. Most overweight diabetics have high blood pressure and it is also a risk factor for dementia. People with high blood pressure are at risk of mini strokes in their brains, which creates areas of dead tissue due to impaired blood circulation.

Protect your brain from diabetes

Try not to develop type 2 diabetes in the first place. If you have been diagnosed with insulin resistance, it is also known as pre diabetes. In the majority of cases following a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and maintaining an ideal body weight can prevent this disease. There is a great deal of information about this topic in our book called Diabetes Type 2 You Can Reverse It Naturally. The herbs Gymnema Sylvestre and bitter melon are excellent for helping to maintain healthy blood sugar, as are the minerals chromium and magnesium. If you are a diabetic you would greatly benefit from a formula combining all of these, such as Glicemic Balance capsules. By balancing blood sugar, they help reduce hunger and cravings for carbs, making it easier to stick to a healthy diet.

Improve your brain health

The book called Alzheimer’s: What you must know to protect your brain describes my recommendations in detail. I recommend the following diet strategies:

Increase oily fish (such as salmon, sardines, mackerel, trout etc). You may benefit from a fish oil supplement if you don’t regularly consume oily fish. Coconut oil and flesh is excellent for the brain.

Eat foods high in sulfur (such as eggs, onions, beans and garlic) which help to rid the body of heavy metals.

Choline protects the brain. It is a precursor of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and is found in egg yolks and liver.

Avoid damaged fats such as those in seed oils and margarines and hydrogenated vegetable oils, as these fats have a deleterious effect on all cell membranes.

Increase your consumption of raw vegetables and raw juices to provide extra folic acid and Vitamin C to protect your brain cells from free radicals and to improve the cerebral circulation. Recommended juice recipes combine some of the following : parsley, spinach, garlic, carrot, orange and lemon to improve the circulation and detoxify the body. Other juice recipes may be found in the book Raw Juices Can Save Your Life.