We also measured the brain, the hippocampus... What we found was that among the kids with Type 2 diabetes, their hippocampi are smaller in volume, very significantly. For those of you who work in Alzheimer's disease, the difference between the kids with Type 2 diabetes and the control kids [who were obese but did not have Type 2 diabetes] is about the same as that between a normal elderly and one with mild cognitive impairment. So the volume difference is around 12% So this is not a small, little thing. So what will happen to these children, whether we're actually seeing permanent damage or not, we don't know.I haven't watched the entire lecture, but I gather that the reason he tells us to remember that the control group is obese is that we can also expect to see brain changes in obese teens who have not developed Type 2 diabetes, which would mean that the brains of teenagers with Type 2 diabetes are even more different from the brains of normal-weight adolescents.*
Their frontal lobe regions are also affected, and they have more overall brain atrophy than the control group. And remember, the control group was an obese control group.
Impact of Obesity and Metabolic Disease on Brain Structure and Function 5/5/11
Antonio Convit, M.D.
NYU
The lecture - the few minutes I've watched of it - is horrifying.
I had no idea.
*update (4/5/2012)
Right. Obesity in and of itself, without Type 2 diabetes, is linked to brain atrophy. Sounds like overweight may be as well, at least in people over 70.
They found that obese individuals [over age 70] had, on average, 8 percent less brain tissue than people of normal weight, while overweight people had 4 percent less tissue. According to Thompson, who is also a member of UCLA's Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, this is the first time anyone has established a link between being overweight and having what he describes as "severe brain degeneration."btw, remember back when I was bugging everyone about vegan diets making you thin?
"That's a big loss of tissue, and it depletes your cognitive reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer's and other diseases that attack the brain," he said. "But you can greatly reduce your risk for Alzheimer's if you can eat healthily and keep your weight under control."
Well, they do. I adopted a vegan weight-loss diet in September 2009, lost 11 pounds, and have basically kept it off ever since -- without even being a vegan. I need to get back on track, but still: even part-time veganism makes you thinner than full-time non-veganism.
The link to the lecture seems to be broken.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteIt should be working now.
btw, when I lost 11 pounds, I wasn't overweight to start with. I lost that famous "last 10 pounds" no one can lose, and that I certainly had never been able to lose in my entire adult life.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Debbie will mind my saying that she lost - gosh, maybe 10 pounds? - also as soon as she started a quasi-vegan diet. I had told her about it, and then hadn't seen her in a while, and when I did: wow! She was skinny. (She hadn't been overweight, either.)
It was the diet.
My sister has now lost lots of weight, too.
My sister has always struggled with weight, even when she was a child, and she hasn't melted down to the point of being slender. But she's lost a **lot.**
I need to get back on track, but still: even part-time veganism makes you thinner than full-time non-veganism
ReplyDeleteNot true for everybody. Every time I try a vegan regimen -- and I try at regular intervals, because it is supposed to be so healthy -- I invariably gain 15 pounds over 8-12 weeks. I feel fine -- it is healthy food, after all -- but then I have to go shopping for new clothes.
Not good.
After some research on the topic, I'm inclined to accept the metabolic typing hypothesis, that one's genetic heritage can predispose one to fare better or worse on different types of diet. Obviously Catherine does well on the vegan -- but I don't, and neither do others I know. What works for me is complete avoidance of all grains, dairy products and nearly all fruit (though I'm not lactose or gluten intolerant in any way). Instead, I have lots of salads, common garden veggies, some legumes and nuts, lean meat, fish and poultry, and very rarely, some apples or berries.
The secret in my case seems to lie in avoiding almost all refined carbohydrates of any type, plus any or all high glycemic fruits or vegetables. My (vegetarian) physician shakes her head, but says keep it up -- I have the best cholesterol, blood sugar, triglycerides etc. profiles in her practice, she says. But when I try the vegan way, my blood sugar goes up and so do the others -- not to dangerous heights, but noticeably.
So veganism isn't for everyone. Neither is my higher-protein, low-carb regimen. Keep records and go with the data.
"After some research on the topic, I'm inclined to accept the metabolic typing hypothesis, that one's genetic heritage can predispose one to fare better or worse on different types of diet."
ReplyDeleteTake, for example, the Inuit. I suspect that with their traditionally blubbery diet, carbohydrates are probably not something that they can manage in large quantities.
Also, let's not forget that these are diabetic kids. Diabetes means having a particularly tough time dealing with a high-carbohydrate diet. In their particular case, it would probably be best to steer clear of the vegan diet.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, I was just looking up the diabetes rate for American Indians/Alaskan natives. It's 16%, which (adjusted for age) is the highest for any ethnic/racial group in the US. It would be interesting to know how that varies from tribe to tribe, since the quantity of starch in the traditional diet varies quite a lot (lots of corn for some areas, almost no grain at all in others).
Right, these kids are diabetic - but it looks like overweight without diabetes also affects the brain, executive function especially. (Which is JUST what you need when you're trying to use executive function to lose weight...)
ReplyDeleteThe lecturer said that there are no obese adults who aren't also significantly insulin-resistant, which I find horrifying...
invariably gain 15 pounds over 8-12 weeks.
ReplyDeleteThat is amazing!
Very strange. (I say 'very strange' because I'm pretty sure our ancestors evolved on a fairly heavy vegetable-fruits-and-berries sort of diet .... )
That said, I don't know that much about the paleolithic diet.
I suspect that with their traditionally blubbery diet, carbohydrates are probably not something that they can manage in large quantities.
ReplyDeleteThat's where I don't fit the "China Study" diet.
For a while there, I was doing the hardcore China Study regimen: whole foods, no added fat, sugar, or salt.
I was a mess (and I couldn't even do it full-time).
A couple of months in, I had a pretty significant change of mental state: I would wake up in the middle of the night feeling GRIM.
Until that experience, I didn't think of "GRIM" as a specific emotion -- now I do!
At some point I saw an interview with Joel Fuhrman, who prescribes China Study-type diets to his patients. He said that he has patients with "failure to thrive" on very low fat regimens.
That was me.
I was failing to thrive; I was a wreck -- and it was all about fat.
The China Study (& Esselstyn) say that fat is horrifically bad for you ---- (Esselstyn, especially) --- so I just have to hope that my biology is different, because I can't do a no-added-fat diet.
My family doesn't have a history of heart disease, and I seem to have a robust 'cholesterol clearing' mechanism, but still....
It's impossible to know.
Just to be clear (for passers-by), I'm not a vegan, and never did manage to do a full-time vegan diet.
ReplyDeleteI'm a 'fellow traveler.'
Overall, I eat much less animal fat & protein than I did before (which means the amount I eat tends to grow...)