Women with diabetes AND high estrogen have 14 TIMES more dementia risk!....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 2-25-2014

This was in a Medical News Today study report later last month.

The study was done in women over 65.  But women with type 2 diabetes before menopause have double to four times the risk of heart disease than men do.  The underlying process that can cause Alzheimer’s begins long before people are 65.  And, women before menopause DO have high estrogen.

Worse, more women than men seem to get type 2 diabetes.

(We list the original link to the study summary from Medical News Today at the end of this post.)

This has many implications and uses.

1.  This adds to the already huge amount of research showing that diabetes and even too high blood sugar short of it tends to cause brain damage, mental decline, AND Alzheimer's disease.

2.  It shows why women are more at risk than men from mental decline, AND Alzheimer's disease because before menopause, women have high estrogen.

3.  It shows that it is even more important for women to make very strong efforts at lifestyle upgrades if they begin to show high blood sugar and for them to get tested for their HBA1C at least about every year or 6 months.

4.  Since many chemicals in our food and personal products have estrogenic effects, this means that finding ways to minimize this or remove them from our blood stream is important to do. 

Eating cruciferous vegetables often -- particularly broccoli & kale is one way to do this that also has other health benefits.  Eating them raw or raw in salads with extra virgin olive oil and or nuts and lightly steamed with extra virgin olive oil delivers their anti-cancer protection.  Cooking them more than that stops most of their cancer protection and may turn off their ability to disarm estrogen like chemicals.

Boiling or sautéing them over low moderate heat and serving them with extra virgin olive oil also makes their carotenes more bioavailable.  These have other kinds of cancer protective qualities and health benefits.

Minimizing your use of  most commercial cleaners and cosmetics and heating and storing your foods in glass or ceramic containers instead of plastics also helps minimize this.

And, since the estrogen like chemicals also effects men, this means that men today who have high blood sugar or diabetes are at more risk of mental decline than they once were.

5.  It means that even in low doses and using bio-identical estrogen hormone replacement after menopause should stop at low or low moderate levels unless the woman involved has low blood sugar readings and follows a lifestyle that prevents high blood sugar.

6.  Since it is progesterone that seems to help stop hot flashes and restore libido best, it might make sense for women who have enough estrogen after menopause to only take bioidentical progesterone for HRT to achieve those 2 goals.

7.  It means that it is particularly important for women to eat few sugars and artificial sweeteners and any wheat or other kinds of refined grains or even many whole grains other than wheat. 

It’s more important than once thought for women to do superslow strength training and high intensity cardio most days of every week. 

And, it’s important to eat foods that are mostly in the DASH II or Mediterranean diet except for grains and to add more nonstarchy vegetables.

8.  Lastly women with lower levels of high blood sugar such as 100 to 119 fasting glucose and/or HBA1C of 5.6 to 5.9 and of course any higher numbers to take the supplements that tend to turn down too high blood sugars both in general for chromium polynicotinate and r-lipoic or alpha lipoic acid and turmeric with black pepper -- AND take those like cinnamon or bitter lemon or the new super citri-max that prevent blood sugar surges BEFORE eating a food high in sugars or grains.

9. Other studies have found that taking the sterol stigmasterol which appears with beta sitosterol which may also help along with antioxidant foods or supplements may prevent this effect.  (Natrol’s Cholesterol Balance supplement has both those sterols and is surprisingly inexpensive.)

Here's the link to the original study:

Diabetes and high estrogen levels raise dementia risk for women

http://mnt.to/l/4kdX

Women aged 65 and over who have both diabetes and high estrogen levels are 14

times more likely to develop dementia than women who have neither condition.