This suggestion may help some people. In the long run. Unfortunately, George Monbiot who wrote the article says he has had the greatest difficulty understanding some of the research so I reckon most of us will have to take it on trust for the time being.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/10/alzheimers-junk-food-catastrophic-effect
My worry would be that, whilst the suggested cause could well be applicable in some cases, or at least be a contributory factor, one can see how all people with dementia might be branded as consumers of junk food. Blaming the victim is all too common in matters of health, particularly where the media are concerned.
I think the damage that junk foods diets cause is related to hyperglycaemia that leads to inflammation in the brain.
ReplyDeleteThe Lymme disease you mention produces Inflammatory brain changes as does Tamoxifen and Herpes
What happens when the brain becomes inflamed is that IRON is released from blood and that cause oxidative damage.
I think it's likely that the reason Vitamin D3, Omega 3, Melatonin, Curcumin are linked to a lower incidence of dementia is because they are anti inflammatory and/or act as iron chelators. (Bind with iron to stop it behaving badly)
Foods that have both wheat,and vegetable oils can become addictive because they cause our brains to release endocannabinoids see Tricks Foods Play What you eat may fool your brain into packing on the pounds and because people become addicted to these foods (and they are a normal typical part of most diets see any Care Home menu). I'm not sure it would be fair to restrict these foods (biscuit/cakes for example) the diet of someone with dementia? It may do some good in the early stages or ideally before but I think when the cascade is well under way and a diagnosis has been made it's probably far too late for diet to make a lot of difference though of course preventing any unnecessary inflammation and to reduce chronic infection or pain improving anti inflammatory status may be helpful.
My Mom and dad lived in the country and home did home cooking; no junk food. However, she did cook with bacon grease and lots of homemade bread biscuits, etc. We always had a meat, 2 veggies, a starch and bread for a meal. Dad got diabetes at age 40 and had it 42 years, very brittle, and mother cooked only foods that were good for his diaabetes during those years. He died 7 years ago. The fact that mother has vascular dementia I do not think in any way is because of junk food, but it could be related to the bacon grease. It would clog your arteries, thus brining on vascular dementia.
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