A review of the data from the Framingham Offspring Study of over
1,352 people indicated different health issues correlated to the
shrinking of certain parts of your brain. The most pronounced
correlation was between your waist to hip ratio and your hippocampus
size in your brain, or in this case reduction in size. So, does size
matter? The hippocampus controls a lot of mental functions like: short
term memory, long term memory and spatial recognition (knowing where you
are in space).
Besides mid section weight gain other bad habits that appear to shrink that part of your brain are smoking and the disease diabetes.
The question becomes why? Why would the brain shrink, lose brain cells or function due to weight gain, smoking or diabetes? Smoking is sort of off in a class all by itself. We know that sever oxidative stress, or production of free radicals have a devastating on our entire body and can lead to every chronic disease known. The bio-chemical reaction that happens from smoking cigarettes creates a lot of damage, alters gene expression and keeps the body in a state of inflammation. All of these effects can negatively effect brain cells and cause damage.
The bigger question (no pun intended) is regarding abdominal weight gain and diabetes. We know that the indulging in sugars and grains that often lead to a diabetic state will cause spikes in blood glucose and insulin. These spikes and valleys alone can create an energy deficit in the brain that speeds up neuro-excito-toxic damage. If this process is coupled with eating processed foods filled with toxins, chemicals and excito-toxins, the resulting brain damage is even worse. As for the abdominal weight gain, we know that abdominal fat is a different type of fat than other body fat. This visceral fat produces what has been called toxic fat syndrome, where the fat actually produces inflammation and can add to the overall oxidative stress load of the body. Since body fat, including visceral fat is made from excess sugar it would stand to say that these people over the years eat rather similarly to the diabetics without becoming diabetic. This diabetic type of damage in non-diabetics is much more common than people think. Non-diabetic people eating too much processed sugars and grains can get the same negative blood sugar and insulin effects as a diabetic without ever falling into the diagnostic range of being diabetic. So, in this case I think the same mechanism applies.
One interesting note is we have learned is that the hippocampus, the part of the brain that shrinks with smoking, diabetes and abdominal weight gain, is not the part of the brain that gets damaged due to the non-diabetic sugar/insulin swings and the excito-toxic reaction, but rather the hypothalamus.
These are very different regions of the brain, both can effect memory and more. Add in the toxic load of the standard American diet, chemicals, pesticides and general stress and how these all effect your brain, it is a wonder any of us can think at all. It just goes to show that if we are not conscious of protecting our health and mental status we could be very vulnerable to multiple factors that could negatively effect us now, and particularly when we are older.
I do not know if reducing your abdominal weight gain can bring back any of the brain size that may have been unknowingly sacrificed. It does stand to reason that by slimming up the issue you can at least stop the process from getting any worse. By improving the quality of our diet, eating plenty of protective natural whole foods that are loaded with vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and good fats we can hope to grow some new brain connections, clear up mental fog, improve energy and balance the blood sugar/insulin reaction. Throw in the right exercises, both physical and mental teasers, and we can even see memory and cognition improve. Improving the range of motion of the neck and keeping the nerves free of any pressure will also improve brain cell firing and protect the brain from chronic, non-traumatic injury. So, yes, there is hope. Find a licensed natural health care professional, a chiropractor, masseuse, nutritionist or any combo of them and get your game plan together while you still can. Keep this article close in case you forget why you are calling them... haha. But truthfully, losing my mental capacity as I get older is one of my worst nightmares. I do not want to forget who I am, who those close to me are, nor sacrifice a single memory to preventable damage. So, I work on it now, all of the above are part of my team and plan, make them part of yours as well! Be well my friend! Dr. Don. drdon@drclum.com
Besides mid section weight gain other bad habits that appear to shrink that part of your brain are smoking and the disease diabetes.
The question becomes why? Why would the brain shrink, lose brain cells or function due to weight gain, smoking or diabetes? Smoking is sort of off in a class all by itself. We know that sever oxidative stress, or production of free radicals have a devastating on our entire body and can lead to every chronic disease known. The bio-chemical reaction that happens from smoking cigarettes creates a lot of damage, alters gene expression and keeps the body in a state of inflammation. All of these effects can negatively effect brain cells and cause damage.
The bigger question (no pun intended) is regarding abdominal weight gain and diabetes. We know that the indulging in sugars and grains that often lead to a diabetic state will cause spikes in blood glucose and insulin. These spikes and valleys alone can create an energy deficit in the brain that speeds up neuro-excito-toxic damage. If this process is coupled with eating processed foods filled with toxins, chemicals and excito-toxins, the resulting brain damage is even worse. As for the abdominal weight gain, we know that abdominal fat is a different type of fat than other body fat. This visceral fat produces what has been called toxic fat syndrome, where the fat actually produces inflammation and can add to the overall oxidative stress load of the body. Since body fat, including visceral fat is made from excess sugar it would stand to say that these people over the years eat rather similarly to the diabetics without becoming diabetic. This diabetic type of damage in non-diabetics is much more common than people think. Non-diabetic people eating too much processed sugars and grains can get the same negative blood sugar and insulin effects as a diabetic without ever falling into the diagnostic range of being diabetic. So, in this case I think the same mechanism applies.
One interesting note is we have learned is that the hippocampus, the part of the brain that shrinks with smoking, diabetes and abdominal weight gain, is not the part of the brain that gets damaged due to the non-diabetic sugar/insulin swings and the excito-toxic reaction, but rather the hypothalamus.
These are very different regions of the brain, both can effect memory and more. Add in the toxic load of the standard American diet, chemicals, pesticides and general stress and how these all effect your brain, it is a wonder any of us can think at all. It just goes to show that if we are not conscious of protecting our health and mental status we could be very vulnerable to multiple factors that could negatively effect us now, and particularly when we are older.
I do not know if reducing your abdominal weight gain can bring back any of the brain size that may have been unknowingly sacrificed. It does stand to reason that by slimming up the issue you can at least stop the process from getting any worse. By improving the quality of our diet, eating plenty of protective natural whole foods that are loaded with vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and good fats we can hope to grow some new brain connections, clear up mental fog, improve energy and balance the blood sugar/insulin reaction. Throw in the right exercises, both physical and mental teasers, and we can even see memory and cognition improve. Improving the range of motion of the neck and keeping the nerves free of any pressure will also improve brain cell firing and protect the brain from chronic, non-traumatic injury. So, yes, there is hope. Find a licensed natural health care professional, a chiropractor, masseuse, nutritionist or any combo of them and get your game plan together while you still can. Keep this article close in case you forget why you are calling them... haha. But truthfully, losing my mental capacity as I get older is one of my worst nightmares. I do not want to forget who I am, who those close to me are, nor sacrifice a single memory to preventable damage. So, I work on it now, all of the above are part of my team and plan, make them part of yours as well! Be well my friend! Dr. Don. drdon@drclum.com
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