Sugar, A Mind Numbing Substance

Most everybody knows that eating too much sugar can trigger type II diabetes, also known as adult onset diabetes. Type I is juvenile diabetes,and in that form the body stops making insulin. Type II is characterized by insulin resistance. The body still makes some insulin, but the receptors that it is supposed to work at, are basically burned out from over use. Type II is reversible with the right dietary changes. God made the human body to know how to heal itself, when we quit abusing it.
Why is an elevated sugar level a problem? When sugar becomes elevated it cross reacts with proteins and damages the tissue. This is why diabetics have so much of a problem with tissue healing.
But what about the "mind numbing" part of the title? I was at a seminar a couple weeks ago and some cutting edge research was presented on a new discovery. An organ can have localized insulin resistance while the rest of the body has normal blood sugar levels. Adult acne, for example, is known as 'diabetes of the skin'. The new research shows that there is localized insulin resistance of the brain as well. Scientists took mice and injected them with a drug that causes insulin resistance to them and sure enough they develop Type II diabetes. They took other mice and injected this drug into their brain. The mice developed diabetes of the brain, and the major symptom was dementia. On autopsy, they discovered that the brains of mice with this 'diabetes of the brain', and brains with Alzheimer's disease were identical. Although it is probably premature to say that eating sugar causes Alzheimer's disease, there is a strong enough reasonable correlation, to make one want to think twice before reaching for that piece of dessert.
Just something to think about...
~Mom