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Study Suggests Fructose Could Drive Alzheimer's Disease
- ralala 4y agoI have fructose malabsorption and when I eat or drink too much of it, I get brain fog (slow reaction, dizziness etc.) for one or two days. Would be interesting to see if fructose malabsorption and Alzheimer's correlate.
- saool 4y agoIf you haven't yet, check out Dr Richard Johnson on the fructose metabolism. https://peterattiamd.com/rickjohnson2/ https://peterattiamd.com/rickjohnson2/ https://drhyman.com/blog/2022/05/18/podcast-ep540/ https://drhyman.com/blog/2022/05/18/podcast-ep540/
- M95D 4y ago> Metabolizing fructose and its byproduct, intracellular uric acid [...] Fructose DOES NOT metabolise to uric acid. This means the whole article is fake/scam.
- spacephysics 4y agoSomeone with more domain knowledge, does this study hold water? Even perhaps as a reason to look further into the relationship between diet and Alzheimer’s?
- Synaesthesia 4y agoI watched an interesting presentation on YouTube about how fructose is digested in the body, its totally different to glucose, and arguably more harmful becuase the liver can only handle so much, there are various metabolic products which also need to be dealt with... So I do believe this may be very plausible.
- lab14 4y agoWould you mind sharing said YouTube presentation?
- VLM 4y agoProbably "Sugar The Bitter Truth" by Lustig 2009 which was "controversial" at the time but more than a decade later its pretty much mainstream. You're always going to have members of the general public and docs who don't keep upon on continuing nutritional education (snark, there isn't any) saying stuff that was out of date decades ago but I'd say the stuff in that video is pretty much mainstream now.
- Synaesthesia 4y agoThat's the one.
- chasebank 4y ago"This leads to the overeating of high fat, sugary and salty food prompting excess fructose production." Perhaps I'm reading this wrong but the article suggests that it's not from digested fructose, rather the body is producing fructose. I'm confused.
- abosley 4y agoAgreed....the part where it states that "Fructose produced in the brain could possibly lead to inflammation..." made me eye-roll...really hard.
- unglaublich 4y agoHwang JJ, Jiang L, Hamza M, Dai F, Belfort-DeAguiar R, Cline G, Rothman DL, Mason G, Sherwin RS. The human brain produces fructose from glucose. JCI Insight. 2017 Feb 23;2(4):e90508. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.90508. PMID: 28239653; PMCID: PMC5313070. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28239653/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28239653/
- giantg2 4y agoJust another theory. I swear this domain is mostly people throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. I wouldn't be surprised if diet is one of many factors involved. But I really don't see much value by most of the studies at this point. Maybe we'll get to see who's right in a decade or two.
- yieldcrv 4y agoSo many ailments rely on multiple states occurring at the same time, and yet our way of studying seemingly has no way to factor this in. Kind of sad. But we got a lot of lower hanging fruit plucked by figuring out cures and preventative measures for single state ailments.
- WalterBright 4y agoI expect Alzheimers is caused by a combination of factors. That is why trying to correlate one factor with it has been fruitless.
- canadiantim 4y agoMaybe fruitless is a good thing in this case
- polalavik 4y agoI’ve been saying this for a while - science is great at breaking things down to the atomic level and figuring out what does what, individually. But science sometimes is not so good at the systematic, or synergistic view of multiple variables. We keep trying to break things down to one variable that cures all when it’s probably a mixture of a lot of things + different for people with different genetic.
- yieldcrv 4y agoI wonder if its as fundamental as needing a different "scientific method".
- msie 4y agoA theory easy enough to test.
- manmal 4y agoUnfortunately not, because fructose is also produced endogenously. As mentioned in other comments here, whole fruit consumption seems to not even be the real issue.
- msie 4y ago"The study said more research is needed on the role of fructose and uric acid metabolism in AD." - we need more money.
- el_benhameen 4y agoThis seems overly cynical. You’re taught as a freshman science student that a research paper should describe its own deficiencies and point to next steps. It’s a pretty basic part of writing about research.
