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   Key Dietary Strategies to Protect Yourself from Alzheimer's    
   April 27, 2014 | 449,984 views    
      
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   By Dr. Mercola    
      
      
   Alzheimer's disease has become nothing short of epidemic in the US. Could it   
   be that some commonly eaten foods are the primary culprit? According to   
   neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter, author of the book Grain Brain, your diet   
   has major implications for    
   your Alzheimer's risk.    
      
   Grain Brain has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for six months   
   now, which is unusual for a health book. He has also been on a few PBS   
   specials. Dr. Perlmutter is also the editor-in-chief of a brand new   
   Harvard-based journal called Brain and    
   Gut, slated to come out next year.    
      
   He came to the conclusion that brain dysfunction is rooted in a flawed diet,   
   particularly our modern-day high-grain diet, after scouring the medical   
   literature looking for clues to the underlying cause.    
      
   He'd grown weary of treating his patients' symptoms, and wanted to get to the   
   bottom of the problem. As it turns out, the scientific literature is actually   
   replete with information telling us that, yes, diet plays a crucial role in   
   brain function. He    
   says:    
      
   "What we've crystallized it down to now, in essence, is that diets that are   
   high in sugar and carbohydrates, and similarly diets that are low in fat, are   
   devastating to the brain.    
      
   When you have a diet that has carbohydrates in it, you are paving the way for   
   Alzheimer's disease. I want to be super clear about that. Dietary   
   carbohydrates lead to Alzheimer's disease.It's a pretty profound statement,   
   but it's empowering nonetheless    
   when we realize that we control our diet. We control our choices, whether to   
   favor fat or carbohydrates."    
      
   High-Carb Diets Associated with 89 Percent Increased Risk for Dementia    
      
   As just one example, he cites research from the Mayo Clinic, published in the   
   Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, which found that diets rich in carbohydrates   
   are associated with an 89 percent increased risk for dementia. Meanwhile,   
   high-fat diets are    
   associated with a 44 percent reduced risk.    
      
   Clearly, with Alzheimer's disease now hot in the tracks behind heart disease   
   and cancer as one of the top three killers in the US, we really need to pay   
   attention to such findings.    
      
   "[T]here is absolutely no treatment for Alzheimer's disease. And yet,   
   according to Dr. Deborah Barnes, publishing in the journal Lancet Neurology,   
   more than half the cases of Alzheimer's disease today - 54 percent - could   
   have been prevented had people    
   gotten this information," he says.    
      
   Fortunately, even if you're already having "senior moments," you can turn back   
   the clock, as it were. You can regenerate cells in your brain's memory center.   
   This occurs through a process called neurogenesis.    
      
   According to Dr. Perlmutter, the evidence clearly shows that high-carb diets   
   and elevation of blood sugar is directly related to shrinkage of your brain's   
   memory center. And when your hippocampus--your memory center--shrinks, your   
   memory declines.    
      
   "That is the harbinger for Alzheimer's disease," Dr. Perlmutter says. "It's   
   the first place you look on a brain scan. But here is why we're having this   
   conversation today: (1) it is preventable and (2) more importantly, it's   
   reversible."    
      
   Saturated Fats Are a Critical Part of a Heart- and Brain-Healthy Diet    
      
   Like myself, Dr. Perlmutter has been talking about the benefits of saturated   
   fat for a long time. Conversely, for well over half a century, the media and a   
   majority of health care officials have warned that saturated fats are bad for   
   your health and lead    
   to a host of negative consequences, including high cholesterol, obesity, and   
   heart disease.    
      
   There's little doubt that this wholly inappropriate fat phobia has had a lot   
   to do with our burgeoning Alzheimer's epidemic. Fortunately, the importance of   
   these healthy fats is starting to become more widely recognized. One of the   
   largest meta-analyses1,   
    2, 3 to date, included data from more than 600,000 people from 18 countries.    
      
   The study concluded that current evidence does NOT support guidelines that   
   encourage low consumption of saturated fat for heart health. Saturated fats,   
   which have the longest history of being (wrongfully) demonized, were in fact   
   found to have NO adverse    
   effect on heart disease risk.    
      
   "We've been led down the wrong road," Dr. Perlmutter says. "[Saturated] fat is   
   your friend. You desperately need fat. You desperately need to have good   
   cholesterol in your body. That war on cholesterol is a perversion of the   
   science that was even used to    
   tell us we should stop eating foods with cholesterol...    
      
   We know quite well that in elderly individuals, for example, those in the   
   highest level of blood cholesterol have about a 70 percent risk reduction for   
   becoming demented. These are the things that are good for the heart. They're   
   good for the immune    
   system. Cholesterol is the precursor of vitamin D, progesterone, estrogen,   
   testosterone, and cortisol...This is probably one of the reasons why statin   
   drugs are so damaging. You lower cholesterol, and you set the stage for things   
   that are very, very    
   worrisome."    
      
   Diabetes Doubles Your Risk of Alzheimer's    
      
   Dr. Perlmutter cites a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine,   
   which found that women who are given cholesterol-lowering statin medication   
   have a 44 percent increased risk for becoming a type 2 diabetic. Diabetes, in   
   turn, doubles your risk    
   for Alzheimer's disease.    
      
   Our ancestral diet was very high in saturated fats and virtually void of   
   non-vegetable carbohydrates. Today, not only do we eat tremendous amounts of   
   carbohydrates, these carbs are refined and highly processed. In the last   
   decade, we've also shifted over    
   to genetically engineered grains and sugar (GMO sugar beets and corn).    
      
   At present, you have close to a 50/50 chance of developing Alzheimer's disease   
   if you live to be 85 years old, according to Dr. Perlmutter. His mission is to   
   radically shift those odds, by giving people like yourself the information you   
   need to avoid    
   being one of the unlucky ones destined to die without your mental faculties   
   intact.    
      
   Alzheimer's Is Directly Related to Elevated Blood Sugar Levels    
      
      
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