Roadblocks to Brain Health

What to avoid in a dietary protocol for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is equally important as what to include. Avoid the following:

Processed foods. Processed foods present a four-pronged assault upon a brain suffering the ravages of the modern diet: they are usually high in refined carbohydrate, high in easily oxidized polyunsaturated oils, low in antioxidants, and low in vitamins and minerals.

Statin drugs. Cholesterol is an absolutely critical building block of the myelin sheath that insulates neurons and aids in the transmission of nerve impulses. The myelin sheath is what allows neurons to communicate with each other. The cholesterol-producing biochemical pathway, which is blocked by statins, also produces CoQ10, so statin drugs block production of the very substances required for brain cells to generate energy. By lowering internal synthesis of cholesterol, statins also reduce the cholesterol required by specialized proteins that transport glucose from the bloodstream into the cells. Malfunctioning of these transporters due to a lack of cholesterol could be a contributing factor in any condition related to glucose and insulin signaling, including AD. Any pharmaceutically induced disruption in internal synthesis of cholesterol—especially when combined with population-wide recommendations to limit dietary intake—would starve a struggling brain of this unquestionably necessary nutrient. In fact, high cholesterol levels later in life are associated with reduced risk of dementia; the cerebrospinal fluid of AD patients is lower in cholesterol than that of healthy controls. It should not surprise us that overly ambitious prescription of statin drugs and decades of recommendations to reduce consumption of cholesterol have paralleled the rise in AD.