Interesting research(“Scientists Pinpoint Blood Sugar-Alzheimer’s Tipping Point”) claims that elevated blood glucose and the ensuing glycation of proteins - and now, thanks to this research - the glycation of an enzyme, MIF (macrophage migratory inhibition factor). Seems MIF is called in as an immune response to a build up of abnormal proteins in the brain. These abnormal proteins are found, post-mortem, to be built up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients , long with an altered form of MIF that did not do its clean-up job apparently due to the effects of glycation which alters the ability of the MIF to do its vacuuming and clean-sweeping job on thos abnormal proteins, so they simply continue to build up and wreak havoc in the brain.
Sadly, and coming as no surprise, the end of the report on this article appearing in a recent Sunday edition of the Scottish paper, The Herald, natters on about how folks were right: we eat too much sugar, and this is why we shouldn’t eat so much of it. Sad because it says nothing about the rapid conversion to glucose of other, non-sugary foods and how they play a large role in elevating blood glucose, and keeping it elevated (I’ll give the paper and reporter a walk for now on the failure to mention insulin’s role in all of this). The article goes on to happily mention how pinpointing the MIF-Glucose-Alzheimer’s link will aid in the development of drugs to undo what the glucose is doing to the MIF. Oh, think of it! BigPharma finally has a clearer path through the morass! Let’s all go out and invest in pharmaceutical companies …
I read about the mapping of the MIF-BG-Alzheimer’s link with excitement: hey! does keto ever have a natural, normal road address that situation! But read on, and you find that what I have come to call “the black box” of the relationship of “on the plate” vs “in the body” - that is what are the things on the plate and what do they become once I have taken them into my body? Table sugar, likely the biggest offender, is not the only, or only big offender. No mention here of the other starches on the plate, So by implication, a doughnut without the sugary glaze is OK - because it doesn’t have that much sugar? No, but it’s got other things that go straight to glucose in the body, as well. And once the glucose is high, and stays that way, the door has been thrown wide open. I finished reading the article about this research and began banging my head on the table: there is an answer and a “cure” for this situation, but guess which one is acknowledged and talked about. Yes, drugs. Not diet. Not looking into “the black box” to learn how the raw materials on the plate are converted and utilized in the body … the place where the rubber well and truly meets the road.
Aren’t we fortunate that we have some understanding - increasing understanding - of what the real “cure” for this is? I know I am …
When I get a copy of the research, I’ll post it here. And here it is: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep42874