The UltraMind Solution (47 page)

It increases LDL or “bad” cholesterol, lowers HDL or “good” cholesterol, raises triglycerides, and increases your blood pressure. Insulin resistance causes 50 percent of all reported cases of high blood pressure.

It makes your blood sticky and more likely to clot, leading to heart attacks and strokes.

It stimulates the growth of cancer cells.

It increases inflammation and oxidative stress and ages your brain, leading to what is being called type 3 diabetes (also known as Alzheimer’s disease).

It increases homocysteine because sugar consumption decreases B
₆
and folate. That takes the methylation train off the tracks, making it hard for your brain to function and leading to more brain injury.

It also causes sex hormone problems and can lead to infertility; hair growth where you don’t want it (your face if you’re a woman); hair loss where you don’t want to lose it (your head); acne in women; low testosterone, loss of chest, leg, and arm hair, and breast growth in men; and more.

What’s the Research on Insulin and How It Damages Your Brain?

Pioneering new work out of Harvard and Brown universities from Drs. Denis Selkoe and Suzanne de la Monte has proved that insulin resistance (also known as prediabetes) is a major factor in starting the cascade of brain damage that steals the memory of over half of people in their eighties, leading to a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

The reason is that insulin resistance leads to a cascade of damage,
³
which produces the inflammation so characteristic of brain problems, especially dementia. (I will discuss why inflammation affects the brain this way in the next chapter.)

Do You Have Predementia?

You don’t even have to wait until your eighties to start feeling the effects insulin resistance has on your memory. Many people now have what we call
“predementia.”

In fact, you may notice that you have trouble remembering names and numbers. This may be a sign of predementia. While this memory loss could be the effect of stress (we know that the stress hormone, cortisol, destroys and kills the brain cells in the hippocampus responsible for memory), it may also be because of that little extra fat around your middle.

One study of 2,632 men and women over five years published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association
⁴
found that those with metabolic
syndrome (or insulin resistance) and inflammation had dramatic declines in cognitive function.

This is more serious than just forgetting your keys. It is called mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Think of it as a prelude to dementia. What are the personal, social, and medical costs of this silent epidemic?

A
New York Times
report on Alzheimer’s echoed research that makes it clear how powerfully our lifestyle impacts brain aging and how much we can do to reverse it:

For years, the prevailing notion was that Alzheimer’s was a disease of brain-cell death. . . . But now, many researchers are asking if that old hypothesis is correct. If they are right, it may be possible to
stop
Alzheimer’s, and reverse the memory loss, if treatments begin before brain cells die.
⁵

In fact, new brain imaging techniques called PET scans (positron emission tomography), which look not at brain structure like a CT scan or regular MRI but at brain metabolism (cellular function and activity), have found altered and damaged brain function that occurs far in advance of the diagnosis of dementia.
⁶
Some experts say that changes can be identified decades before diagnosis.

This process of decline, which is related to insulin resistance in particular, starts in childhood and adolescence. Given the epidemic of childhood obesity and the fact that we are seeing heart disease in twenty-year-olds, will we soon see an epidemic of Alzheimer’s when (or if) these kids turn forty?

However, insulin resistance doesn’t lead only to cognitive decline, memory impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.

Other Problems Created by Insulin Resistance

It is well known that depression is more common in diabetics, but a Finnish study of young men found that those who had the worst insulin resistance had an almost threefold risk of having severe depression.
⁷

One of my patients, a physician, was morbidly obese and had tried everything from liquid diets to gastric bypass, all of which failed. It wasn’t until he got his insulin under control that he was successful in losing a hundred pounds, but what was more remarkable was the transformation in his mood and his cravings.

We often think cravings are psychological in nature, but just the way a child who is iron deficient may eat dirt, if we are overfed and undernour-
ished with too many empty calories and not enough nutrients, our brains may search for more nutrients.

Food cravings go away almost instantly when the body is back in balance. It is your hormones and nutritional deficiencies that drive your hunger.
⁸

The doctor mentioned above told me that for the first time in his life he was not hungry twenty-four hours a day after we got his body (and specifically his insulin levels) back in balance.

The good news is that all these problems from depression to dementia can be stopped and even reversed if intervention occurs early enough.

Some simple dietary changes, a little exercise, relaxation, and a few supplements can completely correct and reverse insulin resistance and the catastrophic effects it has on the body and the brain.

Balancing blood sugar and correcting insulin resistance are well within our reach, and the effects are dramatic. Major studies have shown that just regular walking is enough to prevent cognitive decline and dementia.
⁹

Scientific advances over the last few decades have given us the tools to prevent, stop, and even reverse cognitive decline and address all the mood disturbances that come with swings in blood sugar and insulin.

While there are some new medications that can help, such as Glucophage and Actos, they have side effects and are only a Band-Aid unless used with a comprehensive nutritional, exercise, and stress management plan that is the foundation of the UltraMind Solution I provide in Part III.

My goal is to make your metabolism more efficient, to make your cells more intelligent and cooperative, not resistant. In other words, you may need much less insulin to accomplish the task of balancing your blood sugar. And your mood and memory may be protected from the mind-robbing effects of insulin and sugar.

Now let’s look at the next hormone on our list—the thyroid.

Thyroid Gland: A Yellow Canar y in a Coal Mine of Environmental Toxins

Do you suffer from a slugglish, low-functioning thyroid? Take the following quiz and find out.

In the box on the right, place a check for each positive answer. Then find out how severe your problem is using the scoring key below.

THYROID QUIZ*
I have thick skin and fingernails.
I have dry skin.
My hair is thinning, I lose hair, or have coarse hair.
I am sensitive to cold.
I have cold hands and feet.
I have muscle fatigue, pain, or weakness.
I have heavy menstrual bleeding, worsening of premenstrual syndrome, other menstrual problems, or infertility.
My sex drive has decreased.
I retain fluid (swelling of hands and feet).
I feel fatigued (especially in the morning).
I have low blood pressure and heart rate.
I have trouble with memory and concentration.
The outer third of my eyebrows are thinning.
I have trouble losing weight or recent weight gain.