Link Between Sugar and Alzheimer's Strengthens

 

Overmedicating Our Elders

Grape-Derived Compounds to Help Beat Depression

Story at-a-glance

• Alzheimer’s disease — for which there is no effective conventional treatment or cure — affects an estimated 5.4 million Americans and prevalence is projected to triple by 2050
• Lifestyle choices such as diet, exercise and sleep can have a significant impact on your risk. Prevention guidelines are included
• Having one or two ApoE4 genes raises your lifetime risk for Alzheimer’s between 30 and 50 percent respectively. Meanwhile, research suggests high-carb diets can increase your risk of dementia by 89 percent, while high-fat diets lower it by 44 percent
• Alzheimer’s disease is intricately connected to insulin resistance; even mild elevation of blood sugar is associated with an elevated risk for dementia
• Curcumin may have long-term effects on your cognitive function by protecting against brain inflammation. Compared to controls, patients who took 90 mg of curcumin for 18 months experienced a 28 percent improvement in memory; brain scans also show they had less brain plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease

By Dr. Mercola

Alzheimer’s disease — for which conventional medicine believes there is no effective treatment or cure — currently affects an estimated 5.4 million Americans1 and prevalence is projected to triple by 2050.2,3 Within the next two decades, this severe and lethal form of dementia may affect as much as one-quarter of the U.S. population. Already, more than half a million Americans die from the disease each year, making it the third leading cause of death in the U.S., right behind heart disease and cancer.4,5  

The good news is that lifestyle choices such as diet, exercise and sleep can have a significant impact on your risk. As previously noted by Dr. Richard Lipton6 of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where they study healthy aging, lifestyle changes “look more promising than the drug studies so far.” As with health in general, your diet plays a crucial role. Processed foods tend to be nearly devoid of healthy fat while being excessive in refined sugars, and this combination appears to be at the heart of the problem.

High-Sugar Diet Significantly Raises Your Risk of Dementia

One of the most striking studies7 on carbohydrates and brain health revealed that high-carb diets increase your risk of dementia by a whopping 89 percent, while high-fat diets lower it by 44 percent. According to the authors, “A dietary pattern with relatively high caloric intake from carbohydrates and low caloric intake from fat and proteins may increase the risk of mild cognitive impairment or dementia in elderly persons.”

Studies also strongly suggest Alzheimer’s disease is intricately connected to insulin resistance;8 even mild elevation of blood sugar is associated with an elevated risk for dementia.9 Diabetes and heart disease10 are also known to elevate your risk, and both are rooted in insulin resistance.

This connection between high-sugar diets and Alzheimer’s was again highlighted in a longitudinal study published in the journal Diabetologia in January 2018.11 Nearly 5,190 individuals were followed over a decade, and the results showed that the higher an individual’s blood sugar, the faster their rate of cognitive decline.

Both Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetics Have Higher Risk for Alzheimer’s

The connection between sugar and Alzheimer’s was first broached in 2005, when the disease was tentatively dubbed "Type 3 diabetes.” At that time researchers discovered that your brain produces insulin necessary for the survival of your brain cells.12 A toxic protein called ADDL removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, thereby rendering those neurons insulin resistant, and as ADDLs accumulate, your memory begins to deteriorate.

Curiously, while low insulin levels in your body are associated with improved health, the opposite appears to be true when it comes to the insulin produced in your brain. Reduced brain insulin actually contributes to the degeneration of brain cells, and studies have found that people with lower levels of insulin and insulin receptors in their brain often have Alzheimer’s disease.

According to researchers,13 "These abnormalities do not correspond to Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, but reflect a different and more complex disease process that originates in the central nervous system.”

In 2016, researchers at John’s Hopkins department of biology discovered that nerve growth factor, a protein found in your nervous system that is involved in the growth of neurons, also triggers insulin release in your pancreas.14 So there appears to be a rather complex relationship between body insulin, brain insulin and brain function, and we’ve probably only begun to tease out all of these connections.

Case in point, even Type 1 diabetics are at increased risk for Alzheimer’s, even though their bodies don’t produce insulin at all. Melissa Schilling, a professor at New York University, investigated this paradox in 2016. As reported by The Atlantic:15

“Schilling posits this happens because of the insulin-degrading enzyme, a product of insulin that breaks down both insulin and amyloid proteins in the brain — the same proteins that clump up and lead to Alzheimer’s disease. People who don’t have enough insulin, like those whose bodies’ ability to produce insulin has been tapped out by diabetes, aren’t going to make enough of this enzyme to break up those brain clumps.

Meanwhile, in people who use insulin to treat their diabetes and end up with a surplus of insulin, most of this enzyme gets used up breaking that insulin down, leaving not enough enzyme to address those amyloid brain clumps. According to Schilling, this can happen even in people who don’t have diabetes yet — who are in a state known as ‘prediabetes.’”

Sugar Damages Brain Structure and Function

Research16 published in 2013 showed that sugar and other carbohydrates can disrupt your brain function even if you’re not diabetic or have any signs of dementia. Here, short- and long-term glucose markers were evaluated in healthy, nondiabetic, nondemented seniors. Memory tests and brain imaging were also used to assess brain function and the actual structure of their hippocampus.

The findings revealed that the higher the two blood glucose measures, the smaller the hippocampus, the more compromised its structure, and the worse the individual’s memory was. According to the authors, the structural changes in the hippocampus alone can partially account for the statistical link we see between glucose and memory, as your hippocampus is involved with the formation, organization and storage of memories.

The results suggest glucose directly contributes to atrophy of the hippocampus, which means that even if you’re not insulin resistant or diabetic, excess sugar can still hamper your memory. The authors suggest that “strategies aimed at lowering glucose levels even in the normal range may beneficially influence cognition in the older population.”

