BioHax Picks / Brain Health

Dr Mark Hyman has dedicated his life to tackling the root causes of chronic disease through the power of function medicine and believes we all deserve a life of vitality. He is also the Medical Director at Cleveland Clinic’s Centre for Functional Medicine, Fonder of The UltraWellness Centre and a ten-time #1 New York Times Bestselling author.

Dementia is a very big problem that’s becoming bigger every day.

Statistics from the US show 10% of 65-year-olds, 25% of 75-year-olds and 50% of 85-year-olds will get dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. It’s predicted that Alzheimer’s will affect 106 million people by the year 2020 and is the seventh leading cause of death in the world.

Type 3 diabetes is a term used when Alzheimer’s is triggered by insulin resistance in the brain. This condition is used to describe people who have type 2 diabetes and are also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia.

Diabetes itself refers to a condition where the body has difficulty converting sugar to usable energy and there are two other kinds of diabetes:

Type 1 Diabetes - is a chronic health condition in which your body doesn’t produce enough of the hormone insulin. There is currently no cure for diabetes. Neither type 1 (juvenile onset or insulin-requiring) diabetes or type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes ever goes away.

Type 2 Diabetes - is a chronic condition in which your body develops resistance to insulin, and your blood sugar level becomes very high as a result. Both genetics and environmental factors such as being overweight and inactive are contributing factors. If you have prediabetes lifestyle changes such as eating healthy organic foods and being active can slow or stop the progression.

What’s the link between Alzheimer’s and diabetes?

New research shows insulin resistance, or what Dr Mark Hyman calls “diabesity” (from eating too many carbs and sugar and not enough fat) is one of the major factors that starts the brain-damage cascade, which robs the memory of over half the people in their 80s, leading to a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

Here’s the bad news/good news from Dr Hyman:

“Eating sugar and refined carbs can cause pre-dementia and dementia. But cutting out the sugar and refined carbs and adding lots of fat can prevent, and even reverse, pre-dementia and early dementia. Sugar causes pre-diabetes and diabetes, which often leads to significant memory loss.

Chronic stress takes a toll on your body and brain. Stress shrinks the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain. So, find your pause button every day and make time for some stress relief. Relaxation isn’t a luxury if you want to prevent or reverse dementia. Whether that involves deep breathing, meditation, or yoga, find something that helps you calm down.

Lack of sleep can cause impaired brain function, leading to CRAFT syndrome, which stands for “can’t remember a _____ thing.” Studies show poor sleep becomes a risk factor for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Aim for at least 8 hours of quality sleep every night.

We now know that physical activity can prevent and even slow down the progression of cognitive decline and brain diseases like dementia. Even a 30-minute walk can help. More active readers might want to incorporate high-intensity interval training or weightlifting.”

Here are the symptoms, diagnosis, causes and prevention methods outlined by Healthline:

Symptoms of type 3 diabetes

The symptoms of type 3 diabetes are the same as symptoms of dementia or early Alzheimer’s. These symptoms include:  

• memory loss that affects daily living and social interactions
• difficulty completing familiar tasks
• misplacing things often
• decreased ability to make judgements based on information
• sudden changes in personality or demeanour

Diagnosis of type 3 diabetes

There’s no specific test for Alzheimer’s or type 3 diabetes. Your doctor will ask several questions about your family history and your symptoms. Brain imaging, like MRIs and CT scans, can give your doctor a picture of how your brain is working. Cerebrospinal fluid tests can also look for indicators of Alzheimer’s.

If you have the symptoms of type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s and haven’t been diagnosed with either one, you may be sent for a fasting blood sugar test and a glycated hemoglobin test.

If you do have type 2 diabetes, it’s essential that you begin treatment for it. Treating type 2 diabetes could minimize damage to your brain and slow the progression of Alzheimer’s or dementia.

The average life expectancy for a person with Alzheimer’s is 8 to 10 years from the time that they’re diagnosed. But some people with Alzheimer’s can live as many as 20 years post-diagnosis.

Causes and risk factors for type 3 diabetes

People who have type 2 diabetes may be up to 60 percent more likelyTrusted Source to develop Alzheimer’s or dementia. One studyTrusted Source of over 100,000 subjects with dementia pointed out that women with type 2 diabetes had a higher probability of developing vascular dementia than men.

Risk factors for type 2 diabetes include:

• a family history of diabetes
• high blood pressure
• being overweight or obese
• certain chronic health conditions, such as depression and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)

Preventing type 3 diabetes

If you already have type 2 diabetes, there are ways that you can lower your risk for developing type 3. Here are some of the proven methods for controlling type 2 diabetes and minimizing organ damage:

• Exercise four times per week for 30 minutes per day.
• Eat healthy foods rich in protein and high in fibre.
• Carefully monitor your blood sugar according to your health team’s recommendations.
• Take any prescribed medications on schedule and with regularity.
• Monitor your cholesterol levels.
• Maintain a healthy weight.

