by admin on September 21, 2008
By Ralph Sanchez, L.Ac.,CNS,D.Hom
Insulin fulfills an indispensable role in your body’s utilization of blood sugar (glucose). In type 2 diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome, insulin’s function of glucose uptake into the body’s cells is impaired due to a resistance to insulin that develops over time. This insulin resistance pattern which defines the disease process of the above mentioned disorders, is now seen as a link to the degenerative spiral that occurs in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) over and above the role of insulin in glucose metabolism in the brain. Insulin resistance and its role in inflammation, and impaired insulin function in the brain are now understood to be underlying pieces of the Alzheimer’s puzzle. [click to continue…]
by admin on April 25, 2008
By Ralph Sanchez, L.Ac.,CNS,D.Hom.
German doctor Alois Alzheimer discovered the disease in 1906, when he examined a post-mortem patient who had died with an unknown mental illness. Dr. Alzheimer found unusual clumps of protein plaques in the patient’s brain. These plaques are made up of clustered proteins and are today noted as a clear sign of the disease with new brain scan (PET) and imaging (MRI) techniques being developed to help with early detection of the disease. Unfortunately scientists have long been debating whether these protein plaques cause the disease or are simply a by-product of it. As this debate continues, the elderly continue to develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD) at an alarming rate, while the speed at which research studies provide an answer feels like it is crawling in comparison. [click to continue…]
