14 DAY TRIAL // Fat, sugar and cholesterol are the three main "ingredients" that cause the brain tangles associated with some forms of dementia, including Alzheimer's. Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center scientist, Susanne Akterin, announced on Friday that mice fed with fast food products for nine months showed extremely high risks of developing brain tangles, which, in some cases, actually led to the onset of Alzheimer's.
"We now suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol in combination with genetic factors (...) can adversely affect several brain substances, which can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's," the researcher's report said. These finds are very disturbing, as they place millions of people worldwide at risk of developing the incurable mental disease.
Over the past few years, the incidence of dementia-related conditions has increased dramatically, directly proportional with fast food product consumption and the rate of obesity. This is especially true in the United States, where the number of obese people is constantly increasing. Being overweight also implies larger risks of developing diabetes, which would mean that these diseases are all united by the way people eat.
The mice in the experiment exhibited large concentrations of the protein tau in their brain when the study was concluded. This protein is present in 15 to 20 percent of humans, and previous studies associated it with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's. "All in all, the results give some indication of how Alzheimer's can be prevented, but more research in this field needs to be done before proper advice can be passed on to the general public," said Akterin.
Cholesterol, on the other hand, was found to be involved in suppressing the Arc protein, a substance that plays a key part in storing memories. This directly ties a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol, such as that provided by fast food restaurants, to the onset and development of neuron tangles in the brain, the favoring factors of dementia and Alzheimer's, implicitly.