- themitigating 4y agoYes, because that's how research is done.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- nemo44x 4y agoIt many ways it is. If your livelihood is based on your research then it's necessary for you to frame your research as important. Existentially important is even better. This way it outcompetes other studies/research/etc for funding from various sources. Why would anyone support your research if it wasn't urgent and important, etc? This is how incentives work. It's why, for instance, you have gain of function research occurring in many cases. SARS was really interesting but it turns out it was never going to be a large risk for society. Who is going to continue to fund research into it? So, your incentive is to find a way to convince people that fund things that it could in fact find a way to be a global pandemic and gain of function "research" is a great way to do this. Of course you justify it by saying "it could happen and if it did happen then we'd want to know how to prepare for it so lets find the worst ways it could get to that state before it does itself". Now that you've created something terrifying, it's much easier to get gobs of funding for your research. This is how it works.
- themitigating 4y agoMost people's livelihood hood is based on their job. Money as a motivation is in no way sufficient to make an accusation of corruption. So much so I didn't even read your argument
- joenathanone 4y agoDiabetes and Alzheimer's, quite the combo if true.
- wtetzner 4y agoSome researchers have started calling Alzheimer's "Type 3 Diabetes".
- exfatloss 4y agoAnecdata, but haven't people with dementia (not just Alzheimer's) been found to have very strong sugar cravings too? I've heard the term "Diabetes of the brain" for it.
- shagie 4y agoThe link has been an area of study for a while. https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-minute-is-alzheimers-type-3-diabetes/ https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-mi... https://www.alz.org/media/documents/alzheimers-dementia-diabetes-cognitive-decline-ts.pdf https://www.alz.org/media/documents/alzheimers-dementia-diab... https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/whats-the-relationship-between-diabetes-and-dementia-202107122546 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/whats-the-relationship-b... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246646/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246646/
- m3kw9 4y agoMaybe treating AD as a singular disease is confusing researchers into thinking there is a single factor causing this. It’s a spectrum disease, damn do we have to remind them this?
- ProjectArcturis 4y agoThis is an area of active research and it's misleading to claim that there is any kind of consensus that AD is a spectrum disease. If anything, the recent success of anti-amyloid drugs has pushed the consensus the other way.
- Baloo 4y ago"...other foods can also stimulate fructose production in the body and induce features of metabolic syndrome. These include foods that provide the glucose substrate for the polyol pathway, such as high glycemic carbohydrates, and foods that stimulate aldose reductase, such as *salty foods and alcohol*. Umami foods (especially processed *red meats, organ meats, shellfish, and beer* that is rich in yeast extracts) also engage the purine degradation pathway leading to uric acid. The second more proximate factor has been the dramatic rise in the intake of added sugars that contain fructose and glucose, such as *table sugar (sucrose) and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)*." And... "Interestingly, *whole fruits tend not to activate this pathway* owing to a relatively low fructose content in individual fruits and the presence of neutralizing factors (such as fiber, vitamin C, potassium, and flavanols) and because the small intestine metabolizes some fructose before it reaches the liver and brain." So basically processed meats, table sugar & high-fructose corn syrup are bad for you. I'm shocked /s
- 11235813213455 4y agohoney also
- unglaublich 4y agoYes, most forms of sugars contain 40-60% fructose.
- 11235813213455 4y agoand bees can't transport fruit fibers!
- unglaublich 4y ago> So basically processed meats, table sugar & high-fructose corn syrup are bad for you. I'm shocked /s The interesting part of the research is that the authors identified a common player that might progress the development of chronic diseases: high uric acid levels. Uric acid has historically been associated with gout. But more recently, there has been growing interest in the role of uric acid on the development of chronic diseases like metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer. An interesting (imo) pop-medscience video by Dr. David Perlmutter - Uric Acid: A KEY Cause of Weight Gain, Diabetes, Heart Disease & Dementia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ6jPCcFNa8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ6jPCcFNa8
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- sys32768 4y agoMy mom got Alzheimer's at age 58. She was trim, ate organic, exercised daily, never smoked or drank, and had a happy social life. She was always a super light sleeper though, and had her own room because dad would wake her up at night. I wonder whether her brain's lymphatic system was working. Only other thing that stuck in my mind is not long before her symptoms, she had like six metal fillings removed and replaced with porcelain all at the same time. Her aunt got it early too and was a health nut juicer for years who lived a healthy lifestyle.
- ProjectArcturis 4y agoHave you ever been checked for familial early-onset Alzheimer's genes?
