Brain Issues And Loss In Ability To Utilize Sugar

[yoshiesque]

I know that one of the big issues with brain disorders can be the fact that the brain just cant use sugars/glucose anymore as fuel. so when they switch to fat only diets their brain seems to thrive. now i know such a diet is not good in the long run, but what would one do to restore the utilization of sugar as energy in the brain? I know that Ray Peat talked about potato juice being beneficial here, BUT that kinda makes me feel like once the brain has lost its ability (whether partial or complete) to use sugar/glucose as fuel, thats it, it cant be reversed?

 

[cantstoppeating]

...BUT that kinda makes me feel like once the brain has lost its ability (whether partial or complete) to use sugar/glucose as fuel, thats it, it cant be reversed?

This is largely what Alzheimer's researchers are beginning to look into now that they're seeing it's a problem of glucose oxidation.

The brain is another organ, like our kidneys and liver, so improving the body's ability to handle sugar will also improve the brain's ability to handle sugar.

 

[jimmyquick]

...BUT that kinda makes me feel like once the brain has lost its ability (whether partial or complete) to use sugar/glucose as fuel, thats it, it cant be reversed?

This is largely what Alzheimer's researchers are beginning to look into now that they're seeing it's a problem of glucose oxidation.

The brain is another organ, like our kidneys and liver, so improving the body's ability to handle sugar will also improve the brain's ability to handle sugar.

Remember the story of the women who fed her husband coconut oil because he had Alzheimer's who then drastically improved? I think I remember listing to a podcast with the women being interviewed on Dave Asprey's podcast and him telling her it was helping her husband only because the brain actually favors those type of saturated and MCT fats over glucose.

However, I believe there was another podcast with Ray explaining that he was improving because the coconut fats were actually displacing the PUFA in the brain, thus allowing it to better utilize the glucose and improve (please someone correct me if Im wrong or post the podcast link, I cant remember them all!) but I think I am remembering this right. If this is the case, then the brain never loses it's ability. The fat is clearing out the PUFA which allows them to thrive.

I would love to know what the gentleman's (patient) diet was like before he started developing brain issues. I wouldn't be surpriesed if he was ingesting a good amount of questionable oils. If he was always eating healthy from the get go then perhaps that would favor the more "brain losses its ability" theory. I think the women who was doing this actually has a website and is quite active online about it.

 

[haidut]

I know that one of the big issues with brain disorders can be the fact that the brain just cant use sugars/glucose anymore as fuel. so when they switch to fat only diets their brain seems to thrive. now i know such a diet is not good in the long run, but what would one do to restore the utilization of sugar as energy in the brain? I know that Ray Peat talked about potato juice being beneficial here, BUT that kinda makes me feel like once the brain has lost its ability (whether partial or complete) to use sugar/glucose as fuel, thats it, it cant be reversed?

You can use substances that increase the oxidation of sugar. Some of those are aspirin, caffeine, methylene blue, thiamine, etc. Unsurprisingly, there are studies with each one of these substances for treating Alzheimers, and some of them worked so well in an animal mode that they are not in a human clinical trial.

 

[Elephanto]

Giving blood/chelating iron could be part of the answer like that study Haidut mentionned. The researchers didn't even make the link between iron accumulation and glucose oxidation, but I think I've found it :

Iron upregulates P53
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2808103/

Aluminium-induced oxidative damage to DNA may be involved in the neurodegeneration via increase in p53 expression
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19464335

Inhibition of p53 activity improves insulin resistance, decreases proinflammatory cytokines
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19718037
(hence why they call alzheimer "diabetes of the brain")

So it might not be the iron or aluminium that do neuronal damage, but the response by p53 inducing insulin resistance locally.

 

[jyb]

Remember the story of the women who fed her husband coconut oil because he had Alzheimer's who then drastically improved? I think I remember listing to a podcast with the women being interviewed on Dave Asprey's podcast and him telling her it was helping her husband only because the brain actually favors those type of saturated and MCT fats over glucose.

The brain likes occasional ketones, not fatty acids and not necessarily all day long. Here is an explanation of what fuels the brain likes, comparing ketones, lactate, glucose and free fatty acids: http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Neuron fuel and function

I don't think its true that the brain is like any other organ and just wants to max on glucose. Organs can be very different in how and what fuel they use preferentially.

 

[pboy]

im pretty sure the body ultimately wants lipids and protein for structural and functional purposes, and it wants sugar not only for those also, but fuel. The fact it can use fat and protein as fuel is just a benefit...it doesn't appear to be ideal at all. Protein leaves toxic residues, and fat is incredibly slow to transport around compared to glucose, fat also has a hard time being eliminated from the body because its not readily water soluble.

Your brain uses sugar like anything else, like the guy above said, if you can use sugar anywhere you can pretty much use it everywhere, and it all has to do with a nutritious diet basically at the core. In a ratio wise you need enough vitamins and minerals to the carbohydrates you're consuming. Sounds simple and people might be like 'well then how do all these people have issues ect', imbalanced diet, and also...once you're sufficiently plugged up with whatever that stuff is that looks like fat and tension, it can take time to heal that for sugar to reach the finest channels in the body, even once your diet is optimized for sugar usage. A lot of ability to use sugar has to do with ability to breath also, which...not just in the literal sense, but in the metaphoric sense. If youre not able to breath...be present where you are and ok with it, like if any kind of stress, bad air quality, even simply people around you that make you feel uncomfortable, restrictive clothing, a situation that represses ability to express yourself...all of these things inhibit ability to fully max utilize sugar. Its about your brain sending signals of if the usage of sugar will be futile, met with hostility or knocked down some how, or if it will enhance you and possibly improve the area around you or bring joy to other people...thyroid goes hand and hand with this, its the throttle

 

[tara]

My understanding too is that different tissues may have different fuel preferences - eg apparently muscles at rest like to burn fat, but when they are active they need sugar.
My understanding is that a well-functioning brain generally prefers sugar.

It also needs oxygen to efficiently oxidise sugar.
Oxygen supply is dependent on CO2. Tissues that produce CO2 get more O2 delivered to them.
So if a bit of the brain has a go-slow or stop event, it can reduce its production of CO2, and then it might not easily recover without intervention. I think that's Peat's explanation about why baking soda worked for a woman who was partially incapacitated by a stroke - it got a bit of CO2 into her general circulation, and thence into the vicinity of the affected brain region, and got enough oxygen delivered to it to get oxidation - and energy production - going again.

And then it also needs all the other co-factors too - eg. T3, vitamins, minerals.