What is the Link Between Insulin and Alzheimer’s Disease?

Insulin, glucose, Alzheimer’s disease, Dementia … how are these things all connected?

We’ll be honest, it can get a little complicated, but we know so much more about the human body now that it’s really worth taking a little time to understand how it all works.

If you, or a friend or family member, has diabetes then you may already have looked into the roles of glucose and insulin in the body.

Today, we’re going to break it right down, step by step, so that you understand why part of the Bredesen Protocol, our treatment plan for Alzheimer’s and Dementia, involves tackling glucose and insulin levels in the body.

Ready?

Let’s get started!

Glucose is a simple sugar, and it is one of the preferred energy sources for the body. However, it is also toxic in high quantities. We need to be vigilant about the amount of glucose, or blood sugar, we are carrying in our bodies, but that can be tricky.

We get glucose from carbohydrates such as bread, fruits, vegetables and dairy, but most of us are consuming way too much.

In ‘The End of Alzheimer’s’ by Dr Bredesen (we will refer a lot to this book throughout!), we learn that:

Okay, so our modern day diets don’t make it easy to avoid eating glucose. What happens in the body?

Ideally, glucose is processed several times per day. Glucose is broken down into useable energy sources by enzymes and a hormone, insulin, which is made in the pancreas.

Diabetes can be caused by a few different things, from the pancreas not producing the right hormones at the right time, to insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance means that the body no longer realises that it is producing insulin, making more and more. Insulin resistance is the problem that can contribute towards symptoms of Alzheimer’s, Dementia and cognitive decline.

Let’s explore how that works, now.

What is the Link Between Insulin and Alzheimer’s Disease?

When something is always there, we stop responding to it. Think about how you might stop noticing a fragrance after a while because you’ve been in a heavily-perfumed room, or perhaps the noises and alerts that once made you jump in shock after stepping sleepily onto a commuter train in the morning become second nature.

That’s what is happening in our bodies:

• We consume too much sugar.
• The body becomes so used to flooding itself with insulin that it stops noticing how much insulin is already present before it makes more.
• Our cells no longer react the way they are supposed to when they come into contact with insulin.

Insulin resistance contributes to type 2 Diabetes for this reason, but what about Dementia?

Insulin’s job isn’t just to break down glucose. The body creates things which work much harder than that, and insulin has a few other roles to play in the way your body works. There are two reasons why insulin resistance causes problems related to Alzheimer’s and Dementia:

• Insulin sends signals to support neuron survival when it binds to receptors. Neurons are cells which specialise in aiding nerve function in the body – insulin resistance means less ‘survival signals’ sent to neurons, which means less neurons. Neurons make up your nervous system, and the biggest part of that system is your brain.
• The body breaks insulin down again after it has done its job and sorted out glucose levels. This process requires a few enzymes in order to work properly – one of them is called IDE (insulin-degrading enzyme). However, like the multi-talented insulin, IDE also wears a few hats in the body in terms of all the different tasks it is responsible for. IDE is also needed to break down amyloid beta.

Still with us? We’ve gone from eating too much sugar, to producing too much insulin, to insulin resistance, to needing a lot of IDE to break down all that insulin again, and now we’re meeting a new character in the story of insulin and Alzheimer’s Disease: amyloid beta. Amyloid beta is an amino acid, and it is closely linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

Let’s round up this explanation of the link between insulin and Alzheimer’s Disease by looking at what amyloid beta does, and why it is so closely connected to Alzheimer’s Disease.

We’ve gone from eating too much sugar, to producing too much insulin, to insulin resistance, to needing a lot of IDE to break down all that insulin again, and now we’re meeting a new character in the story of insulin and Alzheimer’s Disease: amyloid beta.

Amyloid Beta and Alzheimer’s Disease

Amyloid beta causes Alzheimer’s disease … this was the backbone of lots of studies into Alzheimer’s and Dementia, and looking for treatments.

Why was that?

Because people with Alzheimer’s Disease have more amyloid beta in their systems than people without symptoms. This led to lots of studies attempting to reduce amyloid beta in the body. As Dr Bredesen says:

We now realise that amyloid always appears in the brain alongside Alzheimer’s symptoms because it is one of the body’s ways of coping with Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s an indicator, rather than necessarily a cause.

Let’s bring it back to insulin. Let’s say that we have high blood sugar levels, as a result of modern diets containing a lot of sugar. The body is flooded with insulin, and over a period of time, develops resistance to insulin. The body is therefore also producing a lot of IDE (insulin degrading enzyme), and there is far less of it available in the brain to break down amyloid beta, so amyloid beta levels increase.

Until this point, that increase in amyloid beta was assumed to be a cause of Alzheimer’s disease, but it’s actually an effect: amyloid beta is result of the brain trying to regain balance again.

No wonder all those medicines created to destroy amyloid beta weren’t helping patients feel better!

Conclusion: The Link Between Insulin and Alzheimer’s Disease

Now, if you were hoping to reach this conclusion and read a satisfying, clear link between insulin resistance and Alzheimer’s, then I’m afraid that we have misled you.

In fact, it’s not us – it’s the driving logic behind modern, western medicine. Western medicine is reactive – it fights fires in the body, responding to illnesses and trying to find treatments for symptoms, rather than actually investigating and fixing the root causes.

Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia demand a different approach. Where diseases such as cancer result from something going wrong in the body – a build-up of damaged, malignant cells; Alzheimer’s and Dementia are the result of the body trying to protect itself from three toxic threats, but being unable to do so because the balance is all wrong.

The three threats?

• Inflammation (from infection, diet, or another cause)
• Decline and shortage of supportive nutrients, hormones and brain-supporting molecules
• Toxic Substances such as metals or bioxins

Insulin resistance is only one of many factors which fall into those three threat categories, and must all be considered in order to treat Alzheimer’s and Dementia effectively.

That is why we may never find a single ‘cure’, but we have already started to figure out how to efficiently test people and create personalised treatment plans based on their body’s responses to these threats.

Insulin resistance is ‘arguably the single most important metabolic contributor to Alzheimer’s disease development and progression’ (The End of Alzheimer’s, Dr Bredesen).

Dealing with insulin resistance alone might not create measurable differences to Alzheimer’s symptoms, but at CogMission, we examine insulin resistance and 35 other potential causes of cognitive decline, to achieve amazing results.

If you’re interested in talking to us about getting tested, getting treatment or just getting a bit of support with personalised treatment plans for Alzheimer’s and Dementia, then send us a message and we’ll set up a call with our clinic directors, Jean and Charmaine.

We also have a dedicated nutritionist, dentist and a team of experts on hand to discuss your health.

We hope you’ve found this article, focussing on insulin resistance and Alzheimer’s disease, useful! Let us know in the comments if there’s anything we can explain more clearly.

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