Micah Stanley
It was previously thought that a high-sugar diet in particular was a risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer’s. Sugar increases insulin levels in the body. A chronically high insulin level, however, leads to a disruption of the blood-brain barrier and this condition in turn leads to a lack of insulin in the brain. A lack of insulin in the brain now prevents new memories from being created. Alzheimer’s develops. Unfortunately, artificial sweeteners are not an alternative, as researchers stated in April 2017 that artificial sweeteners, like sugar, are an important risk factor for Alzheimer’s.
The risk of dementia increases with sugar, but also with sweeteners
Millions of tons of sugar are consumed every year. In the US, it was nearly 11 million in 2016 alone, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Most of the sugar is consumed in the form of sweetened beverages such as sports drinks or lemonade. However, it is precisely these drinks that can damage the brain. However, sweeteners (aspartame, saccharin, cyclamate, etc.) are not a solution either, as they also affect brain health and increase the risk of dementia.
dr Matthew Pase from the Department of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and author of the two studies described below explains that excessive sugar consumption has long been seen as a (co)trigger of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. These include obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
However, little was known about the long-term effects of sugar consumption on the human brain. Therefore, Pase conducted various studies on this topic.
Since it is difficult to determine a group’s total sugar consumption, we chose the sweetened beverages as proxies,” says Pase.
The more sugar, the smaller the brain
The researchers used data from the Framingham Heart Study (FHS, 3rd generation) for their investigations. The first study was published on March 5, 2017, in the specialist journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. The results of cognitive tests as well as MRI scans of 4,000 people were taken into account.
It found that people who regularly drink sweetened beverages have been shown to have poorer memory, smaller brain volume, and a significantly smaller hippocampus – all risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. The hippocampus is the area of the brain responsible for memory and learning. Overall, multiple signs of an accelerated aging process in the brain could be identified.
The high-risk group includes people who drink more than two sweetened beverages a day (sodas, fruit juice, and other soft drinks) and those who drink more than three sodas a week.
The study also found that consuming one diet soda per day (or more) was associated with reduced brain volume.
Sweetener triples the risk of dementia
Another study similarly showed that drinking diet drinks daily increased your chances of suffering a stroke or dementia by a factor of three. Beverages with sweeteners are therefore not an alternative to sweetened beverages.
This second study was published in the journal Stroke on April 20, 2017, and is based on data from 2,888 people over the age of 45 years (here the risk of stroke was determined) and on the data from 1,484 people over the age of 60 years used to determine the risk of dementia became.
Other possible risk factors that may also contribute to stroke and dementia were considered, such as B. age, smoking, diet, and others. Nevertheless, not all factors could of course be taken into account, e.g. B. diabetes, which may have developed in the course of the ten-year study period.
Diabetes itself poses a risk of dementia. In addition, diabetics like to drink diet drinks. Nevertheless, the results are so significant that the possible diabetes connection cannot fully or exclusively explain them.
Sweetener increases the risk of stroke
We were very surprised that diet drinks in particular led to this result,” said Pase. “Earlier studies showed a connection between diet drinks and an increased risk of stroke (diet drinks increase the risk of stroke). However, it was not previously known that there is also a connection with dementia.”
Presumably, sweeteners influence the brain by changing the intestinal flora. Because a disturbed intestinal flora also affects the health of the brain via the gut-brain axis and can increase the risk of ADHD, depression, autism and also Alzheimer’s
dr Pase emphasized that his team did not differentiate between the individual sweeteners.
The best solution: (vitamin) water instead of soft drinks
dr Sudha Seshadri, professor of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, summarizes the new findings:
There’s no real reason to drink sugar-sweetened beverages. And drinking diet drinks isn’t an option either. Maybe we should just get used to good old-fashioned water as a thirst quencher.”
This would not only reduce the risk of stroke and dementia, but also the risk of many other chronic diseases. However, an alternative could also be homemade so-called vitamin water.
In addition to a sweetener-free and low-sugar diet, selected medicinal plants can be used to prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s, such as the Ayurvedic memory plant Brahmi (small fat leaf). Brahmi has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and liver and heart protection effects. In addition, the plant promotes the regeneration of nerve cells in the brain, thus promoting memory and inhibiting the development of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
