Brain Health and Cognition

There is much talk about epidemics, if you look beyond the rhetoric and twaddle in the mainstream media. There are epidemics of ADHD, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

There is one dual qualified neurologist AND nutritionist in the United States. His name is Dr. David Perlmutter and he has a very interesting opinion about why the epidemics exist. More interestingly than that is that he has a solution to both retard and reverse the above mentioned conditions.

In a nutshell, grains have devolved into a different animal entirely than their prehistoric origins. Grains have become addictive, health-damaging and very difficult to avoid.
The glycemic index is the scale between 1 and 100 upon which foodstuffs are evaluated in their ability to stimulate insulin production. Insulin is secreted by the pancreas, when there is too much sugar in the blood. It forces the sugar into cells for energy storage, and too much sugar intake causes the body to stop producing insulin so readily and thus results in diabetes. A teaspoon of glucose has a glycemic index of 100, an apple about 55 and a slice of bread 75. Perlmutter suggests that bread is killing those of us with a gluten sensitivity, which constitutes the vast majority.
In his book “Grain Brain” he suggests that we need to eat more fat, less (or rather NO wheat) and no sugar. Sugar causes cholesterol in our blood stream to harden and adhere to the walls of our vasculature. That leads to atherosclerosis, high blood pressure and other cardio vascular problems. It is not the cholesterol that is the problem. The body needs that to carry fats to the brain, which itself is 70% fat. Fat is needed to create myelin, the sheath on our axons that carry nerve impulses effectively. Sugar mutates proteins and leads to degraded DNA. Bread and other wheat products act like sugar in stimulating the pancreas to release insulin, and thus also negatively affect cholesterol and its function.
Fruit has sugar (fructose) but when eaten with the fiber of the fruit itself, it absorbs the impact on the pancreas along with the phytonutrients required for optimal metabolism of the fruit sugar. Processed foods contain far too much sugar, and a lot of wheat.
Perlmutter puts his patients on a gluten/gliadin-free diet for 30 - 90 days and sees what he describes as “incredible” results. Mood-swings, depression, fatigue, insomnia and fibromyalgia often reduce dramatically if not completely disappear.
He also has a suggester protocol of brain boosters, including medium chain triglycerides, resveratrol and curcumin. Read his book - it might change your life.

For more information go to http://www.drperlmutter.com