G101
ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
Gabe Mirkin, M.D.
The most common cause of senility in North America is Alzheimer's disease, a horrible condition in which a person loses his capacity to reason, think, recognize and function. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that people who have high blood levels of a protein called homocysteine are the ones most likely to suffer Alzheimer's disease(1).
Former president Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer's disease, as do some Nobel Prize winners and some of the most brilliant people who have walked this earth. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that extraordinarily poor people in Ibadan, Nigeria are far less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than their relatives in Indianapolis, further confirming that Alzheimer's disease is probably not genetic but is caused by something in North American lifestyle or environment (2). One in ten North Americans develop Alzheimer's disease by age 65, and 5 in 10 develop it by age 85.
Alzheimer's disease means that the brain is damaged and dying brain cells mix with tangles of the protein beta amyloid. Ten years ago, the Kentucky nuns study showed that nuns who have the most ministrokes show the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, while many with lots of beta amyloid do not have signs of that disease. Anything that increases your chances of developing a stroke or a heart attack also increases your chances of developing Alzheimer's disease. So the risk factors for Alzheimer's disease include smoking, being overweight, not exercising, eating a high fat diet, eating too many calories, and having high blood pressure or high blood cholesterol levels. Dietary risk factors include not eating enough vegetables; lack of omega-3 fatty acids found in whole grains, beans, seeds and deep water fish; and eating too much meat.
Dr. David Snowden shows in his Kentucky Nuns Study that nuns who were most likely to suffer Alzheimer's disease have low blood levels of the vitamin folic acid and high levels of the protein building block homocysteine. Not eating enough leafy greens and whole grains can deprive you of the vitamin folic acid, and eating too much meat provides you with too much methionine, and the combination of these two factors raises brain levels of homocysteine, that punches holes in arteries and causes plaques to form in them to cause ministrokes, which damages your brain.
Methionine is an essential protein building block that your body uses to make another nonessential building block called cysteine. If you lack any of the three vitamins: B12, folic acid or pyridoxine, methionine is converted to a poison called homocysteine that damages arteries and causes strokes, heart attacks and Alzheimer's disease. Meat is one of the richest sources of methionine, and leafy greens and whole grains are full of folic acid that prevents methionine from being converted to homocysteine. Reducing your intake of meat and poultry lowers your intake of methionine. Folic acid is found everywhere in nature that you get carbohydrates, because folic acid helps your body convert carbohydrates to energy. You can help to prevent Alzheimer's disease by getting folic acid from all whole grains and fortified cereals, leafy green vegetables, beans, seeds, nuts, and many other plants; and by reducing your intake of methionine by eating less meat. If homocysteine levels are above 100, take folic acid, pyridoxine and B12 (readily available in combination pills such as Foltex or Fol-B.)
A report from Sweden shows that statin drugs that are commonly used to help prevent heart attacks may also help prevent Alzheimer's disease (3). Almost everything that helps prevent heart attacks also appears to help prevent Alzheimer's disease. The statin drugs used to treat high cholesterol may help to prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease by increasing blood flow and decreasing inflammation, independent of their cholesterol-lowering actions.
An article from Columbia Medical School shows that people who develop Alzheimer's disease eat far more food and fat than those who do not develop that disease (4). The researchers found that people who have the apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 allele gene for susceptibility for Alzheimer's disease, and eat far more fat and food, are at high risk for Alzheimer's disease. On the other hand, people who don't have the APOE epsilon 4 gene, can eat huge amounts of fat and food and not be at increased risk for Alzheimer's disease. Several previous studies show that significantly reduced calorie diets are associated with longer life spans in mice and rats, presumably because eating less food produces fewer free radicals that increase the damage done by beta amyloids, the glue-like particles found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.
1)NEJM Feb 14, 2002.
2) JAMA February 14, 2001
3) Statins in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer disease. Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders, 2002, Vol 16, Iss 3, pp 131-136. M Crisby, LA Carlson, B Winblad. Crisby M, Huddinge Univ Hosp, Karolinska Inst, Neurotec Div Geriatr Med, Alzheimer Dis Res Ctr, S-14186 Stockholm, SWEDEN
4) Arch Neurol 2002;59:1258-1263
5) The influence of education on clinically diagnosed dementia incidence and mortality data from the Kungsholmen project. Archives of Neurology, 2001, Vol 58, Iss 12, pp 2034-2039. CX Qiu, L Backman, B Winblad, H AgueroTorres, L Fratiglioni. Qiu CX, Stockholm Gerontol Res Ctr, Psychol Sect, Box 6401, Olivecronas Vag 4, S-11382 Stockholm, SWEDEN
6) JAMA February 14, 2001
7) JAMA March 7, 1997.
8) NEJM April 24, 1997.
9) BS Mcewen, SE Alves, K Bulloch, NG Weiland. Ovarian steroids and the brain: Implications for cognition and aging. Neurology 48: 5 Suppl. 7 (MAY 1997):S8-S15.
10) JAMA October 21, 1997.
11) PS Aisen, GM Pasinetti. Glucocorticoids in Alzheimer's disease: The story so far. Drugs & Aging 12: 1 (JAN 1998):1-6. a multicentre trial of prednisone in Alzheimer's disease is under way and pilot studies of other anti-inflammatory regimens are being conducted.
12) S Gauthier. Prevention of Alzheimer's disease. Annales de Medecine Interne 149: 4 (JUN 1998):228-230.
13) E Giacobini, JP Michel. Treatment of Alzheimer's disease: New developments. Annales de Medecine Interne 149: 4
(JUN 1998):231-237.
Checked 8/9/05