A similar study17 published in 2014 found that Type 2 diabetics lose more gray matter with age than expected, and this brain atrophy also helps explain why diabetics have a higher risk for dementia, and have earlier onset of dementia than nondiabetics.

As noted by Dr. Sam Gandy, director of the Center for Cognitive Health at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, these findings “suggest that chronic high levels of insulin and sugar may be directly toxic to brain cells” adding that “This would definitely be a potential cause of dementia.”18

Even Mild Insulin Resistance Speeds Cognitive Decline

A study19 published just last year also confirmed the link between insulin resistance and dementia, particularly among those with existing heart disease. Nearly 490 seniors were followed for two decades, and as in other studies, those with the highest levels of insulin resistance scored the worst on cognitive tests, especially tests for memory and executive function.

A take-home message here is that you don’t have to be a diabetic to be at increased risk. As noted by senior study author Dr. David Tanne, a faculty member of Tel Aviv University in Israel, "Even people with mild or moderate insulin resistance … are at increased risk over time … Exercising, maintaining a balanced and healthy diet and watching your weight will help you prevent insulin resistance and, as a result, protect your brain as you get older.”

Progress Made in the Development of a Blood Test for Alzheimer’s

In related news, researchers have announced great strides being made in the development of a blood test to detect Alzheimer’s.20 The test is designed to detect amyloid beta, the toxic protein known to accumulate in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. In a recent trial,21the test was 90 percent accurate in detecting the disease in a pool of 370 participants.

At present, the only way to measure amyloid beta is by brain scan or a spinal tap, both of which are invasive and expensive, and can only detect the disease once it has sufficiently progressed. While promising, further trials must be done to confirm the diagnostic accuracy of the blood test before it can be released and used in medical practice.

One of the most comprehensive assessments of Alzheimer’s risk is Dr. Dale Bredesen's ReCODE protocol, which evaluates 150 factors known to contribute to the disease. This protocol also identifies your disease subtype or combination of subtypes so that an effective treatment protocol can be devised.

You can learn more about this in “ReCODE: The Reversal of Cognitive Decline,” which is my interview with him. In his book, you will also find a list of suggested screening tests and the recommended ranges for each test, along with some of Bredesen’s treatment suggestions. The full protocol is described in Bredesen’s book, “The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline.”22

Turmeric May Lower Alzheimer’s Risk, Study Shows

Other recent developments include a study showing curcumin supplementation may lower the risk of Alzheimer’s by improving memory and focus.23 The double-blind, placebo-controlled study, published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry,24 included 40 adults between the ages of 50 and 90 who reported mild memory lapses. None had a diagnosis of dementia at the time of their enrollment. Participants randomly received either 90 milligrams of curcumin (Theracurmin supplement) twice a day for 18 months, or a placebo.

A standardized cognitive assessment was administered at the start of the study and at six-month intervals thereafter, and the level of curcumin in their blood was measured at the beginning and end of the study. Thirty of the participants also underwent positron emission tomography (PET) scans to assess their level of amyloid and tau deposits before and after treatment, both of which are strongly associated with Alzheimer’s risk.

Those who received curcumin saw significant improvements in memory and concentration, while the control group experienced no improvement. PET scans confirmed the treatment group had significantly less amyloid and tau buildup in areas of the brain that control memory, compared to controls. Overall, the curcumin group improved their memory by 28 percent over the year-and-a-half-long treatment period.

Curcumin has also been shown to increase levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF),25 and reduced levels of BDNF have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Yet another way curcumin may benefit your brain and lower your risk of dementia is by affecting pathways that help reverse insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia and other symptoms associated with metabolic syndrome and obesity.26

Preventive Strategies

According to Dr. David Perlmutter, a neurologist and author of “Grain Brain” and “Brain Maker,” anything that promotes insulin resistance will ultimately also raise your risk of Alzheimer’s. To this I would add that any strategy that enhances your mitochondrial function will lower your risk. Considering the lack of effective treatments, prevention really cannot be stressed strongly enough.

In 2014, Bredesen published a paper that demonstrates the power of lifestyle choices for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s. By leveraging 36 healthy lifestyle parameters, he was able to reverse Alzheimer’s in 9 out of 10 patients.

This included the use of exercise, ketogenic diet, optimizing vitamin D and other hormones, increasing sleep, meditation, detoxification and eliminating gluten and processed food. You can download Bredesen’s full-text case paper online, which details the full program.27Following are some of the lifestyle strategies I believe to be the most helpful and important:  

Eat real food, ideally organic Avoid processed foods of all kinds, as they contain a number of ingredients harmful to your brain, including refined sugar, processed fructose, grains (particularly gluten), vegetable oils, genetically engineered ingredients and pesticides. Ideally, keep your added sugar to a minimum and your total fructose below 25 grams per day, or as low as 15 grams per day if you already have insulin/leptin resistance or any related disorders. Opting for organic produce will help you avoid synthetic pesticides and herbicides. Most will also benefit from a gluten-free diet, as gluten makes your gut more permeable, which allows proteins to get into your bloodstream where they sensitize your immune system and promote inflammation and autoimmunity, both of which play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s.

