Читать книгу Alzheimer's Disease - Michelle Deetken - Страница 20

One example of an unbalanced chemical is glucose. Glucose is a simple sugar or simple carbohydrate found in abundance in our modern food supply and might be one of the culprits responsible for the decline of cognitive function. Glucose is vital to the brain because it is the brain's preferred energy source. For instance, the energy that glucose provides is required for the synthesis, release, and uptake of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine (a neurotransmitter that is known to be low in AD patients). As a result of this unbalance, metabolic conditions may interfere with the brain's ability to obtain and utilize glucose. Although the brain will try to adapt through the use of other fuels, low glucose levels cause a decline in the brain's overall metabolic activity.

What “metabolic conditions” interfere with glucose's availability to the brain if it is so abundant in today's foods? This abundance is the problem—there is too much of a good thing! You might notice that if you read the nutritional facts of foods, glucose is not listed. Nevertheless, it is there—hidden in ingredients like sugar, brown sugar, sucrose, dextrose, maltose, corn syrup, and high fructose corn sugar.