Gluten? Diabetes? Alzheimer’s??

After three and a half years of running an adult sitting and caregiving service, we have become painfully aware of how many seniors are suffering with Alzheimer’s or some sort of dementia. Basically, something in the body has been damaged — something is not working correctly. The results are varied, but the common problems are memory and confusion. It’s very scary and certainly gets your attention. Several male clients with dementia have been in their 60s!

Why talk about dementia on a gluten site? An October 3, 2009 article about brain function from Dr. Joseph Mercola caught my eye. “Interestingly,” wrote Mercola, “in more recent years Alzheimer’s disease is increasingly being referred to as a third form of diabetes.” Apparently, your brain, as well as your pancreas, produces insulin, and there are insulin receptors in your brain. And they are crucial, says Mercola, for memory and learning.

Then I noticed that Dr. Mercola referenced previous articles from 2007, with a headline, “Is Alzheimer’s a Form of Diabetes?” Of course, one of the classic connections with gluten sensitivity or gluten intolerance is diabetes, whatever the type. Gluten damage can create all manner of havoc in the body, and the damage — whether leaky gut or flattened villi or other — can often express itself in seemingly unrelated ways. I remember the first time Dr. Juanee Surprise related joint problems to leaky gut, and I thought, “What does your knee have to do with your gut?!” A lot, I have since discovered.

We’ll be exploring the dementia connection in a lot more detail in the future. I just had to get back to blogging, after a recess caused by the caregiving business, and also back to researching and writing.