Here's Something That Will Knock Your Hat In The Creek

[tex]

At any rate, it knocked my hat in the creek, when I read it. If you regularly read Dr. Briffa's blog, you probably already know this - if not, I suggest you read it, as it contains information that I consider to be very important to our future health.

I wish we had access to the full article, but for the moment, at least, the information in his blog is a very good start. This blog pertains to a review from the European Journal of Internal Medicine entitled Nutrition and Alzheimer’s disease: The detrimental role of a high carbohydrate diet.

From his blog:

One of the major points made in the paper is this: cholesterol and fat is really important to the brain. It points out that although the brain is only about 2 per cent of body weight, it contains about a quarter of the total cholesterol in the body. The authors point out several roles for cholesterol in the brain, including the synapse – the ‘gap’ where one cell can communicate with another. Communication here is via what are known as ‘neurotransmitters’, which are released by one nerve cell and float across the synaptic gap to exert the effect on the nerve adjacent to it. The authors summarise the importance of cholesterol in the brain like this:

Cholesterol is required everywhere in the brain as an antioxidant, an electrical insulator (in order to prevent ion leakage), as a structural scaffold for the neural network, and a functional component of all membranes. Cholesterol is also utilized in the wrapping and synaptic delivery of the neurotransmitters. It also plays an important role in the formation and functioning of synapses in the brain.

It’s also true that the brain actively takes up cholesterol (in the form of LDL cholesterol). This in itself suggests that cholesterol is desired in the brain and does something useful. Interestingly, a gene defect which leads to impaired cholesterol uptake by the brain is also associated with an enhanced risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The authors of this review also point out that the fluid that circulates in and around the brain and spinal column (the cerebrospinal fluid) in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease is low in cholesterol and other fats compared to individuals without this disease. Also, those who run low cholesterol levels are found to be at increased risk of dementia.

Regarding the role of carbohydrates in Alzheimer's disease:

What this got to do with carbohydrate, though? As the reviewers point out, carbohydrates raised blood sugar levels, and sugar (either in the form of glucose or fructose) can damage tissues through the formation of ‘advanced glycation end-products’ (AGEs). AGE damage can affect LDL cholesterol, and impair its uptake into the brain.

The authors of the review note also that individuals with type 2 diabetes (who tend to run raised blood sugar levels) have a 2- to 5-fold enhanced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. It’s been suggested that the fundamental problem here is impaired cholesterol availability by the brain.

What we’ve learned from this is:

1. our brains need cholesterol
2. a high-carbohydrate diet is likely to stop our braining getting enough cholesterol

Now, do we have any takers for a low-fat, low-cholesterol, high-carbohydrate diet?

The red emphasis is mine, of course. It will be very interesting to see where this goes. Will some "experts" try to sweep it under the rug, because it gores one of their favorite oxen, (a low-fat, low-cholesterol, high-carb lifestyle)?

I took a statin, (simvastatin), for 9 months and 19 days, on the recommendation of more than a few doctors, who insisted that I needed to take it to reduce my stroke risk, following a second TIA-like event, last May. I stopped taking it 43 days ago, to see if it was the cause of a stiffness problem with my fingers, that seemed to be getting worse. The problem hasn't totally disappeared, but it seems to be much less noticeable, these days, so I can't say for sure that it was the cause of the problem, but it appears that it might be. When I told my GP that I was going to stop taking it for a couple of weeks, to see if it would make a difference, he suggested that I stop taking it longer than that, to give it a good trial. So, I'm still not taking it, , and the longer I go, the less stiffness problem I seem to have. Anyway, when you're looking for reasons to not take a drug, an article such as this one seems to offer a mighty good reason, so the discontinuation may become permanent.

The big question is, "can we afford to starve the brain for cholesterol?" One thing I would hate to do, is to discover 10 years from now, that taking a statin contributed to my developing Alzheimer's. Statins, may or may not turn out to continue to be popular, but in view of the evidence, I don't see how anyone can, in good faith, defend a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet.

http://www.drbriffa.com/2011/03/29/carb ... the-brain/

Love,
Tex

[jodibelle352]

Tex:
Do you know where someone (like myself) would find a
listing of drugs with stantin? Could this be found in any of my blood pressure med's? I take 240mgs. daily of Diltiazem (gn) for Tiazak & 10 mgs. daily of Quinapril (gn) for Accupril.
I'm not so knowledgeable about scientific research but I can pack a powerful punch when it comes to 'up lifting' the spirits of others. So I hope my question isn't 'off the wall".
Love & God's Blessings:
Jodi

[Joefnh]

I suppose the next question is what would a good level be. Our modern diets can supply quite a bit of cholesterol and fats, not all of them healthy. The issue also remains the linking high levels of cholesterol with circulatory and cardiac problems

Joe

[sarkin]

Jodi - you'll get more expert answers but I wanted to chime in right away that neither of your drugs are statins. One is a calcium channel blocker and the other an ACE inhibitor - two different types of blood pressure control. Neither is intended to reduce cholesterol (and your doc may not have felt your cholesterol was at a worrying level, or maybe the blood pressure was a more urgent concern).

