Free The Animal

It was last April when I pointed to a study suggesting that Alzheimer’s might be linked to the whole sugar-insulin deal. That is: refined carbs and sugar, again. I pointed to this post at The IF Life in last weekend’s roundup, but here it is again for reference. This adds an interesting twist, in identifying an inflammatory omega-6 fat, arachidonic acid, as a potential culprit. And all this leads to speculation and hypotheses, now, that Alzheimer’s is actually a kind of third type of diabetes. Now scientists at Northwestern University have discovered why brain insulin signaling — crucial for memory formation — would stop working in Alzheimer’s disease. They have shown that a toxic protein found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, rendering those neurons insulin resistant. (The protein, known to attack memory-forming synapses, is called an ADDL for “amyloid ß-derived diffusible ligand.”) With other research showing that levels of brain insulin and its related receptors are lower in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, the Northwestern study sheds light on the emerging idea of Alzheimer’s being a “type 3″ diabetes. As Mike O’Donnell says: Insulin and inflammation do run hand in hand. So could…

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I’m typically very skeptical — really — of cure alls. Chiropractic is a good example. Now, about every couple of years I end up waking up having done some damn thing to my neck whilst sleeping, and I can barely move my head without sharp pain in my neck & shoulder. It can take a week or more to work back right, and it’s very painful every step of the way. Just trying to raise my head off the bed can be excruciating, and I end up having to roll out. In each case, I’ll go to a Chiropractor, he/she cradles my head and pops/cracks it to the left, then to the right, and it’s like 50% relief on the spot. The rest of the discomfort melts away over the next 24 hours. Fine. Cool. Love ‘em. But then they always want to get kooky, suggesting x-rays, regular visits to keep my spine “aligned,” and its all justified under some silly notion that spine “mis-alignment” is the ultimate and fundamental source of all trouble. Nonsense. Quackery. On the other hand, the notion that refined carbohydrate over years and years lies beneath a lot of our modern diseases carries some weight…

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