3 Ways to prevent mental decline....

3 Ways to prevent mental decline....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 7-2-2013

This post has these three ways and a bonus link to a previous post with a whole set of other things you can do!

1.  The first one is to avoid a newly understood way to cause Alzheimer’s disease. 

(Excessive insulin release in type 2 diabetes and in people headed for it has always helped cause Alzheimer’s; but researchers just found out how strong and direct that cause really is!)

When you have an excessive release of insulin, this research found, you also release too much of a protein called amylin.  In the brain, the new research found, excessive amylin causes the same sort of tangles and damage to nerves that beta amyloid does.  And, it may make any beta amyloid tangles and damage worse too!

This is a really critical thing to know.

We already knew that the too high blood sugar average and surges of type 2 diabetes and the lifestyle that produces it, cause damages to the blood vessels and capillaries in your brain.  That drop off in circulation causes brain damage and vascular dementia if it’s too high and goes on too long.

This new information is a crusher! 

It shows that in addition to that increase in vascular dementia, the insulin surges and too high insulin go with too much amylin which causes Alzheimer’s directly at the same time!  Yikes!

The most effective way to prevent these effects is to stop the lifestyle that generates them and replace it with the lifestyle that prevents these effects instead.

That removes the biggest causes and replaces them with things that cause the reverse!

Eating more than the smallest and occasional intake of real sugar; eating and drinking too much sugar instead, eating or drinking any high fructose corn syrup, any regular intake of refined grains -- each tends to cause these blood sugar and insulin surges. Oops!

Drinking diet soft drinks and eating artificial sweeteners is not entirely safe for any of the major artificial sweeteners according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. But far worse, recent studies show they cause much the same insulin surges as sugars!  (That’s likely why they tend to cause the abdominal obesity and type 2 diabetes found in other studies.)

a) So, to prevent these two causes of mental decline (and many other deadly health problems) drink no soft drinks; never buy or eat foods and drinks with high fructose corn syrup and always read labels to be sure to avoid it; eat real sugar only a few times a week or a month and in small amounts; stop buying or eating foods made out of refined grains; and eat and drink health supporting and zero to very low glycemic foods and drinks instead.

b) Instead eat foods such as low glycemic and nonstarchy vegetables, low glycemic fruits, beans and lentils, and nuts for those not allergic.  These foods also provide massive amounts of several kinds of health protecting nutrients. These foods are high in fiber and mostly low in calories.  Many of them taste good directly.  And many do when prepared well with added spices.  You can literally eat a LOT of them not feel too hungry, and not have the kind of extra rebound hunger and cravings at all that you get with the bad stuff.

b)  Do vigorous exercise most days of every week, particularly super slow strength training and burst cardio either in interval or variable cardio.  This directly burns sugars and prevents and helps reverse insulin resistance. The sessions can be effective in as little as 10 to 20 minutes a day.

The much better news is that by stopping these bad foods and drinks, eating the health supporting ones only, and getting this kind of exercise has many and dramatic other health benefits.

It slows aging; it causes fat loss and makes fat loss easy and easy to keep off; and it also prevents heart attacks, strokes, and many cancers!

2.  Avoid MSG, other glutamates such as potassium glutamate, and packaged snack foods that to be more addictive have several other kinds of glutamates too.

One of the doctors who writes on health, Russell Blaylock, MD, has taken the position for some time that these glutamate compounds help cause Alzheimer’s disease. He calls them excitotoxins..

On June 20^th nearly two weeks ago, I saw an article on a drug that looked promising to reverse or slow Alzheimer’s disease.  That may or may not pan out or be side effect free enough to use. 

BUT the technical discussion of how it worked showed clearly that a high intake of glutamates caused some of the damage and Alzheimer’s disease.

The good news is that you get an extra bonus for avoiding MSG and these other glutamates.  They are proven fatteners!  The smaller the amount of them you eat, the less fat you will be!

The bad news is that it is quite difficult in the United States.  Besides MSG itself, you often find things like autolyzed yeast, natural spices, and spices as ingredients of packaged foods and spice blends.

Every one of those is a sneaky way to include MSG without saying so directly.

So avoiding MSG can be harder than it should be.  As an example, I like mustard.  But when I read the labels on almost every brand, I found “spices” listed as an ingredient.

Only Annie’s Naturals at Whole Foods makes a mustard without “spices” and is the only mustard I’ve found with no “spices” listed on the label.  Yikes!

3.  There is a supplement that BOOSTS mental performance without using energy boosters such as caffeine or drugs like amphetamines.

It lowers anxiety so you focus better mentally and are more able to explore trial solutions or new information than when you are too anxious or fearful.  You also can recall things you need far better when your anxiety is low.

You are more likely to take action and solve problems because of this in addition to learning better and doing better on high stakes tests!

It’s called Bacopa.  And the kind I take is from a company called Paradise Herbs.

You just read why I take it!

But in a recent email, Al Sears MD found that Bacopa boosts mental performance in several other ways too!

Besides the lower anxiety and lower heart rates I knew about, the people taking Bacopa for just 3 months had, also had:

Better spatial memory, memory accuracy, and ability to process visual information.

Better word recall, attention and ability to ignore irrelevant information when learning,

and better  memory scores.

AND, other studies found that taking Bacopa helped protect the brains of the people doing it from damage from Aluminum compounds!

4.  Bonus:

In a previous post, I covered some other ways to prevent or reverse mental decline.

There is an enormous amount you can do besides these three methods in this post!

That post literally has a whole set of other methods that work:

http://iehealth.blogspot.com/2012/07/newdiscoveries-on-how-to-grow-new-brain.html

This post has other methods shown to prevent Alzheimer’s AND three methods that can help reverse the damage!