Phew! One less thing to worry about. My mother reacted to a blood pressure medication in one of those classes, but you definitely don't have that problem, or you would have known right away.

Tex, I'm going to reread that whole thing - I have a bee in my bonnet about statins (hm, maybe I should get that knocked into the creek, along with my hat!), and want to temper my thinking with a little time. I have heard Alzheimer's described as "type 3 diabetes" - which certainly comports with this idea that a high-carb, low-everything-else diet is not a good blanket recommendation. I'm glad your statin-free experiment is going well. I've heard statins themselves associated with cognitive impairment, as well as muscle pain and weakness, and reduced immunity. A friend went on Zocor, and his cholesterol went through the roof. I'm sure you can guess his doctor's response - more/better statins!

Joe, if I've been following this right, the current thinking no longer blames consuming cholesterol for cholesterol in the body, as I bet you've read, too. I believe cholesterol is one of those things they have misfigured out every which way, because they can measure it. There may be something else they just haven't looked at yet that's the real measure for cardiac risk. (Kind of like they didn't know about MC till they looked, and a lot of mast-cell issues are likely unseen because the stain isn't applied.) I think the same is true of a lot of measurements, like bone density scans. It's surely useful to know whether your bones are thinning a lot faster than your peers. But that may not be the whole story about fracture risk. Does thin = brittle, always? Are there thin bones that are more resilient than others? Are there breaks in bones that looked good on scans?

Gonna reread now,

Sara

[Pat]

Tex,

I guess if you get Alzheimers in 10 years then you won't care or remember anything about the statins anyway.

Pat

[tex]

Hi Jodi,

As Sara pointed out, the meds you are taking don't contain a statin. Statins are usually prescribed alone, and I believe the most common brands are Crestor, Lipitor, Zocor, Pravachol, Lescol, Mevacor, and Livalo.

Please don't misunderstand me, statins have not been shown, (at least not at this point), to cause Alzheimer's disease. I'm just a bit concerned about taking a statin, because they are designed to lower blood levels of cholesterol, and that means that blood flowing through the brain will probably contain less-than-ideal levels of cholesterol, (less-than-ideal for the brain, at least).

Love,
Tex

[jodibelle352]

Thank You Sara ~
I understand better now. It's just that I have CC, Fibromyalgia & SLE (Systemic Lupus) so over the years since 1995 I've had to take so many different kinds of med's that I feel like a walking 'time bomb'.
Love & God's Blessings:
Jodi

[tex]

I guess if you get Alzheimers in 10 years then you won't care or remember anything about the statins anyway.

No, that's the problem. Until it really becomes advanced, I'll still be able to remember what happened 10 years ago, I just won't be able to remember what I did 10 minutes ago.

Tex

[mbeezie]

Joe and others,

I don't think anyone knows the answer to your question. Sara is correct in that eating cholesterol doesn't raise cholesterol (eggs are OK). And we know that saturated fats (animal fats) aren't as bad as once thought. But then there are trans fats . . . and where there are trans fats there are usually highly processed foods, and that means high carbs too. I think if we get back to a more paleo diet the amount of fat is less important - you need the fat to feel satiated. Grass fed/pastured meats have a slightly better fat profile than corn-fed (contains more CLA). Virgin coconut oil is the new "in" fat because of medium chain triglycerides. Think fats in their natural form and that is probably the way to go. I think we must look at the whole picture when we talk about heart health. We know that looking at cholesterol levels alone is not enough, yet we have been brainwashed that it is the only thing that matters. There's nothing more ridiculous than someone trying to convince themselves that fat free cookies are the way to go for heart health. I recommend you read In Defense of Food for a very good look at this topic.

Mary Beth

[sarkin]

Tex, I'm betting you've seen this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17877925

Love this sentence: "Longitudinal epidemiology studies have not demonstrated a decreased risk of AD among statin users versus nonusers."

And, after more bad news for pharma investors: "In spite of negative studies, the possibility remains that statin therapy may reduce risk of dementia and AD." Sure, and the possibility looks like even money that statins make these things worse, but that's not the answer they're looking for.

Statins are known to deplete CoQ10. That could be one reason why fatigue and muscle pain are such common side effects. Dementia/AD would take time to show up. But since CoQ10 has shown some promising in slowing the progression of dementia, it might be a good idea not to deplete it in the first place.

