Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are among the most feared consequences of aging, impacting nearly 7 million adults in the U.S. today, a number expected to double by 2060.
Transcript:
Can you prevent dementia, cognitive decline or Alzheimer’s disease? New research sheds light on how we may be able to do so. Dementia, Alzheimer’s, these are, I guess you can say they’re some of the scariest diagnoses that most of us would do most anything to prevent. Well, a new research study suggests there’s a critical age and time window when we can intervene to possibly prevent future cognitive decline. And there may be a specific way that we can slow or even prevent this brain aging.
The new study from Dr. Mujica-Parodi and her colleagues looked at over 19,000 functional MRI scans and found brains destabilize or show signs of early aging and impaired function. Not in a linear fashion, meaning not a little bit every year of our lifetime, but rather brain aging appears to start in our forties and tends to coincide with the onset of insulin resistance. And interestingly, the areas of the brain that age the fastest are the most susceptible to the impact of insulin resistance. so on the one hand, that sounds pretty scary, right? Once we hit our forties and experience elements of insulin resistance, we’re at greater risk of progressive brain dysfunction, basically.
But the good news is there may be something that you can do about it. The researchers also studied 100 participants and found that administering ketones, which provides the brain with ketones for energy, can bypass the insulin resistance and help improve brain function. The researchers suggest that there may be this critical time window for intervention when the brain cells are impaired but still able to recover, which could prevent the risk for future decline.
Now, this early study could pave the way for for much more research about the timing and specific ketone-based therapies that could prevent dementia. And in the meantime, it’s highly suggestive that we can take action and we can likely reduce the risk of dementia by addressing insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction.
So if you want more details, please see the full interview with me, Dr. Kirk Nylen and Dr. Lily Mujica-Parodi on our Metabolic Mind YouTube page or podcast.