Replace refined carbs with healthy fats Diet is paramount, and the beauty of following my optimized nutrition plan is that it helps prevent and treat virtually all chronic degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's. It’s important to realize that your brain actually does not need carbs and sugars; healthy fats such as saturated animal fats and animal-based omega-3 are far more critical for optimal brain function. A cyclical ketogenic diet has the double advantage of both improving your insulin sensitivity and lowering your Alzheimer’s risk. As noted by Perlmutter, lifestyle strategies such as a ketogenic diet can even offset the risk associated with genetic predisposition. (Estimates suggest genetics account for less than 5 percent of Alzheimer’s cases. An estimated 75 million Americans have the single allele for ApoE4. Those who are ApoE4 positive have a 30 percent lifetime risk of developing the disease. Approximately 7 million have two copies of the gene, which puts them at a 50 percent lifetime risk. It's unknown how many Americans have the TOMM40 gene or others that may affect your risk.) When your body burns fat as its primary fuel, ketones are created, which not only burn very efficiently and are a superior fuel for your brain, but also generate fewer reactive oxygen species and less free radical damage. A ketone called beta hydroxybutyrate is also a major epigenetic player, stimulating beneficial changes in DNA expression, thereby reducing inflammation and increasing detoxification and antioxidant production. I explain the ins and outs of implementing this kind of diet, and its many health benefits, in my new book “Fat for Fuel.” In it, I also explain why cycling through stages of feast and famine, opposed to continuously remaining in nutritional ketosis, is so important. Pay close attention to the kinds of fats you eat — avoid all trans fats or hydrogenated fats that have been modified in such a way to extend their longevity on the grocery store shelf. This includes margarine, vegetable oils and various butter-like spreads. Healthy fats to add to your diet include avocados, butter, organic pastured egg yolks, coconuts and coconut oil, grass fed meats and raw nuts such as pecans and macadamia. MCT oil is also a great source of ketone bodies.

Keep your fasting insulin levels below 3 Lowering your insulin will also help lower leptin levels which is another factor for Alzheimer’s. If your insulin is high, you’re likely consuming too much sugar and need to cut back.

Optimize your omega-3 level Also make sure you're getting enough animal-based omega-3 fats. High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA help by preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer's disease, thereby slowing down its progression and lowering your risk of developing the disorder. Ideally, get an omega-3 index test done once a year to make sure you’re in a healthy range. Your omega-3 index should be above 8 percent and your omega 6-to-3 ratio between 0.5 and 3.0.

Optimize your gut flora To do this, avoid processed foods, antibiotics and antibacterial products, fluoridated and chlorinated water, and be sure to eat traditionally fermented and cultured foods, along with a high-quality probiotic if needed. Dr. Steven Gundry does an excellent job of expanding on this in his new book “The Plant Paradox.”

Intermittently fast Intermittent fasting is a powerful tool to jump-start your body into remembering how to burn fat and repair the insulin/leptin resistance that is a primary contributing factor for Alzheimer’s. Once you have worked your way up to where you’ve been doing 20-hour daily intermittent fasting for a month, are metabolically flexible and can burn fat as your primary fuel, you can progress to the far more powerful five-day water fasts.

Move regularly and consistently throughout the day It's been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,28 thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer's. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1 alpha. Research has shown that people with Alzheimer's have less PGC-1 alpha in their brains and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's.

Optimize your magnesium levels Preliminary research strongly suggests a decrease in Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of magnesium in the brain. Keep in mind that the only magnesium supplement that appears to be able to cross the blood-brain barrier is magnesium threonate.

Optimize your vitamin D, ideally through sensible sun exposure Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation associated with Alzheimer's and, indeed, research shows people living in northern latitudes have higher rates of death from dementia and Alzheimer's than those living in sunnier areas, suggesting vitamin D and/or sun exposure are important factors.29 If you are unable to get sufficient amounts of sun exposure, take daily supplemental vitamin D3 to reach and maintain a blood level of 60 to 80 ng/ml. That said, it’s important to recognize that sun exposure is important for reasons unrelated to vitamin D. Your brain responds to the near-infrared light in sunlight in a process called photobiomodulation. Research shows near-infrared stimulation of the brain boosts cognition and reduces symptoms of Alzheimer’s, including more advanced stages of the disease. Delivering near-infrared light to the compromised mitochondria synthesizes gene transcription factors that trigger cellular repair, and your brain is one of the most mitochondrial-dense organs in your body.

Avoid and eliminate mercury from your body Dental amalgam fillings are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity, however you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my optimized nutrition plan, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.

Avoid and eliminate aluminum from your body Common sources of aluminum include antiperspirants, nonstick cookware and vaccine adjuvants. For tips on how to detox aluminum, please see my article, “First Case Study to Show Direct Link between Alzheimer’s and Aluminum Toxicity.” There is some suggestion that certain mineral waters high in silicic acid may help your body eliminate aluminum.

Avoid flu vaccinations Most flu vaccines contain both mercury and aluminum.

Avoid statins and anticholinergic drugs Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence and certain narcotic pain relievers. Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of coenzyme Q10, vitamin K2 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein.

Limit your exposure to non-native electromagnetic fields (cellphones, Wi-Fi routers and modems) Radiation from cellphones and other wireless technologies trigger excessive production of peroxynitrites,30 a highly damaging reactive nitrogen species. Increased peroxynitrites from cellphone exposure will damage your mitochondria, 31,32 and your brain is the most mitochondrial-dense organ in your body. Increased peroxynitrite generation has also been associated with increased levels of systemic inflammation by triggering cytokine storms and autonomic hormonal dysfunction.

Optimize your sleep Sleep is necessary for maintaining metabolic homeostasis in your brain. Without sufficient sleep, neuron degeneration sets in, and catching up on sleep during weekends will not prevent this damage.33,34,35 Sleep deprivation causes disruption of certain synaptic connections that can impair your brain's ability for learning, memory formation and other cognitive functions. Poor sleep also accelerates the onset of Alzheimer's disease.36 Most adults need seven to nine hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. Deep sleep is the most important, as this is when your brain’s glymphatic system performs its cleanout functions, eliminating toxic waste from your brain, including amyloid beta. For a comprehensive sleep guide, see “33 Secret's to a Good Night's Sleep.”

