Metabolic Disorders like diabetes happen because your body is not able to break down and absorb the food you eat correctly. Since what you eat affects how your body works, and it the way in which your body and brain gets its nutrients, a disruption in the way your body breaks down the fuel has a real bearing on how it affects your memory. But never fear as usual there are still ways to improve your memory.
You heard all through school that “A healthy body produces a healthy mind.” That is because what happens to your body has a direct bearing on what’s going on inside your brain. When the body starts to break down, whether its from a disease or aging, the brain also begins to break down. Keeping your mind strong requires proper nutrition, a healthy lifestyle, and exercises for your body and your mind – like memory games and learning memory techniques
Scientists are trying to find the reasons why and how brain cells start to die off. They are putting a lot of effort into studying the brains of those who are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, as well as those who have metabolic syndrome (MetS), and how they relate to specific functions of the brain. Their hopes are to link memory loss to metabolic disorders, and maybe even isolate the reason for memory decline.
Metabolic Syndrome is a group of risk factors that, when put together, increase your risk of diabetes, stroke and coronary artery disease. The two most important factors they have found so far are a higher concentration of fat your middle, and resistance to the insulin produced naturally in your body to regulate your blood sugar. Too much sugar in your body, or too little, has an effect on all the functions in your body, including your kidneys and your brain.A French study, including 7087 men and women aged 65 and older in three different French cities that exhibited at least 3-5 markers for cardio-metabolic abnormalities. Those markers included:
- Hypertension
- Hyperglycemia
- Significant amount of fat around the waistline
- Low, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL)
- High levels of triglycerides — fatty molecules
Each volunteer in the study was given a series of visual, memory and language tests and then divided into groups according to age, gender, education, IQ, and if they tested for a high or low level of a protein-like substance called beta-amyloid 42 (The beta-amyloid 42 substance has recently been found to be a potential indicator for people is at risk for developing Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia).
Researchers were hoping that if beta-amyloid 42 was a precursor they could give a simple blood test and find out if a person was a candidate for Alzheimer’s or dementia in the future. They did conclude that MetS and several other markers had a negative impact on memory and cognitive function in older people, but did not identify any one market that could foresee the future of the disease.
This is Ron White, two-time USA Memory Champion , memory training expert, and memory keynote speaker, and from this study we can see that proper nutrition and exercise, along with memory training classes, and learning good memory techniques, will help to stimulate the brain and fight off dementia.
Sources:
Neurology website – Article: Metabolic syndrome and cognitive decline in French elders: The Three-City Study: http://www.neurology.org/content/76/6/518.full?sid=191d6cc0-06be-40b6-9074-11c81e6aefa4
Science AAA’s website– Alzheimer’s disease: a disorder of cortical cholinergic innervation: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/219/4589/1184.short
Neurological Review – The Role of Metabolic Disorders in Alzheimer Disease and Vascular Dementia: http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/66/3/300.pdf
Medline Plus – Genetic Brain Disorders: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/geneticbraindisorders.html
PubMed Health — Metabolic Syndrome: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004546/
