I hope this is actually not new news to you, but an article in this week’s The Atlantic lays out the utterly clear and repeatedly confirmed connection between eating too much sugar (it’s less than one might think!), keeping too much of it in our blood (happens naturally as we age), and then cluttering up our brain irreparably and developing Alzheimer’s.
My current fave new book is Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, PhD. “Unlocking the power of sleep and dreams” is the subtitle of the book and it does all that and more!
You have to be close to my age to recognize the lyrics taken from Guys and Dolls, an influential movie of my childhood, a story for another day. How the song goes is something like, yes I can wish you riches and good luck, but
More I cannot wish you
Than to wish you find your own true love
Your own true love this day.
But when it comes to health, if I were to rewrite the song, I’d have to say instead:
I was speaking to a group of elders interested in end-of-life issues, some of whom are caretakers for people with dementia. They were interested in Alzheimer’s reversal, generally speaking, for some of their clients. After a few general questions, Nan turned to me and said she wanted to get practical, “Given that this is an epidemic we’re all facing, what can we do to avoid dementia?”
The big news on the brain front is still The End of Alzheimer’s by Dr. Dale Bredesen: a multi-faceted, lifestyle approach that can effectively prevent and reverse Alzheimer’s and other causes of dementia.
I’m grateful to the many brilliant folks I am lucky to consider colleagues, and it is from these folks that I learn “old news” that I share with you as “new news” because it’s new to me. Or in this case, the science is new to me, the facts something I’ve “known” (could have been wrong, happened to be right: have to check these things out!) for a long time, but recently confirmed through research.
Next on my recommended reading list is The Alzheimer’s Antidote by Amy Berger, MS, CNS, NTP.
What an interesting coincidence: as I was collecting a variety of newsy articles that were of interest to me this month, I was struck by something they all have in common. Each article interested me because of the associated health condition.
We’ve heard a lot of discussion of fasting in general and intermittent fasting in particular, with an appropriate but confusing array of intermittent fasting options.
Thanks to Dr. Michael Ruscio for all his work on gut health and for recently highlighting a particular article on dietary strategies to control irritable bowel syndrome, also pertinent also to those with SIBO.