Challenge your mind daily Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of dementia and Alzheimer's. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Processed Foods Causing Cancer DO NOT EAT

Processed foods are driving up rates of cancer: Major study reveals the health threat including cereal, energy bars, sausages and chocolate

• Eating processed food significantly raises the risk of cancer, experts have said 
• The disease is claiming more lives because of the popularity of ready meals
• Sugary cereals and fizzy drinks also dangerous, the wide-ranging study found
• Families are told to heed the warning and read food labels more carefully

By Ben Spencer Medical Correspondent For The Daily Mail

UPDATED: 02:56 EST, 15 February 2018

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Eating processed food significantly raises the risk of cancer, experts warned last night.

They said the disease was claiming more lives because of the popularity of ready meals, sugary cereals and fizzy drinks.  The products put middle-aged women in particular danger from breast cancer, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.  ‘Ultra-processed’ food – any product involving an industrial procedure – now makes up half of our diet.

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Eating processed food significantly raises the risk of cancer, experts warned. They said the disease was claiming more lives because of the popularity of ready meals and sugary cereals

Packed with chemical additives, the foods bear little resemblance to home-cooked meals. And the more of them an individual eats, the higher their risk of cancer of any type.

Experts believe this is because processed foods, which include packaged meat, pies, sweets and crisps, are higher in fat, salt and sugar.    They also have less of the vitamins and fibre that ward off disease.

The procedures used to make the food – and the chemicals and additives used to boost their flavours and shelf life – are also thought to raise the risk. The researchers said it was the first study to highlight a link between ultra-processed food and an increased overall cancer risk.Campaigners last night said families should heed the warning and read food labels more carefully to check for levels of fat, salt and sugar.

The research was based on food diaries completed by 105,000 adults. It ranked the participants by how much ultra-processed food they consumed over two 24-hour periods. For those in the top quarter of the sample, 32 per cent of their diet came from ultra-processed food.

They were 23 per cent more likely to develop cancer of any type over the next five years than those in the bottom quarter, whose diet was only 8 per cent ultra-processed food.

Women in the top quarter were 38 per cent more likely to develop postmenopausal breast cancer. The chance of younger women getting premenopausal breast cancer increased 27 per cent, and bowel cancer risk went up 23 per cent. There was no impact on prostate cancer.

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The research suggests fizzy drinks are also a danger. The products put middle-aged women in particular danger from breast cancer, according to the study (file photo)

Led by experts at the Sorbonne University in Paris, the researchers said Britons were probably even more at risk because they would consume more ultra-processed food than the French adults in the study.

A study of 19 European countries published earlier this month found 50.7 per cent of food sold in the UK is ultra-processed, compared with 46.2 per cent in Germany, 45.9 per cent in Ireland and 14.2 per cent in France. The team assessed 3,300 different food products as part of the study and classed each by the level of processing they had been subjected to.

Sugary products were the most common form of ultra-processed food, making up 26 per cent of foods in this category. Drinks made up 20 per cent and breakfast cereal 16 per cent. The researchers wrote: ‘To our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate and highlight an increase in the risk of overall – and specifically breast – cancer associated with ultra-processed food intake.

‘If confirmed in other populations and settings, these results suggest that the rapidly increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods may drive an increasing burden of cancer in the next decades.’

They found no cancer link to less processed foods – such as canned vegetables, cheeses and freshly made unpackaged bread. And people who mainly ate fresh and unprocessed foods – such as fruit, vegetables, pulses, meat and fish – had a lower cancer risk. Study leader Dr Mathilde Tourier said the poor nutritional value of ultra-processed food was probably the most important factor in cancer risk.

But she added: ‘They all have food additives, they all have compounds formed during the processing and heating of the products, and they have compounds that could come from the packaging itself.

‘Most of the compounds are probably safe, but some of these substances are of concern regarding cancer risk.’

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‘Ultra-processed’ food – any product involving an industrial procedure and including crisps  – now makes up half of our diet (file photo)

Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum said last night: ‘There is no smoke without fire – we should heed the scientists’ fears and read food labels more carefully. Huge quantities of everyday processed food have excessive levels of sugar, fat and salt stuffed in them and it’s all listed on the packaging.

‘Don’t risk cancer by eating anything with, respectively, much more than 15g sugar, 5g saturated fat and 1.5g salt per 100g. That’s not rocket science.’

Carolyn Rogers of the Breast Cancer Care charity added: ‘Now we need to connect the dots and find out if any specific elements in these foods may increase the risk of developing cancer. 

'We know maintaining a healthy weight, through a balanced diet and exercise, is one of the best things you can do for your health. However, lifestyle is one part of a bigger, more complex picture.’

A spokesman for the Food and Drink Federation said: ‘Processed food should not be demonised – by working closely with our partners throughout the food supply chain, we can use processing positively to ensure all sectors of society have access to safe, affordable food.

‘We believe a whole diet and lifestyle approach, which includes consideration of net calorie intake, and not just the role of individual nutrients or ingredients, is the correct way to tackle such issues.’

Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England, said: ‘A diet high in processed foods is often high in calories, salt, saturated fat and sugar and low in fibre – this increases the risk of some cancers, as does being overweight or obese.

‘Our reduction programmes are making healthier choices easier by reducing the calories, salt and sugar in these types of foods. We’re also helping people to choose healthier options through our Change4Life and OneYou campaigns.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5393231/Processed-foods-driving-rates-cancer.html#ixzz57AcySUpi
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SLEEP is Critically Important - Good Instructions

Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams

Story at-a-glance

·        Sleep scientist and author Matthew Walker suggests a lack of sleep throughout industrialized nations is having a catastrophic impact on our health and wellness, and is fast becoming one of our greatest public health challenges

·        More than 20 large-scale epidemiological studies, tracking millions of people over many decades, report the same clear relationship: the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life

·        Rather than being an optional lifestyle choice, Walker asserts sleep is a nonnegotiable, biological necessity that provides a foundation for every aspect of your mental and physical health

·        Sleeplessness has been shown to have a devastating effect on your health and well-being, contributing to chronic illnesses such as dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity

·        Walker suggests more vehicle crashes in the U.S. are caused by sleep-deprived drivers than those involving alcohol and drugs combined; when you drive drowsy, you put your life and the lives of countless others in jeopardy

By Dr. Mercola

In the featured video, professor Matthew Walker, Ph.D., founder and director of the University of California Berkeley’s Center for Human Sleep Science and author of the book "Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams," shares the latest discoveries about sleep and how it impacts virtually every area of your physical and mental health.

