Scientists Study Diabetes of the Brain and Its Possible Links to Alzheimer's Disease

Scientists are studying how nitrosamines may lead to Alzheimer's disease which may be linked to a condition known as "diabetes of the brain." For example, let's look at a Sacramento example. M.L., born in 1894, the father of Sacramento resident, retired educator A.J.L, in the 1950s and 1960s ate almost only processed, smoked meats for decades--two hot dogs, fried bacon, and eggs, with condiments such as ketchup and mustard, for breakfast, smoked turkey on white bread for lunch with a slice of melted American-style processed "orange-colored" cheese, and smoked fish or ham and pre-packaged mashed potatoes for dinner. Salad then consisted of an iceberg lettuce leaf and a slice of tomato.

The entire family ate this way until the 1980s when the over age 40 children chose a modified macrobiotic diet instead. Meanwhile the older generation continued to eat a steady diet of smoked and processed luncheon meats and transfat-fried potatoes with ketchup followed by cans of regular soda pop and cups of expresso coffee. They didn't think twice about the TV dinners either. After all, a lot of their dad's siblings in their mid-90s ate that way and never complained of health issues.

As a World War I veteran, the army fed their soldiers cans of wild-caught salmon as rations--healthy salmon containing omega 3 fatty acids. Once home, M.L.'s diet turned to burgers, bacon, smoked fish, and smoked ham. Today, his daughter, after age 70, is back to eating canned wild-caught salmon, vegetables, berries, and no smoked or processed luncheon meats.

By the age of 73, M.L.'s dementia worsened. He turned violent, and was diagnosed as expressing "elder rage" and having hardening of the arteries in the brain. It's not always true that if your siblings are in their 90s and healthy that you will be that way also. There are different environments, diets, and stress levels. That diet and results happened back in 1967, when the word, 'Alzheimer's' never had been mentioned. For further information on elder rage, see the site, Alzheimer's Disease: Elder Rage: Overview.

M.L. was told his hardening of arteries of in the brain would progressively worsen. Today, his grandchildren ask could his numerous strokes, elder rage, and encroaching dementia as well as his cardiovascular issues have a strong link to what he ate rather than his genes? After all, his parents "in the old country" lived on a farm and grew all their own vegetables. They made their own cheese, and never Pasteurized or heated their milk. Did M.L.'s processed, convenience food give him diabetes of the brain--perhaps preceded by insulin resistance of the brain? After all, you can have type 2 diabetes in any organ--pancreas, liver, or brain.

Did metabolic syndrome and/or insulin resistance that focused in the brain rather than only in the pancreas or liver, contribute to his developing dementia with the first signs not focused on memory loss but instead on rage? Sixty-five percent of dementia cases are due to Alzheimer's disease. And not all start with memory loss. The first stage can start with angry temper tantrums--elder rage.

Did you ever hear of diabetes of the brain? Check out the April 6, 2011 article, "Alzheimer's: Diabetes of the Brain?" Also see, Alzheimer's: Diabetes of the Brain? | Page 3 | The Dr. Oz Show. That's one of the new scientific breakthroughs that link insulin resistance in the brain to Alzheimer's disease.

According to new scientific research on today's, Friday, April 8, 2011 Dr. Oz TV show, viewed in Sacramento on channel 58 Dish satellite, a scientist studying the causes of diabetes in various organs of the body has led to the breakthrough that it's not only genes that may caus Alzheimer's disease.

Could Alzheimer's disease be caused by what you eat--for example, processed foods containing nitrosamines and also white flour including pasta made with white flour, cakes, sugar, white rice, smoked meats, and even some brands of beer that still contain nitrosamines? Dr. Oz's interview today focused on the research of Dr. Suzanne DeLaMonte, Neuropathologist, Rhode Island Hospital.

How nitrosamines are linked to diabetes of the brain, which in turn may bring on Alzheimer's, according to the scientists interviewed on today's Dr. Oz show, is by insulin resistance that is created in the brain. The scientist calls it diabetes of the brain--type 2 diabetes. Notably, type 2 diabetes can develop in any organ, such as the pancreas, the brain, the liver, for example. But the pre-diabetes event is that insulin resistance first develops in that organ.

Scientists researching why insulin resistance in the body is linked to diabetes of the brain first targeted the processed foods containing nitrosamines, that is, nitrates. Of course, you've seen recent studies that nitrates don't cause cancer. But what about insulin resistance leading to diabetes of the brain? Or what about heart disease in those predisposed to develop cardiovascular problems related to eating smoked and processed meats such as hot dogs, bacon, and smoked turkey?

First scientists looked at why so many more people today are getting Alzheimer's disease than in past decades. It's not only because people are living longer due to better health care. And too many people are getting Alzheimer's disease than could be possible if the disease only were caused by specific genes.

If you have specific genes for a specific type of dementia, you study how genetic diseases change, but genetic diseases do not change that rapidly during a 30-year period. That interval is too short to affect rates of genetic diseases that arise only in middle-aged or elderly people, reports the April 6, 2011 article by Dr. Suzanne DeLaMonte, "Alzheimer's: Diabetes of the Brain?"

The human breeding, growth, development and aging cycle is much longer than 30 years. Scientists study diseases caused by viruses or toxic environmental exposure-related cancer. Researchers look at mortality rates as related to short time periods. Statistics can be modified. And exposure to toxins can be reduced in your environment. But what about foods and links to Alzheimer's?

Scientists are saying that there's evidence that when humans are exposed to nitrosamines, it's the human exposure to nitrosamines that "is at the root cause of not only Alzheimer's, but several other insulin-resistance diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, also known as NASH, and visceral obesity," according to Dr. DeLaMonte's April 6, 2011 article, "Alzheimer's: Diabetes of the Brain?"

The real reason nitrosamines are added to some processed foods is to increase shelf life because the foods are transported across the country or around the world. Dr. DeLaMonte's article also notes, "The problem is worsened with transport of "fresh" foods from across the Pacific Ocean. Nitrites are added to meats and processed foods for flavor and coloring. High levels of nitrates added to fertilizers can be incorporated into produce and then converted to nitrites and finally nitrosamines in the body."

Check your smoked fish, cheese, hotdogs, ground beef, and smoked meats such as smoked turkey, ham, bacon, and some types of beer. Do they contain nitrosamines? Originally, nitrites were added to food as preservatives to prevent salmonella infection from contaminated meat.

What you can do is write to the authorities who have the power to change policies that are still in place. Although efforts have been made to reduce the levels, nitrites are still added as preservatives. If you eat foods containing nitrosamines, you're exposed to a continuing environment of these ingredients.

You've heard news reports that nitrosamines don't cause cancer in the processed foods you eat. But in high doses, nitrosamines are known by scientists around the world to be cancer-causing agents. In high doses, they cause cancers in many organs. Did you know tobacco contains nitrosamine? What happens with low chronic exposure with tobacco when you have cumulative effects? The answer is that the exposure builds up the nitrosamine in your organs.

The breakthrough now is that scientists are suggesting that nitrosamines might cause diabetes. Dr. DeLaMonte and her team performed experiments in the laboratory and showed, according to Dr. DeLaMonte's article, "that very low, limited exposures to nitrosamines (the type found in food) cause Alzheimer's-type brain degeneration, dementia, diabetes, fatty liver disease and obesity. Adding high fat to the diet made the disease-causing effects of nitrosamines much worse."

So read Dr. DeLaMonte's article. And choose your foods wisely because what you eat may determine in the long run whether you could come down with diabetes of the brain which may be linked to Alzheimer's disease. Also see an older 2006 study, "Association of metabolic syndrome with Alzheimer's Disease."

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