Type 3 Diabetes: The Connection between Alzheimer’s and Metabolic Syndrome

Scientists now calls Alzheimer’s disease “Type 3 diabetes.” What’s the link between Alzheimer’s and diabetes? Dr Mark Hyman explains how new research shows insulin resistance - diabesity (from eating too many carbs and sugar and not enough fat) is one of major factors that starts the brain-damage cascade, which robs the memory of over half the people in their 80s, leading to a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

Mark Hyman, MD released his original series of 8 documentaries called “The Broken Brain.”  In this series he interviews over 50 experts who explain the sweeping epidemic of broken brains, manifesting as anxiety, depression, ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s, bipolar disorder, even traumatic brain injury, and a host of other mental disorders.

Dr Hyman is one of the worlds most recognised functional medical practitioners and is also the Medical Director at Cleveland Clinic’s Centre for Functional Medicine, Founder of The Ultra Wellness Centre, and ten-time #1 New York Times Best-selling author.

The second docu-series aptly called “Broken Brain 2,” goes into even more details about the food, gut, heart and brain connection.

Subtle symptoms that can lead to broken brains poor memory, poor quality of sleep, difficulty with concentration, brain fog, etc. Even if you think you are healthy, you might be ignoring these signs and could improve and optimize your well-being through awareness and action.  

He believes everything you do to your body; you do to your brain and other vital organs. That the body is an intricate designed and connective system:

“The epidemic of broken brains is not getting any better. Alzheimer’s disease will affect 30 percent (and some experts say 50 percent) of people over 85 years old. Psychiatric disorders affect 26 percent of our adult population or over 60 million Americans. These are just some of the statistics. It’s time we put a stop to this epidemic,” Dr Hyman states.

Below is an extract from the highlight reel of Broken Brain 2:

“How is it that over 26% of adults in America are suffering from a diagnosable mental disorder? Or that over the last decade depression rates rose 18% and now its estimated 322 million people around the WORLD suffer from depressive disorders? Almost 18% of Americans are affected by anxiety disorders and by all accounts – it’s on the rise especially in the younger generation. Something is very wrong here! With all the advancements in modern medicine, why are we still seeing a growing number of broken brains?

Every other part of the body affects the brain – our digestive health, hormonal health, they quality of our gut bacteria, the strength of our mitochondria, and our immune system all effects the brain. The brain and heart have always been connected and there’s constant messages being sent both ways, so as it turns out the heart is also a key player in how well the brain functions.

Depression is not necessarily a chemical imbalance, its caused by inflammation and any kind of systemic inflammation is going to affect every system in the body. There’s been numerous studies to show that when we’re eating a lot of refined carbohydrates and a lot of sugary foods, we’re at a much higher risk of depression and anxiety but were also able to see negative changes in the brain. We also know that we can ramp up the inflammatory process in our body by just eating one meal!

So often my patients ask me “how can I transform my health and wake up feeling good every single day?” I tell them it takes inspiration; it takes intention and practical tools that we can use every day. I’ve lead thousands of patients to a life of joy and vibrancy and I want this for you to. I want you to wake up every single morning and give your highest gifts to the world – we’re taking a hands-on approach to brain health and I know you’re going to love it!”

Register here for free viewing of this ground breaking 8-part documentary series: BrokenBrain.com.

How Fasting can Improve your Health, Reverse Disease & Improve Mental Clarity

Fasting can trigger stem cell regeneration, as well as weight loss. It is also one of the oldest known dietary interventions and is still practiced is some of the world’s most ancient religions. Modern science also confirms it can have a profoundly beneficial influence on your health.

Dr. Jason Fung is a nephrologist (kidney specialist) with a thriving practice located in Canada, who has written a comprehensive, well researched and studied book on this topic.

"The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting," details how to implement and fast safely.

The book provides easy-to-follow guidelines for fasting and addresses some of the most common myths and fears that the general public may have from implementing a fasting regimen.

One common myth with men is that fasting will lead to loss of muscle mass, and of course nobody wants that outcome. However, the book clearly describes the process of protein catabolism (metabolic pathways that break down molecules that are oxidized and released as energy or for other anabolic reactions), and details how your body actually decrease protein catabolism and increases growth hormones in response to fasting.

Most people associate fasting with decreased levels of energy, however it’s scientifically proven to be the opposite. If you're overweight and/or continually lethargic, fasting helps unlock all that energy trapped in your body that you previously had no access to. Fasting forces your body to start accessing those stores of energy, and once that happens, your body suddenly has a near unlimited supply of energy.

Understanding the Role of Insulin

Insulin is the primary hormone (followed by cortisol to a lesser degree) that tells your body whether to store energy or burn it. When you eat, you're taking calories in and insulin goes up and the body stores some as energy. When insulin falls (like when you sleep or fasting), it tells your body to release that insulin as energy.

