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brain damage

Pre-diabetes and the Brain—You’re Losing Brain Cells as Your Read This

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Very few patients and providers are aware of just how damaging prediabetes is. Fewer still know that it destroys the brain.

Countless times, after looking at the patient, certain lab values, patient’s history and family history it is clear that this patient is on his or her path to diabetes.  Sometimes at a slow stroll, sometimes at a full-out sprint.  When I bring this concern up to the patient the response is frequently, “Oh…my doctor checked me for diabetes and said I was ok.”  Ugh.

I equate this to the cigarette smoker stating that his or her doctor checked for lung cancer and, since nothing was found, everything is hunky-dory.  In this scenario it sounds ridiculous.

However, prediabetes is arguably more dangerous to your health than cigarette smoking.  There is not a chronic disease that is not in some way increased by prediabetes.  Some, like heart disease, neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s), stroke and many cancers are strongly linked to prediabetes, with being prediabetic almost one of the strongest risk factors.

For those of you wondering if you might just happen to be prediabetic, here’s a short list of things to look for:

  1. Abdominal obesity
  2. PCOS / menstrual problems / infertility
  3. High cholesterol (especially with low HDL, high triglycerides)
  4. Elevated liver enzymes
  5. Gout or elevated uric acid
  6. High blood pressure
  7. Anyone with heart disease or an ischemic stroke (even a TIA)
  8. Family history of diabetes, cancer, heart disease or dementia

While the list is much longer, you get the idea…

Our society has not yet adopted this level of concern with prediabetes and, as a result, few understand the level of danger that he or she is living under.  Given that over 50% of the US population can be classified as being prediabetic, this lack of fear really needs to change.

This particular article is yet another that adds to the long list of damage done to your body by being prediabetic.  In it researchers looked at 127 individuals (aged 41–86 years) and sorted out those who had high insulin resistance (most prediabetic) and those who had low a level of insulin resistance (least prediabetic).  There was a very clear association between damage to the white matter and insulin resistance.  For those neuroanatomy geeks, changes were seen in areas such as the:

  • corpus callosum, corona radiata, cerebral peduncle, posterior thalamic radiation, and right superior longitudinal fasciculus
  • white matter underlying the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes
  • body and genu of corpus callosum
  • parts of the superior and anterior corona radiate

Basically—pretty much every area of the brain was affected by the prediabetic process.  Even more concerning was the fact that the worse the insulin resistance, the greater the white matter damage.

Brain damage from being prediabetic.  Let me repeat that in another way: Over half of the population (and there is a good chance this means YOU) is experiencing brain damage and a loss of healthy brain cells as a result of being prediabetic.

If brain cells are important to you, what changes are YOU making to be less prediabetic?

Your Brain on Stress; Is It Worth It?

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You want to protect your brain . We send our kids onto the field with a helmet. The Tour de France riders wear helmets. So why do we destroy it from the inside out?

Clearly we value the role of our brain in our everyday lives.  This is the reasoning for the aforementioned protective headgear and all of the hubub focused on protecting out collective brains from outside-in trauma.  Anyone who has ever spent some time in a neurological rehab hospital will tell you it’s not a pretty sight when the brain gets damaged.

As we age and become more thoughtful of protecting our brains, we begin to try to see what we can do to lower our risk of stroke such as lowering our blood pressure and eating more dark chocolate.  A stroke, much like head trauma, is an instantaneous event.  These seem to scare us into some type of action, whether it is wearing that helmet, passing up on the sparring match with worked up, 225 pound, 5% body fat Golden Gloves boxer or getting to the ER when your blood pressure spikes to 200/130.

But what about the more insidious, but equally destructive, slower paced damage to your brain?  The type of damage that ends up in Parkinson’s or Alzheimers dementia.

I have gone over ways to protect your brain in a previous blog post that can be read here.

But have I mentioned how damaging stress is to the brain?  Only a few hundred times, so I figure a little reminder is not a bad idea.  This particular study looked at how stress changed inflammation in the brains of mice.  Here’s what they found:

  1. Increased activation of nuclear factor κB.
  2. Upregulation of the proinflammatory enzyme nitric oxide synthase.
  3. Increased activity of the enzyme cyclooxygenase 2 (you know–COX-2– the one Vioxx and Celebrex block).
  4. Increased cellular oxidative/nitrosative damage.

Now, either your eyes have glazed over or you’re salivating at the thought of all this detailed biochemistry.  Either way, you need to understand that saying that stress is bad for us is some tongue-in-cheek comment that we can all laugh about.

Rather, it begins to destroy your brain, biochemical piece by biochemical piece, from the inside out.  So you would never think about sending your child out onto that football field without a helmet, but are you teaching them stress management tools so that they can protect their brain from the inside out as well?

How to Avoid Brain Damage in the Womb in 5 Easy Steps

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We used to think that the placenta guards the developing baby and filters out everything but the needed nutrients for strong development in the womb.  This thought process was smashed with the 10 Americans Study done by the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org).

This study measured the presence of chemicals in umbilical cord samples of newborns and found literally hundreds of chemicals that the newborns had been exposed to in the imagined safety of the womb.  Many of these chemicals are well known to cause neurological damage, reproductive damage and cancer.

Chlorpyrifos is a pesticide that used to be in very heavy use in both agriculture and home use until January of 2002, when the amount in products for home use was restricted, but agricultural use continued.  As a result, most of us, when tested, have levels of chlorpyrifos in our bloodstream.  In other words, it is a chemical still widely used and you are very likely to have it in your bloodstream.

This would be all fine and dandy if it was glucosinolates from brocolli we were talking about.  But it’s not.  Chlorpyrifos has been linked to many health concerns, the most recent of which, in this particular study, to brain damage in children who were heavily exposed in the womb.  Pretty scary for any couple looking to get pregnant.

So what can you do to lower your developing baby’s exposure to harmful chemicals while in the womb (and after)?  Follow these tips:

  1. Switch to organic fruits and vegetables, particularly those on EWG’s Dirty Dozen list
  2. Avoid all pain medications, even over the counter Tylenol
  3. Supplement with at least 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily
  4. Avoid rapidly grilled meat
  5. Supplement with probiotics during both pregnancy and nursing
  6. Avoid drinking out of plastic water bottles
  7. Do NOT spray your house for bugs or weeds beginning for several months prior to getting pregnant

Overall, the task may initially seem daunting given the high levels of chemicals in our environment.  However, with some education and conscientious decisions about the exposures and dietary choices, there should be little cause for concern.

What did you, are are you going to, give up for your pregnancy?