One of the most central ideas of Grain Brain is that sugar is detrimental to brain health. Blood sugar elevations are related to damage to the brain and I i have to say that after Grain Brain was published this was actually supported in very well respected literature this is an interesting report from the New England Journal of Medicine. This study was published August 8, 2013 called "Glucose levels and risk for dementia" and what they did was really interesting. They had about 2,000 people at the beginning the study that did not have dementia, average age about 76 years, they followed them for about 7years, they measured their baseline fasting blood sugar and then they assessed their brain function every two years. And what they found was really quite dramatic: If you look at this slide, which measures there risk for developing dementia, there was a higher risk of developing dementia perfectly correlated with elevations in blood sugar at the initial part in the exam. But what is so compelling about the study is that increased risk for dementia was found even at blood sugar levels of like 105 and 110 mg/dl. And here is the conclusion, I'd like you to read this with me: "We found that increased risk was associate with higher glucose levels even at the lowest end of glucose spectrum among people who had not received a diagnosis of diabetes. In conclusion our data provided evidence that higher glucose levels are associated with an increased risk of dementia." This is really important information. Even subtle elevations in blood sugar translate to a dramatic increased risk for developing dementia and that is a situation for which there is no cure. Now a sure
fire way to keep your blood sugars from becoming elevated is to cut back on your sugar consumption as well as your carbohydrate consumption.
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