I read Walker’s book last fall, and share his view that sleep is profoundly important — even more important than diet and exercise. I say this because diet and exercise will have minimal effects on your body if you are constantly exhausted and it is unlikely you will have the energy to eat well or exercise if you are always tired. Beyond that, sleeplessness has been shown to contribute to chronic illnesses such as dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

In his book, Walker suggests insomnia is “one of the most pressing and prevalent medical issues facing modern society,” yet it is rarely acted on in ways reflecting its importance. He notes the “sleep aid” industry, encompassing prescription sleeping pills and over-the-counter sleep medications, is a $30 billion-a-year industry in the U.S.

Sadly, desperate people are putting money toward drugs that have not only been shown to be ineffective for solving sleep problems, but also are known to increase your risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke. Most adults need at least eight hours of high-quality sleep a night, and children and teenagers even more. The reality is about 1 in 3 Americans gets less than seven hours of sleep a night and more than 83 million adults in the U.S. are sleep-deprived.^1,2

While losing an hour or two of sleep may not seem like a big deal, Walker presents data suggesting even a single night of poor sleep can have devastating consequences. If you have not yet prioritized proper sleep as one of the nonnegotiables in your life, Walker’s research may be the impetus to move you in that direction.

Sleep-Deprived Drivers More Dangerous Than Those Under the Influence

With respect to sleep deprivation and auto accidents, Walker speaks passionately about this subject in his book. He says one person dies every hour in the U.S. due to a fatigue-related error, and vehicular accidents caused by drowsy driving exceed those caused by alcohol and drugs combined. If you drink alcohol or take medications that make you sleepy and then drive, you are exponentially increasing your risk of suffering a crash, injury or death due to drowsy driving. States Walker:

“This coming week, more than 2 million people in the U.S. will fall asleep while driving their motor vehicle. That’s more than 250,000 every day, with more such events during the week than on weekends, for obvious reasons. More than 56 million Americans admit to struggling to stay awake at the wheel of a car each month. As a result, 1.2 million accidents are caused by sleepiness each year in the U.S.”

Drivers of cars are not alone in threatening the safety of our roadways. Walker suggests drowsy truckers may be even more dangerous, mainly because approximately 80 percent of truck drivers in the U.S. are overweight and 50 percent are clinically obese, putting them at risk of sleep apnea. He says:

“[These health conditions] place truck drivers at a far, far higher risk of a disorder called sleep apnea, commonly associated with heavy snoring, which causes chronic, severe sleep deprivation. As a result, these truck drivers are 200 to 500 percent more likely to be involved in a traffic accident. And when a truck driver loses his or her life in a drowsy-driving crash, they will, on average, take 4.5 other lives with them.”

When you drive on less than five hours of sleep, you are 4.3 times more likely to be involved in a crash than a well-rested driver; on just four hours of sleep, your risk of crashing is 11.5 times higher.³ Beyond car crashes, studies suggest poor sleep is related to many other health conditions that can also shorten your life. In his book, Walker states:

“[T]here are more than 20 large-scale epidemiological studies that have tracked millions of people over many decades, all of which report the same clear relationship: the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. The leading causes of disease and death in developed nations — those that are crippling health care systems, such as heart disease, obesity, dementia, diabetes and cancer — all have recognized causal links to a lack of sleep.”

Lack of Sleep Does Damage to Your Brain

While it’s common to experience a certain amount of “brain fog” after a poor night’s sleep, the damage to your brain from chronic lack of sleep is not something you can address simply by drinking more coffee or taking a nap midday. Walker cites the following brain-related effects from lack of sleep:

·        Due to your hippocampus shutting down, you will experience a 40 percent deficit in your brain with respect to its ability to make new memories

·        Your emotional and mental health becomes destabilized because the emotional circuits in your brain become hyperactive and irrational due to lack of sleep

·        Your amygdala, one of your brain’s centerpiece regions for generating strong emotional reactions, including negative ones, becomes about 60 percent more reactive than usual, resulting in increased emotional intensity and volatility

Walker presents an aspect even more concerning to your brain with respect to poor sleep and that is the belief it may be a contributing factor to numerous psychiatric conditions. He states: “We are now finding significant links between sleep disruption and depression, anxiety (including post-traumatic stress disorder), schizophrenia and, tragically, suicide as well. In fact, we cannot find a single psychiatric condition in which [the subject’s] sleep is normal.”

Furthermore, Walker emphasizes that too little sleep during your adult life span significantly raises your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This is so because amyloid-beta deposits that would normally be cleaned out of your brain nightly during deep sleep instead accumulate as plaques and kill off surrounding cells.

This waste-removal system has been dubbed the glymphatic system and it gets into your brain by piggybacking on blood vessels. By pumping cerebral spinal fluid through your brain's tissues, your glymphatic system flushes waste from your brain back into your circulatory system and onto your liver for elimination. 

Because your glymphatic system ramps up its activity during sleep, when you don’t get enough sleep, the damaging plaques build up, attack and degrade certain regions of your brain. Walker notes a brain affected by Alzheimer’s has lost most of its ability to remove the amyloid-beta waste products, mainly because it is caught in a vicious cycle: more amyloid, less deep sleep; less deep sleep, more amyloid.

