1. If unprotected dietary linoleic acid (in refined, Vitamin E-deficient vegetable oils) causes this disease (Kalmijn et al., 1997), then a decades-long history of exposure to frying and salad oils, oily cakes and dips, etc., would be highly relevant to early detection; early intervention with fish oil and low-dose vitamin E might then abort progression (as I see in young adults with the following syndrome).
2. Young adults exposed to such oils display what may be an ultra-early pre-Alzheimer disorder, that I have discovered and documented in hundreds of general practice patients. I call this Refined Oil Syndrome, and it consists of memory problems, irritability, glare sensitivity, and night-blindness. Vitamin E or fish oil quickly reverse the amnesia and bad mood, while the night-blindness improves slowly, but the photophobia persists, as a permanent retinal marker for previous refined oil intake, that may be a useful predictor of AD risk in older subjects, even if oil intake has ceased.
3. Mild cognitive problems are common in anxious patients, and may worsen somewhat in later life. Anxiety is caused by prenatal exposure to fatty maternal diet, which allows maternal cortisol to cross the placenta, programming an anxious fetal brain. Cortisol also impairs fetal and childhood brain growth—note the smaller childhood head circumference in the worse-affected dementing nuns in the Nun Study, and their impaired language fluency as young adults, perhaps indicating anxiety-related cognitive problems in this subgroup of nuns.
4. If refined vegetable oils are the specific cause of late-onset AD, then their effects should be worse in anxious people, who already have cognitive problems. Anxiety affects 20-30 percent of people in fat-eating nations, and perhaps half or more of all AD cases. Inositol powder supplement (or inositol-rich corn, cereal grains, legumes) greatly improves cognition in my anxious patients within a week, and must be tried in anxious AD cases (i.e., along with fish oil, vitamin E, curcumin, etc.).
5. "Age-related" or "normal" cognitive decline may well not be normal, given that calm elderlies often have perfect cognition, but may in fact be due to undiagnosed anxiety, which is very common, and often leads to Parkinson disease, and perhaps to Lewy body dementia, as well. LBD is more common than we think. Lifelong anxiety is detected by asking about childhood shyness and chronic nervous worry, and may be an important predictor of (anxiety-aggravated) AD if refined oils enter the picture, or of Parkinson-related dementia if they do not. Inositol powder (or inositol-rich foods, like porridge) may improve "age-related" cognitive decline, if the real cause is anxiety disorder—an inositol-deficiency state.
References:
Kalmijn S, Feskens EJ, Launer LJ, Kromhout D.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids, antioxidants, and cognitive function in very old men.
Am J Epidemiol. 1997 Jan 1;145(1):33-41.
PubMed.
Comments
Solo practitioner and independent researcher; Founder, National Institute of Good Health
1. If unprotected dietary linoleic acid (in refined, Vitamin E-deficient vegetable oils) causes this disease (Kalmijn et al., 1997), then a decades-long history of exposure to frying and salad oils, oily cakes and dips, etc., would be highly relevant to early detection; early intervention with fish oil and low-dose vitamin E might then abort progression (as I see in young adults with the following syndrome).
2. Young adults exposed to such oils display what may be an ultra-early pre-Alzheimer disorder, that I have discovered and documented in hundreds of general practice patients. I call this Refined Oil Syndrome, and it consists of memory problems, irritability, glare sensitivity, and night-blindness. Vitamin E or fish oil quickly reverse the amnesia and bad mood, while the night-blindness improves slowly, but the photophobia persists, as a permanent retinal marker for previous refined oil intake, that may be a useful predictor of AD risk in older subjects, even if oil intake has ceased.
3. Mild cognitive problems are common in anxious patients, and may worsen somewhat in later life. Anxiety is caused by prenatal exposure to fatty maternal diet, which allows maternal cortisol to cross the placenta, programming an anxious fetal brain. Cortisol also impairs fetal and childhood brain growth—note the smaller childhood head circumference in the worse-affected dementing nuns in the Nun Study, and their impaired language fluency as young adults, perhaps indicating anxiety-related cognitive problems in this subgroup of nuns.
4. If refined vegetable oils are the specific cause of late-onset AD, then their effects should be worse in anxious people, who already have cognitive problems. Anxiety affects 20-30 percent of people in fat-eating nations, and perhaps half or more of all AD cases. Inositol powder supplement (or inositol-rich corn, cereal grains, legumes) greatly improves cognition in my anxious patients within a week, and must be tried in anxious AD cases (i.e., along with fish oil, vitamin E, curcumin, etc.).
5. "Age-related" or "normal" cognitive decline may well not be normal, given that calm elderlies often have perfect cognition, but may in fact be due to undiagnosed anxiety, which is very common, and often leads to Parkinson disease, and perhaps to Lewy body dementia, as well. LBD is more common than we think. Lifelong anxiety is detected by asking about childhood shyness and chronic nervous worry, and may be an important predictor of (anxiety-aggravated) AD if refined oils enter the picture, or of Parkinson-related dementia if they do not. Inositol powder (or inositol-rich foods, like porridge) may improve "age-related" cognitive decline, if the real cause is anxiety disorder—an inositol-deficiency state.
References:
Kalmijn S, Feskens EJ, Launer LJ, Kromhout D. Polyunsaturated fatty acids, antioxidants, and cognitive function in very old men. Am J Epidemiol. 1997 Jan 1;145(1):33-41. PubMed.
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