Low-fat and Alzheimer’s

Here is what we know for sure:

A high fat, no carbohydrate diet (ketogenic) has been used to cure thirty percent of intractable pediatric epilepsy patients at Johns Hopkins University Hospital--patients who could not be helped by any other therapy.

The only treatment that has ever even slightly improved cognitive function for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease is a ketogenic diet, (high fat-low carbs).

Autopsies of Alzheimer’s patients brains show a marked deficiency of lipids and cholesterol compared to people without Alzheimer’s.

The myelin sheath that forms the insulation around our neuron cells and axons is composed of fatty substances. When people joke about “coating their nerve endings” with chocolate or bacon, they may be unknowingly literal.

In the last thirty years the world has seen an explosion of Alzheimer’s Disease, Autism and ADHD--all neurological diseases. While some cases are related to genetics, that would not explain the sudden rise in cases. That can only be ascribed to environmental changes during that time period.

It is fairly obvious that good neurological health depends on fats in our diet. Fats are essential in the maintenance and repair of our nervous system.

Concurrent with the epidemic of neurological disorders has been the sudden emphasis on eating a low fat diet to protect the heart, circulatory system and specifically the coronary arteries. There is now a whole shelf of items in the grocery store labelled low-fat, fat free, heart healthy. etc. In almost every case what has replaced the fats are more carbohydrates--starches and sugars of one kind or another.

Which leads to the other epidemic--obesity and type 2 diabetes. Most people associate obesity with eating fatty foods, but that may be too simple. The obesity epidemic has occurred at the same time people are cutting their fat intake. One in three people have or will get diabetes, and that has nothing to do with fats in the diet--it is related to the carb intake.

All of these things are happening in the last thirty years or so. Sure, correlation is not necessarily causation but are there any better ideas? If fats are essential for neurological health, and the country has an epidemic of neurological diseases after cutting fats out of the diet, what is hard to understand about that?

If most of our processed foods have been spiked with extra sugar, high fructose corn syrup and starches to replace the lost fat, and we suddenly have an epidemic of obesity and diabetes follow, what else should we think?

I am not an unbiased observer here. I was a vegetarian for most of my youth as a Seventh-day Adventist, careful to eat lots of vegetables, fruits and nuts. When I would have been eating meat, I had wheat gluten and textured soy protein instead. When I was drafted into the US Army, I gave that up, and gained thirty pounds in the first two months of basic training, due to a huge increase in calories and a great reduction in physical exertion.

My wife and I became vegetarian about three years ago because she was having digestive problems with eating meat, and it’s easier for two to eat vegetarian than just one. I am now having second thoughts.

One of the saddest parts of growing old is losing friends and relatives to the relentless advance of age. The part that upsets me most are those who lose their minds to Alzheimer’s and dementia before they go. I still know a fair number of Seventh-day Adventists, and it seems to me that an inordinate number fall prey to dementia way too early as they age.

I knew the Lloyd family, who were strict, devout, vegetarian Adventists in Colorado when we lived there. They needed an organ player for their services, and they asked me to play, even though I was not a member. I became close friends with Ernie Lloyd. He was a pilot who flew his plane over the mountains every week to carry the preacher over from Montrose to Nucla to give the sermon. He was very active and smart, but he rapidly lost his mind in his sixties and died not knowing anyone.

My good friend and coworker here in Nevada, Ken Lighthouse, has lost his father and his brother to Alzheimer’s. Both were devout Adventist vegetarians. His brother was a medical missionary in Guam for several years before he became unable to do the work and was sent home when he was sixty five.

I know of other Adventists with dementia related problems, and it breaks my heart.

The Adventist church just concluded a health survey of their membership, and I looked for information on dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, but was unable find any data on those lines. The results were focussed on heart health, it seemed to me. I would love to find some data on vegetarian, low-fat Adventist diet and rates of Alzheimer’s Disease.

I have been researching online and reading books on the subject, and I am of the belief that we need much less carbohydrate in our diet, and a lot more fat for complete whole body nutrition. For too long the focus has been on heart health only, while we overlook the devastation our “heart healthy” diet may doing to the rest of our bodies.

When my son Wes was studying nursing in school, I wrote an essay entitled “Cyanide cures Cancer.” No, it wasn’t about laetrile, or any other quack medicine. It was just I saw the problem with surveying drug efficacy against one disease and ignoring all the others. If all you do is check if it  prevented heart attacks, you miss the whole picture. The gist of the article is if you take 5 grams of cyanide in the morning, it is guaranteed you will never die of cancer. So--since we are only looking at cancer--cyanide cures cancer!

The question must be asked, “If a low fat diet kept people from dying of heart attacks, what did they die of instead?” If continuing research shows millions died of Alzheimer’s and complications of obesity and diabetes rather than heart attacks because they ate low fat, high carb diets, what is the advantage?

After reading a book, “The Story of the Human Body” by Daniel Leiberman, I decided to put the Paleo diet to the test. I have always had a problem keeping my weight down, and through the years I have tried every diet available to try and lose weight. One year I lived on one foot long Subway sandwich a day all spring. I lost thirty pounds. I gained it back before winter.

I tried other low calorie diets, and the pattern was always the same. I’d lose the weight in the spring, and put it back on by fall. Must be bear genes, I figured. Actually, after a couple of months fighting hunger and feeling weak, I would get depressed thinking about spending the rest of my life hungry and decide I’d rather be fat.

The premise of the Paleo diet is that humans have evolved as hunter/gatherers and are adapted to eating vegetables, fruit, nuts, and meat. Nobody ate grains until about 10 or 12 thousand years ago, when agriculture started, and our bodies cannot handle the excess energy involved in starches and sugar. So if we go back to that original diet our bodies will automatically regulate to our optimum weight and stay there. Best of all, you will not be hungry. Eat all you want, stop when you are satisfied--just don’t eat any wheat, rice, corn, sugar or potatoes.

I can report complete success so far. Since May I have lost thirty pounds and stabilized there. I have never felt better. I have never felt hungry. I snack on peanuts and pecans, and not the dry roasted ones either. I came in second in a bicycle race this summer, and I’m working on riding to the top of Winnemucca Mountain on my Trek mountain bike. I ride at least two miles every day to get the mail out at the highway, and once a week I ride into the post office, which is 14 miles round trip. I feel like I can live well on this diet for the rest of my life.

I am thinking of asking my gastroenterologist if it might be worthwhile to taper off my autoimmune suppression drugs and the anti-inflammatory drugs that control my chronic ulcerative colitis. Some people have found that removing carbs from the diet relieves the symptoms. That would be nice!

I sent my son Wes a long article entitled, “APOE-4: The Clue to Why Low Fat Diet and Statins may Cause Alzheimer’s,” by Dr. Stephanie Seneff. It is over 25 pages long with lots of references to lots of studies theorizing that statins and low fat diets are responsible for the Alzheimer’s explosion. I am hoping he is as impressed as I was. I think there’s something here!