Sleep Loss and Heart Attacks Go Hand in Hand

Regarding the effects of losing sleep on your heart, Walker suggests even one hour makes a big difference. He says:

“There is a ‘global experiment’ that is performed on 1.6 billion people across 70 countries twice a year, and it’s called daylight saving time. In the spring when we lose one hour of sleep, we see a subsequent 24 percent increase in heart attacks. In the fall, when we gain one hour of sleep, we see a 21 percent decrease in heart attacks. That is how fragile your body is with even the smallest perturbations of sleep, but most of us don’t think anything about losing an hour of sleep.”

Walker, in the book, notes a similar relationship to sleep and heart attacks called out in a Japanese study of more than 4,000 male workers whose sleep habits were evaluated during a 14-year period. Workers sleeping six hours or less were 400 to 500 percent more likely to suffer one or more cardiac arrests than those sleeping more than six hours.

This was true even after adjusting for other known cardiac-risk factors such as smoking, exercise and body weight. Said Walker, “A lack of sleep more than accomplishes its own, independent, attack on the heart.”

In his book, Walker notes that sleep deprivation also shuts down growth hormone, which is considered to be a great healer of your body, normally surging at night. Walker suggests without growth hormone to replenish the lining of your blood vessels (endothelium), they will be gradually shorn and stripped of their integrity. “The hypertensive strain sleep deprivation places on your vasculature means that your body can no longer repair those fracturing vessels effectively,” notes Walker.

Over time, the damaged and weakened state of your arteries becomes systemically prone to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), causing vessels to rupture and putting you at risk of heart attack and stroke. Walker also underscores the effects of sleep on your cholesterol: “[S]tudies have found that short sleep duration will also disrupt the activity of genes regulating cholesterol.

In particular, a lack of sleep will cause a drop in high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) — a directional profile that has consistently been linked to cardiovascular disease.”

Other Serious Diseases Are Linked to Lack of Sleep

With respect to sleep loss and cancer, Walker asserts that after just one night of only four hours of sleep, your natural killer cells — the ones that attack the cancer cells that appear in your body every day — drop by 75 percent. Given the hit your immune system takes due to the loss of these disease-fighting cells, it comes as no surprise researchers have made significant links between short sleep and numerous forms of cancer, including cancers of the bowel, prostate and breast.

Walker notes the link between lack of sleep and cancer is so strong that the World Health Organization, since 2007, has tagged shift work as a “probable human carcinogen” because it causes circadian disruption.⁴ “Their concern is jobs that may induce cancer because of disruptions to your sleep-wake cycle,” said Walker. If you routinely forgo proper sleep, he says data shows “you will live a shorter life, and the quality of that shorter life will be significantly worse.”

That said, if you work erratic hours, particularly the night shift, you most assuredly are putting yourself at greater risk for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and obesity. While lack of sleep increases your risk of developing cancer, it also influences your ability to heal from it successfully. Says Walker, “[I]f you are fighting a battle against cancer and not getting sufficient sleep, that cancer may grow more quickly and aggressively.”

In 2014, research^5,6 conducted at the University of Chicago, led by Dr. David Gozal, a professor of pediatrics and sleep physician, linked disrupted sleep to tumor growth in lab mice inoculated with cancer cells. Compared to the mice who received normal sleep, the tumor growth in the sleep-disrupted mice was significantly larger in size and faster spreading.

Citing Gozal’s work, Walker calls sleep loss an “accelerant” for cancer. “We now know it produces a more harmful biological fertilizer for the rapid and rampant growth of cancer,” he stated.

Lack of Sleep Also Associated With Addictions, Depression and More

In his book, Walker calls out sleep disturbance as a recognized hallmark associated with the use of addictive substances. Addicts of various kinds are generally not good sleepers and those same addictions are well-known for interfering with quality sleep. States Walker: “Insufficient sleep also determines relapse rates in numerous addiction disorders, associated with reward cravings that are unmetered, lacking control from … the brain’s prefrontal cortex.”

Walker notes children who were chronic poor sleepers in childhood are at a greater risk of drug and alcohol use in the later adolescent years, even when controlling for such high-risk traits as anxiety, attention deficits or parental history of drug use. Insufficient sleep has also been linked to aggression, bullying and other behavior problems in children across a variety of ages. While the precise causes of depression are not always evident, certain factors such as poor sleep have been shown to contribute to it.⁷

Insomnia, for example, has been shown to influence the onset, severity and recurrence of depressive episodes. If you routinely suffer from insomnia, you are at twice the risk of developing depression as compared to individuals who sleep well. A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience^8,9 suggests your brain’s reward center may help protect you from the depressive symptoms traditionally associated with poor sleep.

Researchers at Duke University have taken a closer look at the involvement of your ventral striatum (VS) — an area of your brain responsible for reward processing and motivation. Their objective was to better understand the role your VS may play with respect to depression and poor sleep. Dysfunction in your VS is thought to be associated not only with depression, but also with addiction, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Parkinson’s disease.

After testing 1,000 university students to explore the relationship among depression, self-reported sleep patterns and VS activity, researchers concluded participants with higher reward-related VS activity were less likely to report symptoms of depression even when their sleep quality was poor. Further research in this area may help scientists gain further insight into how depression works, as well as assist them in identifying biomarkers for depression risk.

Prioritize Sleep and Take Steps to Ensure You Get Quality Sleep

Regardless of your thoughts on the topic, research linking sleep deprivation to chronic disease and shorter life spans cannot be ignored. The scientific facts underscore my belief that there is no substitute for getting a full night’s rest. Nor is there any excuse for ignoring your body’s need for sleep. While diet and exercise are vital to your health, without proper sleep, your efforts in those areas will be less effective. Says Walker:

“Sleep is not an optional lifestyle luxury. Sleep is a nonnegotiable, biological necessity. It’s a life-support system. The decimation of sleep throughout industrialized nations is having a catastrophic impact on our health [and] our wellness … It’s a silent sleep epidemic, and it is fast becoming one of the greatest public health challenges we now face.”