We’ve been sold this idea where we think we need to eat small, more consistent meals a day it will help us lose weight and it doesn’t actually make sense. When you eat or assuming you eat a mix of macro nutrients, your sugar levels go up and tells our body to store some of that food energy.

When you don’t eat insulin falls (like sleeping), the body then pulls it back out what you’ve stored so you can burn it – so there’s a balance. When you eat you store food energy, when you don’t eat you burn food energy – balance the food and you won’t gain weight.  Keep eating and it’s going to make you continue to put on weight.

From 1977 – 2004 we went from eating our basic mix of three main meals a day (protein, carbs and fats) to six smaller, but more frequent meals a day, which means we’re eating for longer periods during the day (about 14-15 hours of the day) and causes regular spikes in our insulin, fat storing levels.  

Where as in 1977 we only ate breakfast, lunch and dinner, no snacks, that’s it – eating between a 10-hour period and fasting (sleeping) for 14 hours a day. Eating for longer periods is not giving our bodies the time it needs to burn the energy, which turns to fat. So if we want to lose weight, don’t eat high insulin foods and give your body the chance to not eat so your insulin levels can fall and you can burn it.

Below is an extract from one of Dr Fung’s Interviews on “The Complete Guide to Fasting”

“For people who are into athletics, for example, you might do some different fast. There’s something called training in the fasted state, which is becoming very popular, which is again about a 20-, 24-hour fast. Then you exercise, then you eat.

That sounds very strange, but physiologically, there’s a huge number of benefits because what happens is when your adrenaline goes up, your growth hormone goes up.

Those two hormones are considered part of the counter regulatory hormones. That is, they run counter to insulin, so insulin tends to lower blood glucose, noradrenaline or adrenaline, and growth hormone tend to raise blood glucose, so as your insulin falls, you have higher levels noradrenaline and growth hormone.

Now you exercise, and you can exercise harder than you’ve done before because you’re pumped up from all the adrenaline. Then as you eat, your growth hormone levels are high, so you recover faster. So train harder, recover faster. That’s a huge advantage if you’re talking about any athletics. It’s an advantage you can’t ignore. That’s merely from adjusting your timing.

Another advantage of fasting, for example, some people find they have much higher mental clarity. Again, people think, oh I don’t eat, I’m going to not be able to concentrate. It’s actually the exact opposite.

If you think about a time you’re eating a huge meal, like at Thanksgiving or something, you had that huge meal, you’re not really sharp, right? All you can do is kind of sit on the couch and watch football. That’s about it.

Whereas on the other hand, when you think about somebody and you say, “Oh that guy’s really hungry,” you know, he’s hungry for success, he’s hungry for power. Does that mean he’s just sitting on the couch watching TV? No, it means he’s energized and out there getting stuff. That’s what it means when you’re hungry. You don’t have all that blood kind of digesting food, so your brain is sharp. Some people really feel that.

There’s a whole group of people out in Silicon Valley who do this as a sort of a biohack, that is, they’re trying to hack themselves into a higher level of mental performance, not just athletic performance, but mental performance. What they do is they fast and guess what? You’re saving time because you don’t have to eat, you don’t have to shop, you don’t have to clean up, so you get more work done, but the work that you do is on a higher level than you used to do. That’s fantastic because that’s free. It’s like, okay, if you’re in a competition in Silicon Valley, a higher level of mental performance means a lot of money.

It’s the difference between success and failure. For these guys, they’re like, okay, they’re going to hack themselves into a higher level of performance, and that’s terrific.

Then there’s the story of Pythagoras, the ancient Greek mathematician, required his students to fast before they could come to class. All these ancient Greek thinkers actually did a lot of fasting. Socrates, Plato and all those famous scholars. They did it not because they were fat, they did it because they knew that it gave them more mental clarity. We still talk about the classic Greek philosophers, right, the great Greek mathematicians.

Then you can talk about things like cancer prevention, I know we touched on that briefly, but there’s people who feel, and the research is more shady here, that you can actually prevent cancers from developing because cancers need glucose, and what happens when you fast is that you kind of lock down all that glucose and you kind of starve them out. There are people who suggest that you can actually do this in combination with say ketogenic diets and actually help prevent cancers.”

Why you Shouldn’t Fear Fasting with Dave Asprey & Dr. Jason Fung

What do Jesus, The Prophet Mohammed, and Buddha have in common? They all practiced fasting. Dr. Jason Fung and author Jimmy Moore reveal the numerous benefits of fasting. A process that can help people lose weight, improve brain function, promote longevity, speed up the metabolism, strengthen the immune system, and contribute to self-enlightenment. Plus, they'll also address one of the main reasons most people have never attempted to fast. Fear.