Chew On This: Alzheimer's and junk food link
Feed a mouse on a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol for nine months and you'll have a mouse with chemical changes in its brain that mimic Alzheimer's. Poor wretched rodents do I hear you say, but so what? Well, fat, sugar and cholesterol form the prime nutritional content of fast food.
Admittedly, the mice in this experiment from Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, whose findings have just been released, were genetically manipulated to mimic the effect of a particular variant gene in humans. It's one that's a known risk factor for Alzheimer's, found in 15 to 20 percent of people.
The information should be a concern because apparently there's been a significant increase in early onset Alzheimer's among the age group as young as 35. The relevant gene is involved in the transport of cholesterol, and researcher Susanne Akterin found signs that cholesterol in food reduced levels of Arc, a protein involved in memory storage.
It's too early, she told Reuters, to give proper advice on how to respond to the findings. But if Alzheimer's can be prevented by abandoning a poor diet, terrific. And if it can't, plenty of other health problems can be resolved by giving up junk food and eating healthily.
Admittedly, the mice in this experiment from Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, whose findings have just been released, were genetically manipulated to mimic the effect of a particular variant gene in humans. It's one that's a known risk factor for Alzheimer's, found in 15 to 20 percent of people.
The information should be a concern because apparently there's been a significant increase in early onset Alzheimer's among the age group as young as 35. The relevant gene is involved in the transport of cholesterol, and researcher Susanne Akterin found signs that cholesterol in food reduced levels of Arc, a protein involved in memory storage.
It's too early, she told Reuters, to give proper advice on how to respond to the findings. But if Alzheimer's can be prevented by abandoning a poor diet, terrific. And if it can't, plenty of other health problems can be resolved by giving up junk food and eating healthily.
Posted on Tuesday 02nd December 2008 in
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1 Comment
Liz Diamond
While I agree it is much too early to establish a causal connection between Alzheimer's and junk food I am more than ready to believe eating junk food is a contributing factor to all sorts of medical ills. I worked for the Alzheimer's Association for 12 years and many of the saddest moments for me there were when I met younger people who were afflicted well before they had lived out their lives. If there is the slightest chance that you can lessen your chances of getting Alzheimer's, not to mention heart, stroke and cancer, just by eating a healthy diet containing a large proportion of fruits & veggies- JUST DO IT!!!!!! Healthy does not have to mean unpleasant- quite the contrary. Now, I'm working in fundraising for cancer research and it is so obvious that many cancers could be prevented by lifestyle changes. Jamie Oliver in U.K. is very active in campaigning for yourng people to eat better food and I wish we could clone him many times over to spead this message.
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