Given its importance, I encourage you to take a few moments today to evaluate your sleep habits. Are you getting enough sleep? If not, what’s one change you can make to improve your sleep? If you need help getting started, check out my 33 Secrets to a Good Night’s Sleep.

Want a Good Night's Sleep? Then Never Do These Things Before Bed

Story at-a-glance

·        Six to eight hours of good sleep is one of the cornerstones of health

·        Sleep deprivation is extremely common today and can weaken your immune system, accelerate tumor growth, accelerate diabetes, and impair all aspects of your cognition; not sleeping can increase your risk of dying from all causes

·        Optimizing your sleep sanctuary is part of exercising good sleep hygiene; several ways of doing this are discussed

·        What you do in preparation for bed is also very important, and numerous suggestions are discussed

·        In order to improve your sleep, you may need to modify some of your lifestyle choices, including diet and exercise

Sleep is one of the great mysteries of life. Like gravity or the quantum field, we still don't understand exactly why we sleep—although we are learning more about it every day.

We do know, however, that good sleep is one of the cornerstones of health.

Six to eight hours per night seems to be the optimal amount of sleep for most adults, and too much or too little can have adverse effects on your health.

Sleep deprivation is such a chronic condition these days that you might not even realize you suffer from it. Science has now established that a sleep deficit can have serious, far reaching effects on your health.

For example, interrupted or impaired sleep can:

·        Dramatically weaken your immune system

·        Accelerate tumor growth—tumors grow two to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions

·        Cause a pre-diabetic state, making you feel hungry even if you've already eaten, which can wreak havoc on your weight

·        Seriously impair your memory; even a single night of poor sleep—meaning sleeping only 4 to 6 hours—can impact your ability to think clearly the next day

·        Impair your performance on physical or mental tasks, and decrease your problem solving ability

When your circadian rhythms are disrupted, your body produces less melatonin (a hormone AND an antioxidant) and has less ability to fight cancer, since melatonin helps suppress free radicals that can lead to cancer. This is why tumors grow faster when you sleep poorly.

Impaired sleep can also increase stress-related disorders, including:

·        Heart disease

·        Stomach ulcers

·        Constipation

·        Mood disorders like depression

Sleep deprivation prematurely ages you by interfering with your growth hormone production, normally released by your pituitary gland during deep sleep (and during certain types of exercise, such as Peak Fitness Technique). Growth hormone helps you look and feel younger.

One study has even shown that people with chronic insomnia have a three times greater risk of dying from any cause. Lost sleep is lost forever, and persistent lack of sleep has a cumulative effect when it comes to disrupting your health. Poor sleep can make your life miserable, as most of you probably know.

The good news is, there are many natural techniques you can learn to restore your "sleep health."

Whether you have difficulty falling asleep, waking up too often, or feeling inadequately rested when you wake up in the morning—or maybe you simply want to improve the quality of your sleep—you are bound to find some relief from my tips and tricks below.

Optimizing Your Sleep Sanctuary

1. Sleep in complete darkness, or as close to it as possible. Even the tiniest bit of light in the room can disrupt your internal clock and your pineal gland's production of melatonin and serotonin. Even the tiniest glow from your clock radio could be interfering with your sleep. This will help decrease your risk of cancer.

Close your bedroom door, and get rid of night-lights. Refrain from turning on any light at all during the night, even when getting up to go to the bathroom. Cover up your clock radio. Cover your windows—I recommend using blackout shades or drapes.

All life evolved in response to predictable patterns of light and darkness, called circadian rhythms. Modern day electrical lighting has significantly betrayed your inner clock by disrupting your natural rhythms. Little bits of light pass directly through your optic nerve to your hypothalamus, which controls your biological clock. Light signals your brain that it's time to wake up and starts preparing your body for ACTION.

2. Keep the temperature in your bedroom no higher than 70 degrees F. Many people keep their homes and particularly their upstairs bedrooms too warm. Studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is quite cool, between 60 to 68 degrees. Keeping your room cooler or hotter can lead to restless sleep.

When you sleep, your body's internal temperature drops to its lowest level, generally about four hours after you fall asleep. Scientists believe a cooler bedroom may therefore be most conducive to sleep, since it mimics your body's natural temperature drop.

3. Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). These can disrupt the pineal gland and the production of melatonin and serotonin, and may have other negative effects as well. To do this, you need a gauss meter. You can find various models online, starting around $50 to $200. Some experts even recommend pulling your circuit breaker before bed to kill all power in your house.

4. Move alarm clocks and other electrical devices away from your bed. If these devices must be used, keep them as far away from your bed as possible, preferably at least 3 feet. Remove the clock from view. It will only add to your worry when you stare at it all night... 2 a.m. ...3 a.m. ... 4:30 a.m.

5. Avoid using loud alarm clocks. It is very stressful on your body to be suddenly jolted awake. If you are regularly getting enough sleep, an alarm may even be unnecessary. I gave up my alarm clock years ago and now use a sun alarm clock, an alarm that combines the features of a traditional alarm clock (digital display, AM/FM radio, beeper, snooze button, etc.) with a special built-in light that gradually increases in intensity, simulating sunrise.

6. Reserve your bed for sleeping. If you are used to watching TV or doing work in bed, you may find it harder to relax and drift off to sleep, so avoid doing these activities in bed.

7. Consider separate bedrooms. Recent studies suggest, for many people, sharing a bed with a partner (or pets) can significantly impair sleep, especially if the partner is a restless sleeper or snores. If bedfellows are consistently interfering with your sleep, you may want to consider a separate bedroom.