- criddell 4y agoIs that the kind of information a 23-and-me test will give you?
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y agoNot reliably. Best would be to seek consultation with a medical geneticist.
- lhh 4y ago23andme will tell you your APOE genotype, one of the variants of which is a major risk factor for Alzheimer's.
- sys32768 4y agoNo, I just assume I'll get it in a few years, although neither of her siblings got it. I'm less healthy than she was at my age (52). My exit plan doesn't involve long term health care insurance, that's for sure. Mom's still alive at 75, so that's a long run with this disease. I would say it's been about three years since she has declined to that stage where no mentally well person would want to be alive.
- 4y ago
- scavenger5 4y agoThis is a junk study. Here is the link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916523000047 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000291652... If you look at the evidence hierarchy, this study is at the lowest form of evidence (it's a narrative review -i.e expert opinion), they didn't even run a study. The ultimate study would multiple randomized controlled trials showing sugar/fructose when controlled for calories, causes increased Alheimer's disease. Since we haven't seen that, we should not draw conclusions. As the saying goes 'correlation does not imply causation'. We don't even have correlation yet, the headline is an overreach.
- MarkMarine 4y agoComments like this are why I love hacker news. Thank you for saving me the minutes I would spend trying to wade through this stuff myself.
- themitigating 4y agoLet's hope the poster isn't lying or wrong
- rising-sky 4y agoYou probably still want to at least look at the research yourself, trusting other "off-hand" comments is, uh, ironically, akin to the moral from the "off-hand" parent comment in this case
- narrator 4y agoHigh fructose corn syrup is also contaminated with mercury[1]. It comes from contamination of the caustic soda used to process the corn. [1] https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20090127/mercury-in-high-fructose-corn-syrup https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20090127/mercury-in-...
- jxramos 4y agoI've long been curious about understanding the processes involved in creating our processed food and just what sort of chemicals and treatments the raw material pass through to get to what we know and identify on the grocery shelves.
- unglaublich 4y agoA classic is: How It's Made - Hot Dogs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NzUm7UEEIY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NzUm7UEEIY
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- alfor 4y agoLack of infrared exposition Each of our mitochondria need infrared to remove oxidative stress.(inflammation) They use infrared to do that but we now live inside more and more (especially elderly and sick) and thus we are in a constant crisis of chronic inflammation. I know it sound new age, but the research is there, like Vit-D with the sun must have sounded ridicule at the time, the need for infrared was not apparent when most people worked outside. https://youtu.be/wadKIiGsDTw https://youtu.be/wadKIiGsDTw (medical papers in the video description)
- unglaublich 4y agoYou confuse IR with UV light.
- alfor 4y agoNo UV and vit-d is well know The need for infrared is just starting to get understood, huge potential to improve the lives of people.
- tsol 4y agoThis is interesting, but I don't know if there's much to say it causes Alzheimers specifically
- hcarvalhoalves 4y agoI recently learned about the infrared interaction w/ mitochondria, currently undergoing near-red/low-power laser therapy to recover numbness after fracturing the face.
- ProjectArcturis 4y agoI've spent about 10 years doing research into brain metabolism and Alzheimer's. This is an interesting paper! It explains a lot of observed phenomena in the novel context of fructose metabolism. I certainly am convinced that fructose has short-term effects on regional brain activity and whole-body metabolism. However they don't make great links between fructose and known AD pathology. Beta-amyloid buildup is now pretty convincingly a critical step in the progression of AD. They link a few low-quality papers claiming fructose increases amyloid, but the evidence is pretty weak. Similarly, APOE genotypes are well documented AD risk factors. The authors aren't really able to explain APOE's role in the context of fructose. Fun read (for me, anyway), but not particularly convincing. Hopefully it provokes some more research to try to fill in some of the missing links.
- snshn 4y agoI am convinced that boredom is the main cause of Alzheimer's and many other neurological ailments.
- tonis2 4y agoFrom my own experience, all the syrups that lots of modern food include cause me massive memory and sleep problems. I do have some gut bacteria imbalances, that might increase the bad effects of sugar, but still, I could not function if I wont avoid added sugars, which is pretty hard task today. So I'm not surpised by this study, cause I feel it immediatley how the sugar disables my brain.