We Are Our Memories
As a former diabetes educator, my antennas have been perking up hearing the term, “type 3 diabetes” (T3D) enter the mainstream discourse. If you’re unfamiliar with T3D, it is a specific version of diabetes coined “type 2 diabetes of the brain.” When the brain becomes insulin resistant, the hallmark feature of type 2 diabetes, it begins to accumulate a sticky protein that gets deposited within plaque in the brain, this is known as amyloid-β. While the evidence remains disputable, the data seems to suggest that this effect on the brain is a precursor and potential cause of Alzheimer's disease (AD); the directionality of causality isn’t confirmed though, the buildup may be a result of AD, not necessarily the cause. Dementia is a common symptom of AD and as you may already know, can be very cruel with how it accelerates memory loss.
We are our memories;
when we start to forget, we lose a part of ourselves we may never recover. My hope is to help protect you from, or at the very least delay these terrible effects.
Even if your family has been lucky enough to be spared from Dementia, I have bad news. According to a systematic review and meta-analysis on Alzheimer’s and Dementia, the total number of people suffering from this disease is expected to rise to 115.4 million people worldwide by 2050. Whereas in 2010 it was estimated that 35.6 million lived with the disease.
THE LINK BETWEEN T3D & MUSCLE MASS
With a combination of weekly exercise, daily physical activity and sound nutrition, we can fight back. If you want to have better odds at not becoming a victim of dementia yourself, recent studies found in Dr. Gabrielle Lyon’s new book, Forever Strong, suggest that increasing your muscle mass and decreasing your waistline can help. Excess body fat has been linked to lower brain volume and increased dementia risk. On the other hand, those that are well muscled are less likely to develop insulin resistance due to the increased glucose uptake from having additional muscle mass. We’ve talked about this benefit before, but isn’t it cool how muscle can help keep both your brain and your body healthy? Further, Dr. Lyon goes on to say that muscle may be the most overlooked organ in the field of healthcare.
Luckily for us, we can track both of the aforementioned metrics in just a few seconds with our Inbody machine. Being concerned with your muscle and fat mass goes so far beyond the benefits associated with vanity. I urge you to take charge of your healthcare now and you can start by simply scheduling an Inbody test to help determine if we are in the process of thwarting dementia. The results of the Inbody test could help us direct your workouts, or it could be the push you need to go see our friends at Downingtown Nutrition. Adequate protein intake is another important factor in this venture that is too important to be overlooked.