Preparing for Bed

8. Get to bed as early as possible. Your body (particularly your adrenal system) does a majority of its recharging between the hours of 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. In addition, your gallbladder dumps toxins during this same period. If you are awake, the toxins back up into your liver, which can further disrupt your health. Prior to the widespread use of electricity, people would go to bed shortly after sundown, as most animals do, and which nature intended for humans as well.

9. Don't change your bedtime. You should go to bed and wake up at the same times each day, even on the weekends. This will help your body to get into a sleep rhythm and make it easier to fall asleep and get up in the morning.

10. Establish a bedtime routine. This could include meditation, deep breathing, using aromatherapy or essential oils or indulging in a massage from your partner. The key is to find something that makes you feel relaxed, then repeat it each night to help you release the tensions of the day.

11. Don't drink any fluids within 2 hours of going to bed. This will reduce the likelihood of needing to get up and go to the bathroom, or at least minimize the frequency.

12. Go to the bathroom right before bed. This will reduce the chances that you'll wake up to go in the middle of the night.

13. Eat a high-protein snack several hours before bed. This can provide the L-tryptophan needed for your melatonin and serotonin production.

14. Also eat a small piece of fruit. This can help the tryptophan cross your blood-brain barrier.

15. Avoid before-bed snacks, particularly grains and sugars. These will raise your blood sugar and delay sleep. Later, when blood sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia), you may wake up and be unable to fall back asleep.

16. Take a hot bath, shower or sauna before bed. When your body temperature is raised in the late evening, it will fall at bedtime, facilitating slumber. The temperature drop from getting out of the bath signals your body it's time for bed.

17. Wear socks to bed. Feet often feel cold before the rest of the body because they have the poorest circulation. A study has shown that wearing socks to bed reduces night waking. As an alternative, you could place a hot water bottle near your feet at night.

18. Wear an eye mask to block out light. As discussed earlier, it is very important to sleep in as close to complete darkness as possible. That said, it's not always easy to block out every stream of light using curtains, blinds or drapes, particularly if you live in an urban area (or if your spouse has a different schedule than you do). In these cases, an eye mask can be helpful.

19. Put your work away at least one hour before bed (preferably two hours or more). This will give your mind a chance to unwind so you can go to sleep feeling calm, not hyped up or anxious about tomorrow's deadlines.

20. No TV right before bed. Even better, get the TV out of the bedroom or even completely out of the house. It's too stimulating to the brain, preventing you from falling asleep quickly. TV disrupts your pineal gland function.

21. Listen to relaxation CDs. Some people find the sound of white noise or nature sounds, such as the ocean or forest, to be soothing for sleep. An excellent relaxation/meditation option to listen to before bed is the Insight audio CD.

Another favorite is the Sleep Harmony CD, which uses a combination of advanced vibrational technology and guided meditation to help you effortlessly fall into deep delta sleep within minutes. The CD works on the principle of "sleep wave entrainment" to assist your brain in gearing down for sleep.

22. Read something spiritual or uplifting. This may help you relax. Don't read anything stimulating, such as a mystery or suspense novel, which has the opposite effect. In addition, if you are really enjoying a suspenseful book, you might be tempted to go on reading for hours, instead of going to sleep!

23. Journaling. If you often lay in bed with your mind racing, it might be helpful to keep a journal and write down your thoughts before bed. Personally, I have been doing this for 15 years, but prefer to do it in the morning when my brain is functioning at its peak and my cortisol levels are high.

Lifestyle Suggestions That Enhance Sleep

24. Reduce or avoid as many drugs as possible. Many drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, may adversely affect sleep. In most cases, the condition causing the drugs to be taken in the first place can be addressed by following guidelines elsewhere on my web site.

25. Avoid caffeine. At least one study has shown that, in some people, caffeine is not metabolized efficiently, leaving you feeling its effects long after consumption. So, an afternoon cup of coffee or tea will keep some people from falling asleep at night. Be aware that some medications contain caffeine (for example, diet pills).

26. Avoid alcohol. Although alcohol will make you drowsy, the effect is short lived and you will often wake up several hours later, unable to fall back asleep. Alcohol will also keep you from entering the deeper stages of sleep, where your body does most of its healing.

27. Make certain you are exercising regularly. Exercising for at least 30 minutes per day can improve your sleep. However, don't exercise too close to bedtime or it may keep you awake. Studies show exercising in the morning is the best if you can manage it.

28. Lose excess weight. Being overweight can increase your risk of sleep apnea, which can seriously impair your sleep. Please refer to my nutrition plan for recommendations.

29. Avoid foods you may be sensitive to. This is particularly true for sugar, grains, and pasteurized dairy. Sensitivity reactions can cause excess congestion, gastrointestinal upset, bloating and gas, and other problems.

30. Have your adrenals checked by a good natural medicine clinician. Scientists have found that insomnia may be caused by adrenal stress.

31. If you are menopausal or perimenopausal, get checked out by a good natural medicine physician. The hormonal changes at this time may cause sleep problems if not properly addressed.

If All Else Fails

32. My current favorite fix for insomnia is Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Most people can learn the basics of this gentle tapping technique in a few minutes. EFT can help balance your body's bioenergy system and resolve some of the emotional stresses that are contributing to your insomnia at a very deep level. The results are typically long lasting and improvement is remarkably rapid.

33. Increase your melatonin. Ideally it is best to increase levels naturally with exposure to bright sunlight in the daytime (along with full spectrum fluorescent bulbs in the winter) and absolute complete darkness at night. If that isn't possible, you may want to consider a melatonin supplement.

In scientific studies, melatonin has been shown to increase sleepiness, help you fall asleep more quickly and stay asleep, decrease restlessness, and reverse daytime fatigue. Melatonin is a completely natural substance, made by your body, and has many health benefits in addition to sleep.