I joined a Dementia Caregiver support group on Facebook. My 95-year-old mother-in-law lives with us and sometimes exhibits word salad, has trouble getting up from a chair (dehydration! Water cures it) and other stressors. It’s a great group, very friendly and helpful and a good place to rant and vent.
A few days a go, I saw this: “At just 67 my Mom has been diagnosed with dementia due to diabetes.”
Wait, what? That’s a thing?
Oh, yes. There are hundreds of studies linking the two. For example, “Diabetes mellitus and risks of cognitive impairment and dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 144 prospective studies.” And “Potential impact of diabetes prevention on mortality and future burden of dementia and disability: a modelling study,” says, quite clearly, “What is already known about this subject? Diabetes increases the risk of developing dementia.”
Already known! Already known!
I am livid. We are surrounded by ultra-processed foods with high fructose corn syrup and seed oils, seniors’ teas with cakes and cookies, hospital breakfasts of muffin, margarine and jam.
And official Food Guides and some dieticians still singing the sad wrong bad song of low-fat and “healthy whole grains.”
The modeling study found: “If the relative prevalence of diabetes increases 49% by 2060, expected additional deaths would be approximately 255,000, with 85,900 cumulative additional cases of dementia and 104,900 additional cases of disability. With a smaller relative increase in diabetes prevalence (7% increase by 2060), we estimated 222,200 fewer deaths, and 93,300 fewer additional cases of dementia and disability, respectively, than the baseline case of a 26% increase in diabetes.” Let’s reduce/reverse T2 Diabetes, or we are doomed.
A glimmer of hope? “New U.S. dietary guideline recommendations take aim at sugar for children and adults,” from July 11, 2020. You have to read to the very end to see this: “The beverages and added sugar subcommittee was unable to get to three out of five assigned topics. For added sugars, only one of five questions were addressed, leaving out questions such as the relationship between added sugar consumption and risk of Type 2 diabetes, or the relationship between added sugar consumption during pregnancy and gestational weight gain.” Nope.
Maybe instead of a “heart healthy” sticker we could use a Dementia Warning sticker.
References
Bandosz, P. et al. (2019.) “Potential impact of diabetes prevention on mortality and future burden of dementia and disability: a modelling study.” From https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00125-019-05015-4
Reiley, L. (2020.) “New U.S. dietary guideline recommendations take aim at sugar for children and adults.”
Xue, M., et al.(2019.) “Diabetes mellitus and risks of cognitive impairment and dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 144 prospective studies.” From https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568163719300157
Edit: Reversal of diabetes can be a safe option for all
Char Can Cook Keto 