"Reducing Glycotoxin Intake to Prevent Alzheimers"
Each of us has about 6 billion miles of DNA.
How does our body keep it from getting all tangled up?
There are special proteins called histones,
which act like spools with DNA as the thread.
Enzymes called sirtuins wrap the DNA
around the histones spools
and in doing so silence whatever genes
were in that stretch of DNA,
hence their name sirtuins,
which stands for silencing information regulator.
Although they were discovered only about a decade ago,
the study of sirtuins has become one
of the most promising areas of biomedicine,
since they appear to be involved
in promoting healthy aging and longevity.
Suppression of this key host defense
is considered a central feature of Alzheimer’s disease.
Autopsies of Alzheimer’s victims reveal that loss of sirtuin enzyme activity
is closely associated with the accumulation
of the plaques and tangles in the brain
that’s characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.
Sirtuins appear to activate pathways
that steer the brain away from the formation
of plaque and tangle proteins.
Because a decrease in sirtuin activity
can clearly have deleterious effects on nerve health,
they’re trying to come up with drugs
to increase sirtuin activity,
but why not just prevent its suppression in the first place?
Glycotoxins in food suppress sirtuin activity-
these so-called advanced glycation end products, or AGE’s.
Our modern diet includes excessive AGE’s,
which can be neurotoxic.
High levels in the blood
may predict cognitive decline over time.
If you measure the urine levels of glycotoxins
flowing through the bodies of older adults,
those with the highest levels
went on to suffer the greatest cognitive decline
over the subsequent nine years.
As we age, our brain literally shrinks.
In our 60's and 70's we lose an average of five cubic centimeters
of total brain tissue volume every year,
but some lose more than others.
Brain atrophy may be reduced in very healthy individuals,
and a few people don’t lose any brain at all.
Normally we lose about 2% of brain volume every year,
but that’s just the average.
Although the average brain loss for folks
in their 70's and 80's was 2.1%,
some lost more, some lost less,
and some men and women lost none at all
over a period of four years.
Researchers in Australia provided the first evidence
linking AGEs with this kind of cerebral brain loss.
So limiting one’s consumption of these compounds
may end up having significant public health benefits.
Because sirtuin deficiency is both preventable
and reversible by dietary AGE reduction,
a therapeutic strategy that includes eating less AGE's
may offer a new strategy to combat the epidemic of Alzheimer’s.
Some of these glycotoxins are produced internally,
particularly in diabetics,
but anyone can get them from smoking and eating,
particularly foods high in fat and protein.
In a previous video I listed the 15 foods most contaminated with glycotoxins,
mostly chicken, but also pork, beef, and fish,
which may help explain why those that eat the most meat
may have triple the risk of getting dementia
compared to long-time vegetarians.