Alzheimers and “Severe Brain Degeneration” linked to excessive Carbohydrate Intake?

Posted by Ryan Robitaille in Low-Carb, Media, Social Commentary, StudiesAug 27th, 2009 | Comments

Today I read an interesting article on LiveScience.com titled “Obese People Have ‘Severe Brain Degeneration“. I couldn’t find the link to the actual UCLA study text (sorry – please let me know if you find it) it cites, but you’re likely to see many articles parroting the same basic info that the LiveScience.com one did. In fact, as of this writing, Google News reports that over 158 publications have published articles on this study so far today – with a helluva lot more coming I’m sure.

Excerpt from the LiveScience.com article regarding the study (and most other articles citing it):

A new study finds obese people have 8 percent less brain tissue than normal-weight individuals. Their brains look 16 years older than the brains of lean individuals, researchers said today.

Those classified as overweight have 4 percent less brain tissue and their brains appear to have aged prematurely by 8 years.

The results, based on brain scans of 94 people in their 70s, represent “severe brain degeneration,” said Paul Thompson, senior author of the study and a UCLA professor of neurology.

“That’s a big loss of tissue and it depletes your cognitive reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer’s and other diseases that attack the brain,” said Thompson. “But you can greatly reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s, if you can eat healthily and keep your weight under control.”

The study was partially funded by The American Heart Association, so it doesn’t surprise me that they are magnifying the results under the usual low-fat obesity lens and come out with their own press release demonizing fat, sunbathing, or cattle ranchers (or whatever the popular scape-goat is lately). As we all know the media loves any story on obesity and gobbles them up (pun INTENDED) right away.

If you read any of these stories citing this study as news, you’ll see that they pretty much just echoes out the initial press release and maybe adds a bit of zing to the headline (I think I actually saw one that said, “Fatties have Small Brains”). Its all business as usual with scientific studies and news media outlet “health writers”…

What really DOES surprise me is that no-one has really tried to draw any conclusions from this study.

Basically, they are saying that there is a correlation between obesity and lost brain tissue (and along with it cognitive ability), and this leads to a higher risk for Alzheimer’s and other cognitive disorders later in life.

That’s all well and good – but blaming “OBESITY” is a bit short-sighted and generic if you ask me. Obesity is not a “disease”. Obesity is a symptom of underlying metabolic and behavioral issues. Saying that Obesity is the DIRECT correlation is like saying “Being drunk causes liver damage” instead of “EXCESSIVE DRINKING of alcohol causes liver damage”. See the difference? We need to go a bit more granular in order to pull any useful inferences from this article.

Let’s look a little deeper then…

What causes obesity?

Obesity is caused by insulin resistance, forcing the body to store much of the calories consumed as fat.

What causes insulin resistance?

Chronic high-insulin levels. In a nutshell, insulin resistance is caused by extended periods of time on a diet that keeps the body’s insulin levels elevated. The insulin receptors in a sense get so bombarded with it that they get “used to it” and require a higher level to do their job adequately. (effectively causing a higher insulin level for a long period of time = i.e. the body is spending much more time in “fat storing” mode)

Ok, well then what causes high-insulin levels?

Eating carbohydrates (sugar, grains, starch, and all their associated foods).

Then would it be out of line to go back to the headline and say “Carbohydrate intake linked to Brain Degeneration and Alzheimers Disease”?

You be the judge…

UPDATE: Here another relevant study regarding Alzheimers and hyperinsulinemia (aka insulin resistance).

Related posts:

  1. Another Worthless Study and Pointless Anti-Fat Article from the New York Times
  2. What the experts say: on Potassium intake

  • WE can intake I guess but not too much! right?
  • I have read this somewhere and I agree with the thoughts. So people intake the right amount of carbs to avoid obesity! :-)
  • Ohh... i agree with that, I have read some articles saying the same thing here! So too much carbs intake is not healthy :-)
  • musajen
    Miss your posts!
  • faraimpresii
    Hair loss or Alopecia is a problem most of us are facing on a daily basis. Some studies say that men tend to "get" balder faster or that stress contributes to this problem or plainly we're just born with it - carried by genes that is. Nevertheless when it comes to hairloss or caderea parului we have to agree that women suffer the most and spend up a fortune to get rid of this problem. The thing is most products aren't even half good as they are marketed so what's a woman to do ? I think that natural remedies (using eggs and aloe vera) can help your hairloss problem but if people don't start eating and living healthy there's no stop to this issue.
  • These studies are almost always faulty in one way or another. I bet they did not control the study by what people ate. It is probably not the obesity that causes the brain degeneration but the high glycemic diet over years (with all the associated problems that brings) that is the real culprit. Obesity is probably just another symptom of the bad diet just as diabetes and cardiovascular disease are other symptoms of the high glycemic diets of today.
  • Thanks for pointing out this article! And for pointing out the ridiculous way mass media report on it - Dr Eades would be proud. I started out on the low carb path about 9 years ago mainly because it worked for me to lose weight but I am so glad that I have been low carbing for so long as more and more scientific evidence mounts confirming that the alternative would have been very detrimental to my health and well being!
  • I agree and I wish your version of the headline had been published. Obesity is merely one physical marker of hyperinsulinemia. It's like acne--just an outward manifestation of a deeper and more dire problem.

    While obesity gets in the news constantly and has a more obvious relationship with problems such as Alzheimers, many people of normal weight are suffering also suffering from the effects of the modern diet.

    I hope that doctors will start testing for hyperinsulinemia as routinely as they test for diabetes. It's a travesty that we keep looking at blood sugar as the culprit. As things are presently, those who are young and/or thin are often brushed off as hypochondriacs or neurotics when they come into the doctor's office complaining of symptoms resembling insulin resistance. (I know from experience.)

    The people in this study were in their seventies, right? So they grew up before fat was unfairly incriminated, eating plenty of meat, lard, whole milk, and butter along with their bread and pie. It scares me to think what will happen to my generation, the kids who were raised on rice cakes, fruit bars, rancid veggie oils, Snackwells, and Mountain Dew. Are we going to get Alzheimers at age 40?

    The biggest reason I'm eating low carb is because I was starting to have episodes of brain fog so debilitating, I had to drop out of school. Off carbs, this doesn't happen to me.
  • musajen
    I've gotten the brush off from my doctor's as a hypochondriac and a liar. Over the past 6 years or so, I've known something wasn't right with my body. Crap energy levels, depression, rapid weight gain, anxiety, interrupted cycle, hair loss, acid reflux, difficulty losing weight...on and on...and their best solution, after testing my thyroid and blood sugar (supposedly normal) was to lose weight by cutting fat (which I was already doing minus the actual weight loss). Since going low-carb my energy levels are awesome, depression and anxiety are gone, and acid reflux is gone (unless I eat too many carbs). Best of all, I'm losing weight while eating about 70% of my calories from fat. Never going back to low-fat, my quality of life depends on it.
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