--Sara

[tex]

The issue also remains the linking high levels of cholesterol with circulatory and cardiac problems

Joe,

As far as I can tell, all the conclusions about this issue are based on circumstantial evidence. No cause and effect has ever been proven, nor is there any evidence to suggest that cholesterol in the diet has any effect on deposits in the cardiovascular system, (as Sara mentioned).

Looking at this another way, it has been proven that lowering the total cholesterol level has no beneficial effect on overall death risk. Lowering cholesterol seems to lower the risk of cardiovascular events, but it has not been shown to lower overall death rates. Likewise, statins, have been shown to lower the risk of cardiovascular events, but they have not been shown to lower overall death rates. IOW, statins lower the risk of adverse cardiovascular events, but they apparently increase the risks of developing alternative fatal consequences, such as infections, cancer, (Alzheimer's), etc., more than enough to offset the gains made by lowering cardiovascular risk.

IOW, we have to access the risks, and decide which path is the most likely to take us to a ripe old age, with the lowest overall mortality risk. Maybe someone will work out a good algorithm for that purpose, one of these days, so that we can just plug in our test scores, and it will predict our odds, based on either scenario, (that is, taking a statin, or not taking a statin).

EDIT: I see that Mary Beth has added a lot of illumination on this issue, while I was writing this post. Thanks, Mary Beth.

Tex

[tex]

Sara,

I hadn't seen that study, but I looked up a more recent article, based on a huge cohort, which showed that statins definitely do not prevent dementia, nor Alzheimer's disease:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/591119

They keep trying to prove the impossible, but since, as you point out, statins negatively affect cognition, they're flogging a dead horse, IMO.

When I stopped taking the simvastatin, I continued to take the coenzyme Q10. That may be why I'm continuing to see improvement in my stiffness problem. I think I'll continue to take it.

Thanks,
Tex

[tex]

Thinking back, at least 4 or 5 doctors who saw me when I was in the hospital with the second TIA, insisted that I needed to take a statin, (along with an expensive blood thinner, BP pills, pills to slow down my heart, etc., even though all my labs were within the normal range), but not a single one of them mentioned coenzyme Q10. So, when I did a followup with my GP, I asked him what he thought about taking CoQ10. He said that he thought it was a good idea, (and yet, like all the other doctors, he never mentioned it, until I asked about it.)

The lesson that I take away from that is:

1. Statins are important, because doctors get to write a prescription for them.

2. OTC meds/supplements such as CoQ10 are much less important, because no prescription is needed.

I don't believe that they intentionally mean to convey that message, but I get the impression that if it doesn't require a prescription, it's not on their radar.

Tex

[sarkin]

Tex, I was vigorously agreeing with your previous post when I saw the next one... yup, agree agree agree.

There's a lot of money in those statins, and they've spent a fortune getting taught in medical schools, so the true value of the drugs and the perceived values among some med school grads may be very different (long rant narrowly avoided here). My father died of an adverse reaction to the statin Crestor, which is painfully ironic because they 'upgraded' him from Lipitor to Crestor to keep his little-old-man heart issues from killing him. (At the time of his death, his total cholesterol was 225, so the statins 'work' - at the wrong job.)

OK, that's enough about that, but I'm leaving it in this post as 'full disclosure' that I am not of an open mind regarding this class of medications. I hope I'll have a sense to consider them more openly if and when they might be something I need.

I like what you said about figuring out our path to a ripe old age. I take into account that bit of personal history. I can't know whether I'm more at risk for adverse statin side effects, but I do think it's a question worth asking. And there's no way to answer it.

That's what's so valuable about this amazing forum - there is no giant body of statistics "out there" on MC courses, treatments and food tolerances. But "in here" we have an amazingly and well-considered set of observations, both individual, and regarding the whole cohort. Nothing can tell any one of us for certain how a particular a diet or medication choice will affect us - but we can learn from each other how to determine whether something is going in the right direction much, much faster than we ever could on our own (and faster than most people, with most conditions, are able to do so). That saves time, which saves health. When I read that no one here has achieved remission without attending to diet, or that almost everyone also reacts to casein, I was immediately ready to shortcut what I could. Maybe things will be different years down the road. Right now I'm glad to be *on* the road!

Thanks, Mary Beth, for your input here. All those 'health food junk food' options blow my mind. It does seem as though eating 'food' is sound advice, startling as it is that we need to be reminded!

And Jodi - I know what you mean about being a walking time bomb. I guess everyone is, at one level or other - but something like CC or Lupus or Fibromyalgia really bring that feeling home. You've had a lot to deal with on every level, and I hope you're feeling better all the time.

Sara

[Coach Polly]

Once again, the wealth of knowledge on this board never ceases to amaze me. This thread makes me feel like I've been reading a medical journal or watching an episode of Quincy ! I should have paid more attention in Biology class.