Brain and Blood Sugar
The brain normally uses glucose for energy. It can also use ketones as the body goes into starvation mode but glucose is certainly preferred.
To keep the brain healthy, it is important to keep blood glucose at a healthy level. Diabetes has now been shown to also have detrimental effects on the brain as well as the long list of other problems associated with chronic increases in blood sugar.
Blood Sugar and Alzheimer's
The brain can also develop its own kind of diabetes that we now call Type III diabetes. Type III diabetes is now being used synonymously with Alzheimer's Disease.
As a basic review, insulin helps move blood sugar or glucose into the cells. In Type I diabetes, the body doesn't produce enough insulin. In Type II diabetes, the cells become resistant to insulin so even if there is enough insulin, the glucose in the blood doesn't get into the cell. It is then builds up in the blood. We can detect that with a blood test and in a urine test when it gets elevated enough to spill into the urine too.
Type III diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance of the brain itself.
Insulin is made almost exclusively in the pancreas. It can cross the blood brain barrier (BBB) with the help of a transporter molecule.
Insulin in the Brain
Once in the brain, insulin works a little differently than it does in the rest of the body. Insulin helps maintain the cells that make up the blood brain barrier. The insulin transporter is itself affected by insulin levels and affected by too much glucose or insulin in the blood. As your glucose begins to rise, insulin tends to follow (except Type I) and this will actually start a breakdown of the blood brain barrier because of the relationship between the BBB and insulin.
Is there then a link between diabetes and brain activity? Studies have shown that diabetics are two times more likely to suffer Alzheimer's symptoms. A connection has been shown between insulin in the brain and Parkinson's and Huntington's as well. One of the genes linked to insulin production in the brain is in the middle of the gene associated with Parkinson's.
It appears that abnormalities in insulin regulation are part of the production of the protein plaques associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients.
Check your HbA1C
In the light of these findings, it is prudent to pay a little more attention to blood sugar levels and balance. You will need to do basic blood tests to check your fasting blood sugar as well HbA1C. HbA1C is the glucose associated with red blood cells so this becomes an average of the last 3 months or so. LDH and CO2 levels help us learn something about your blood sugar controls.
If your blood sugar is climbing, you can almost always bring this back under control with diet and exercise. Yes, this means learning to eat less of some of your favorite foods. You will have to decide if feeling good is worth changing some eating habits.
Exercise doesn't have to be extreme. A few minutes a day of walking can have great benefit.
We have many excellent products that will help with blood sugar regulation. Anything that helps overall blood sugar regulation will also help brain insulin.
Vital Nutrients Blood Sugar Support and/or NuMedica Gluco-Response, link below:
