Brain Health Archives - Glenville Nutrition Clinic

Dementia Awareness Week

Did you know that Dementia is an umbrella term that includes up to 100 different types of diseases?

Most common type is Alzheimer’s disease, which occurs in 50 to 75 per cent of cases – caused by plaque and tangles developing in the brain. Plaque are clumpy spheres that float between the neurons and prevent the transmission of messages to each other and the tangles actually choke the neurons from inside.

Next most common is vascular dementia at approximately 20 to 30 per cent – problem of supply of blood to the brain.

Alzheimer’s is the leading killer of women, three times more deaths than breast cancer, third biggest killer for men.

There are 850,000 people with dementia in the UK and it is estimated over 1 million people in the UK will be diagnosed with a form of dementia by 2025.

The total annual cost of dementia in the UK is £26.3 billion

The Alzheimer’s Society charity estimates delaying the onset of dementia by just five years would reduce deaths directly attributable to dementia by a staggering 30,000 a year!

Preventing memory loss is important whether you are a young person, middle aged or older as we know that it can take up to 30 years for symptoms of dementia to present themselves.

Did you know?

1 in 3 people over the age of 60 has problems with recall
Dementia is now the leading killer of women, causing three times more deaths than breast cancer
Changes in memory and concentration are major symptoms in women leading up and after the menopause
It is the third biggest killer for men
The financial cost of dementia to the UK is £26 billion per annum

Research shows that diet and lifestyle have more to offer the ageing brain than the drugs that are promoted to manage it. Physical activity is also important for healthy brain function.

One study tracked a group of people over eight years. The researchers found that those people who were the most active had a 30% lower risk of cognitive decline. What was interesting was that it was not the intensity of the exercise that made the difference but the amount.

So, with walking, the distance the people walked was more important than how fast they walked.

There are plenty of lifestyle changes you can make to boost your brain power and getting enough sleep is one of them.

Just as your body needs regular exercise, your brain needs regular exercise too.

Keep it fit by playing cards and chess games, reading books, doing crosswords, learning an instrument or new language or by pursuing a new hobby.

Supplements of omega 3 fish oils can be helpful as DHA one of the major omega 3 fatty acid in the brain has most protective effect against Alzheimer’s.

The DHA in Omega 3 fatty acids helps to prevent the plaque forming in the brain which is present in Alzheimer’s, and they help improve cerebral blood flow and reduce inflammation, making them important in the fight against not only Alzheimer’s but also vascular dementia.

Other nutrients which can be helpful include anamino acid called acetyl-L-carnitine as it increases the brain receptors that would normally deteriorate with age so are helpful for memory loss and dementia.

People with Alzheimer’s have been found to have a shortage of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and it is critical for memory and brain function.

Choline is a starting block for acetylcholine and is contained in high amounts in egg yolks and is also found in soya and nuts. So these are good foods for boosting memory and brain function.

Acetyl-L-carnitine works with coenzyme Q10 and alpha lipoic acid to maintain the function of the mitochondria. The mitochondria are the power houses of your cells, they provide the energy for your cells to function and survive.

In one study, people taking vitamins, B6, B12 and folic acid (vitamin B6 20mg, vitamin B12 500mcg, folic acid 800mcg) had 90% less brain shrinkage compared to those using a placebo.

How What You Eat Can Protect You Against Alzheimer’s and Dementia

Feed Your Brain

What you eat can have an enormous impact on your brain function as a study of over 1,000 people followed over 5 years showed that eating a Mediterranean diet is linked to less of a risk of memory loss and problems with concentration. The advice is to increase the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, olive oil and eat more oily fish and cut out processed, fast and convenience foods.

Making sure you keep your blood sugar in balance is also important as poor blood sugar control has been so closely linked with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s that it has been suggested that Alzheimer’s should be called type 3 diabetes.

Almost three quarters of people – a staggering 70 per cent – with type 2 diabetes are now known to develop Alzheimer’s, compared with only 10 per cent of people without diabetes.

Tips for balancing your blood sugar.

Try andeliminate added sugar as much as possible and also refined carbohydrates like white bread, white rice as they are turned to sugar (glucose) quickly in your body and your pancreas has to produce more insulin in order to deal with them. Eat little and often, leaving no longer than three hours without eating, so breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack and dinner.

Make sure you have breakfast otherwise you are more likely to reach for a coffee and a cake at 11am because your blood sugar will have plummeted. You may feel moody, irritable, tense and not able to concentrate. Always eat breakfast and make it a mixture of protein and carbohydrate – avoiding sugar-laden breakfast cereals at all times.

Include protein with every meal as it slows down the blood sugar rise from the carbohydrates. So, whenever you eat an oat cake or brown rice, include some fish or eggs, or a vegetable protein such as quinoa, legumes (in the form of, say, chickpea hummus), nuts (nut butters, such as almond butter, are good) or seeds. The body takes longer to process proteins than other foods, so adding protein effectively slows down the absorption of the carbohydrate.

Be booze aware

Alcohol has an effect on your blood sugar, so look for drinks with a lower sugar content. Spirits do not contain sugar, but their mixers usually do. White wine is more sugary than red, but on the other hand a white wine spritzer (made with sparkling mineral water) will be better for you than a full glass of red wine.

Nurture your nutrients

Certain nutrients can also be helpful in keeping your brain healthy and can be thought of as being supplementary to your diet.

Supplements of omega 3 fish oils are particularly helpful as DHA, one of the major omega 3 fatty acid in the brain, seems to have the most protective effect against Alzheimer’s. The DHA in Omega 3 fatty acids helps to prevent the plaque forming in the brain which is present in Alzheimer’s, and they help improve cerebral blood flow and reduce inflammation, making them important in the fight against not only Alzheimer’s but also vascular dementia.

Other nutrients which can be helpful include anamino acid called acetyl-L-carnitine as it increases the brain receptors that would normally deteriorate with age so helpful for memory loss and dementia.

People with Alzheimer’s have been found to have a shortage of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and it is critical for memory and brain function. Choline is a starting block for acetylcholine and is contained in high amounts in egg yolks and is also found in soya and nuts. So, these are good foods for boosting memory and brain function.

In one study, people taking vitamins, B6, B12 and folic acid (vitamin B6 20mg, vitamin B12 500mcg, folic acid 800mcg) had 90% less brain shrinkage compared to those using a placebo.

The research suggests that there is a 20- to 30-year interval between first development of amyloid plaque and onset of dementia. So, no matter what age you are it is never too late to change your diet to help protect your brain health.

How Does Stress And Poor Sleep Increase Your Risk Of Alzheimer’s and Dementia

There are plenty of lifestyle changes you can make to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia and getting enough sleep and reducing stress are two of them.

Get enough shut-eye

Too little sleep increases your risk for Alzheimer’s because amyloid plaque, which is one of the structural changes seen in Alzheimer’s is cleared away during sleep, when your cerebrospinal fluid washes out toxins from your body. This cerebrospinal detoxification only happens during sleep. Brain cells shrink, making space for the fluid to flow freely through and around them clearing out the waste. And the best position for clearing out this plaque is to sleep on your side.

Sleep is so important for your memory as it consolidates the effects of your waking experience by converting those memories into more permanent and enhanced forms. This also makes it easier to retrieve those memories when you need them.

Aim for six to eight hours. If you are not already sleeping well, you should look at your bedtime routine. Poor ‘sleep hygiene’ is the most common cause of insomnia and disturbed sleep. Your busy, active brain needs to be treated like a dimmer switch and allowed to wind down slowly. Ideally, you should allow about 40 minutes to switch off with whatever relaxing routine you find most helpful – for example, having a bath, reading, or listening to an audio book.

But before you do any of that, you need to switch off your TV, phone and tablet – at least an hour before you intend to go to bed. This is not just about bombarding your brain with information just before you try to sleep, there are physical factors at work: backlit screens, such as those of a tablet or smartphone, emit blue light that interferes with your body’s production of melatonin – the hormone that regulates your body’s circadian rhythm, the 24-hour rhythm of day and night.

Exposure to bright light of any colour before bed will suppress your melatonin production – it’s just that blue light is worst of all. Studies show that sitting in bright light compared to a dim light delays melatonin onset and shortens melatonin exposure by up to 90 minutes – that is, it takes a full hour and a half for the effects of bright-light exposure to wear off and melatonin to kick in and make you feel sleepy. If the room light is left on during sleep, melatonin secretion is suppressed by greater than 50 per cent.

Top tips for a good night’s sleep

As well as putting away screens one to two hours before you go to bed and creating a relaxing bedtime routine, try adopting the following as part of your good sleep hygiene:

Use blackout curtains or blinds, which can stop morning light waking you too early, and will help to mask the light of bright streetlights, if you have it, outside your bedroom window.
Don’t have an alarm clock or night light that emits a light during the night.
If you need a night light (for example, to light your way to the loo), then use a dim, red light, as this bypasses your optic nerves in such a way as not to interfere with your body’s production of melatonin.
Get lots of bright light during the day and early evening, as this will help improve your sleep and melatonin levels. It could also help prevent sundowning (an increased state of confusion towards the end of the day) in people with Alzheimer’s.
Keep your bedroom cooler rather than warmer, then layer on blankets that you can add or remove during the night if you get too cold or hot.
Use cotton bedding, which will enable your body to regulate your temperature more effectively during the night, improving your ability to sleep through.
Get a comfortable mattress – the best and most comfortable you can afford!

When you want to get to sleep quickly and sleep well throughout the night then a good combination of natural ingredients including magnesium can help. Valerian reduces the amount of time it takes to fall asleep and also improves the quality of that sleep. Hops have a natural sedative effect and a long history in helping to improve sleep. Research has shown that both valerian and hops can reduce restlessness and anxiety. L- theanine is important to help your brain ‘switch off’ when going to sleep. Other herbs such as chamomile, passionflower, skullcap and lemon balm are known for their sleep-inducing effects. And tart cherries have been shown to increase sleep time in people with insomnia by up to 84 minutes.

Reduce Stress

Research has shown that that experiencing stress in midlife can increase your risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia later on.

Try to devise strategies to reduce the amount of stress you are under – asking for help, delegating, and learning to say no are all good ways to start. If your job is stressing you a lot, can you change it – if not completely, then in small but significant ways (reduce your hours, move department)? If friends are overloading you, can you take a step back?

Balancing your blood sugar is essential in lowering stress because the crashes in sugar levels which happen through the day (due to going long periods without food and not eating the right foods) stimulates the stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol to be released. This is because these stress hormones, apart from helping you to run away from danger, can also mobilise your glucose (which has been stored as glycogen in the liver) back into the blood stream. This is why you can feel more jittery, irritable etc when your blood sugar plummets!

So, ensure you have a small meal every 2-3 hours that contains protein (eat breakfast, lunch and dinner plus a snack mid-morning and one mid-afternoon). For example, a hard-boiled egg, 10-12 almonds, a small can of tuna and brown rice. This will stop those roller-coaster highs and cravings for sweet foods. Because your blood sugar isn’t allowed to drop, your body will no longer have to ask you for a quick fix. As your blood sugar steadies, you will feel less stressed even though you might not be able to control the stress going on around you.

Certain nutrients can be very helpful in reducing stress levels, such as B vitamins, especially B5 for stress relief and energy, magnesium (known as nature’s tranquiliser) for relaxation and sleep, chromium for blood sugar balance, L-theanine for reducing anxiety and finally Siberian Ginseng, which acts as a tonic to the adrenal glands.

What Are The Top 7 Risk Factors For Alzheimer’s And What You Can Do About Them?

From poor nutrition to lack of exercise, there are several factors which can increase the likelihood of you developing Alzheimer’s.

An Unhealthy Diet

It is extremely important that you eat well, as your mind and body are very much connected. We know from research that eating a Mediterranean diet leads to less memory loss and/or problems with concentration. We also know that the Mediterranean diet is important for helping to keep your heart healthy, and this is just as important for your brain. The risks for Alzheimer’s are increased by many of the same conditions that damage your heart and blood vessels e.g., heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, so it is important that you do your best to follow a balanced, healthy diet, to reduce the risk.

Lack of Exercise For Your Mind and Body

Physical activity is very important for healthy brain function. One study tracked a group of people over eight years. The researchers found that those who were the most active had a 30% lower risk of cognitive decline, and the amount of exercise made a bigger difference than the intensity. So, with walking, the distance walked was more important than the pace. Some experts have even linked strength training with a lower risk of cognitive decline because parts of the brain grow as your muscles do!

Researchers suggest that the positive effects of exercise on cognitive function occur because exercise can increase hippocampal volume, reversing age-related loss in volume by one to two years. (The hippocampus is the part of your brain that shrinks as a symptom of Alzheimer’s.)

As your body needs regular exercise, your brain needs regular exercise too. Keep it fit by playing cards and chess games, reading books, doing crosswords, learning an instrument or new language or by pursuing a new hobby.

Not Getting Enough Sleep

Too little sleep increases your risk for Alzheimer’s because beta-amyloid protein is cleared away during sleep when your cerebrospinal fluid washes out toxins from your body. You should try to aim for 6 to 8 hours of sleep most nights.

Certain Medications

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are a medication to help reduce acid reflux, and they are now thought to increase the risk of developing dementia by 44 per cent because they increase the level of beta-amyloid in the brain.

In addition, there are several other over-the-counter medicines which include anticholinergics – found in treatments for colds, flu, heartburn, sleep problems – that block the chemical acetylcholine that your body needs to transmit electrical impulses between nerve cells. Recent research shows that those people taking these drugs have reduced brain volume (known as brain shrinkage) and they performed less well on memory tests.

Try not to only use over-the-counter medicine unless you really need them and if you are on a prescription medicine, ask your doctor if there are any other alternatives.

Family History

You may have a strong family history risk of Alzheimer’s, so it is important to think about dietary and lifestyle changes you can make to reduce your chances of developing the condition yourself.

You may worry that Alzheimer’s is in your genes. Some genes do directly cause early onset Alzheimer’s affecting those people aged between 30 and 60. However, genetics are responsible for less than 5 per cent of all Alzheimer’s cases.

It’s important to remember that if you have a strong family history of Alzheimer’s, it is not inevitable that you are going to develop the problem, so it is important to work on prevention and it’s never too early to start.

Vitamin D Deficiency

We have known for many years that vitamin D is important for bone health and in the prevention of osteoporosis. However, it is only in recent years that we have realised how important this nutrient is for general health, particularly for brain health. We get most of our vitamin D quota from sunlight because natural food sources are few. Research has shown that if you are moderately deficient in vitamin D, you have a 69-per-cent increased risk of Alzheimer’s and the risk increases to 122 per cent in those who are severely deficient.

Choose vitamin D in the form of D3, also called cholecalciferol. There is a cheaper form, called D2 (ergocalciferol), but research suggests that vitamin D3 is 87 per cent more effective at raising and maintaining your vitamin D levels than vitamin D2.

Stress

Unfortunately, stress increases your risk of Alzheimer’s. You may think that you can’t control stress – but you can control how it affects you physically, and you can make sure you are not exacerbating it. There is a chance that your pattern of eating is subconsciously telling your body that it is under even more stress. The reason is that if your blood-sugar levels fluctuate, your body releases adrenaline and cortisol, which are the same hormones it releases when you are under stress.

Try to keep your blood-sugar levels stable by eating something every three hours and be careful if you are drinking a lot of coffee. Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus a snack mid-morning and one mid-afternoon, with no longer than three hours between. This will stop those roller-coaster highs and lows and cravings for sweet foods.

If you would like to explore whether a consultation with an expert nutritionist at the Glenville Nutrition Clinic could help you, please contact us on 01892 515 905 or send us an email at reception@glenvillenutrition.com

April is Stress Awareness Month

April is Stress Awareness Month

In today’s world, stress seems to be something that everyone deals with regularly – what are the common symptoms of your stress?

Millions of years ago, our bodies were designed to react quickly to danger. Like wild animals we were on constant alert so we could run or fight if threatened. When your brain thinks your life is in danger it stimulates the release of adrenaline and cortisol.

This fight or flight response is incredibly clever and thoroughly efficient. It provides instant energy for 5-10 minutes allowing you to react swiftly to dangerous situations.

When your brain thinks your life is under threat, it immediately stimulates the adrenal glands to release the hormones adrenaline and cortisol.

At this point a number of things happen in your body:

Your heart speeds up and your blood pressure rises
The clotting ability of your blood increases so you’ll recover more quickly if you are injured and start to bleed
Your digestion shuts down (there’s no need for it – you’re certainly not going to be eating a sandwich while your life is in danger) and the energy necessary for digestion is diverted elsewhere
Your liver immediately releases emergency stores of glucose into the bloodstream to give you instant energy to fight or run
Your immune system produces more white blood cells so you’ll be better equipped to fight foreign viruses or bacteria.

These days, many people live under chronic stress. But your body can’t distinguish between late trains, missed appointments, spiralling debt, infuriating work colleagues, family disputes and the truly life-threatening stress it gears up to challenge. So it reacts exactly the same as it’s always done.

The problem with many modern lifestyles is that stress (your ‘perceived threat’) is almost continuous and comes without the natural release that either fighting or fleeing might provide.

There has also definitely been a rise in people seeking solutions for stress and anxiety over the last few years. Because your sense of what is normal has been changing day to day, that can make you feel very anxious because what has been happening in the world is out of your control.

Added to this uncertainty is the financial pressure of being worried about the cost of living crisis.

And this can level of anxiety can affect what choices you make around your diet and also alcohol intake which can leave you stuck in a vicious cycle.

How can stress affect us physically?

The knock-on effects of continually being too stressed are enormous, physically and mentally. They can include

A tendency to gain fat around your middle

Increased appetite

Increased cravings for chocolate, sweets, breads, cakes, caffeine and alcohol (particularly any combination of carbohydrates and fats, such as chocolate and cakes because they are particularly high in calories)

Slump in the middle of the afternoon, around 3 or 4pm when you know you are going to need a cup of tea or coffee and/or something sweet to get you through the afternoon

Your immune system is low (you get frequent colds and infections)

Headaches

Nail biting or skin picking around the nails

Mood swings

Crying spells

Aggressive outbursts

Teeth grinding

High cholesterol

Blood sugar swings

Digestive problems (such as bloating and flatulence)

Chest pains – (you must see your doctor if you are getting chest pains but the effects of the stress hormones can mimic heart problems)

Muscle aches and pains

Shoulder and neck pain (stress hormones will keep certain muscles tense ready for fight or flight)

Hair loss

Irregular periods or no periods (your reproductive system is the only system your body can shut down without killing you, so when you are stressed your body may divert energy and resources away from your reproductive organs)

Difficulty in concentrating or forgetfulness

Depression

Increased premenstrual symptoms (PMS)

Slower metabolism (which makes it harder to lose weight in general)

Low sex drive

Tiredness but an inability to sleep well

Tendency to get a second wind in the evening

Waking up in the middle of the night, finding it hard to get back to sleep and then desperately want to continue sleeping in the morning when you should be getting up

The link between stress and diet – how can eating cause more stress?

Balancing blood sugar is essential in lowering stress because the crashes in sugar levels which happen through the day (due to going long periods without food and not eating the right foods) stimulates more adrenaline and cortisol to be released. This is because these stress hormones, apart from helping you to run away from a tiger can also mobilise your glucose (which has been stored as glycogen in the liver) back into the blood stream. This is why you can feel more jittery, irritable etc when blood sugar plummets!

What can you do to help balance your blood sugar?

Eat every 3 hours
Include some protein every time you eat, i.e. fish, eggs, quinoa, tofu, beans, nuts and seeds and natural bio yogurt. This slows down the release of sugar and thus keeps levels more stable
Limit caffeine to one cup or avoid it if you can and never drink caffeine on an empty stomach because it is a stimulant and gets straight into the bloodstream and triggers cortisol release
Eat a serving of dark green leafy vegetables/salad daily
Snack on dried fruit (organic) and unsalted nuts and seeds
Replace white rice and bread with brown and wholemeal for fibre content and B vitamins

This will stop those roller-coaster highs and cravings for sweet foods. Because your blood sugar isn’t allowed to drop, your body will no longer have to ask you for a quick fix. As the blood sugar steadies, so will the mood swings. As your adrenaline levels reduce you will automatically start to happier and calmer inside.

There is a test you can take to see just how stressed you are – what does that test involve?

The best way to see how stressed you are is check your level of cortisol using saliva. Cortisol fluctuates during the day, ideally being highest in the morning, as you start the day and lowest at night when you are ready to wind down and go to bed.

Is it possible to be addicted to stress?

Yes some people can become addicted to stress and enjoy living on adrenaline. You want to feel that ‘buzz’ all the time and your foot is always pressing down on the accelerator pedal. But there will always be consequences in the long term because your body can’t keep going like that.

And your body will be suffering and is vulnerable. A major trauma, accident or bereavement could easily precipitate a complete collapse. Something relatively small can be the last straw that tips you over the edge.

Things like taking a holiday or switching off from technology can be quick fixes to minimising stress, but what are the long term practises that can help reduce stress for good?

Make sure you are eating well and not missing meals. Limit stimulants like caffeine and energy drinks as they will make you feel more stressed. Have exercise even just walking as part of your daily routine. Exercise helps releases neurotransmitters called endorphins which make us feel happier and calmer.

Certain nutrients can be extremely helpful in helping to reduce stress and its impact on your health. These include the B vitamins especially B5 for stress relief and energy, magnesium – nature’s tranquiliser for relaxation and sleep, chromium for blood sugar balance, Siberian ginseng which acts as a tonic to the adrenal glands and L-theanine for reducing stress and anxiety. A good supplement I use in the clinic which contains all these nutrients plus more is NHP’s Tranquil Support.

Delegate – try to let other people do things for you when you can. It is a very female characteristic to try to do everything yourself because nobody can do it quite as well.

Put yourself first – it is important to do this at least some of the time otherwise by the time you have done everything for everybody else, there will be no time left. Try to take time for yourself every day even 10 minutes – read a magazine, do a crossword puzzle, and build it until there is a proportion of every day when you do what YOU want to do.

Learn some relaxation techniques – This may be just listening to some soothing music, indulging in a hot bath with aromatherapy oils, taking a peaceful walk, yoga, meditation, etc. You could also try learning a visualisation technique or learning to breathe slowly and deeply.

Sleep

Stress and sleep are inversely related; in other words, the less sleep you get, the more difficulty you will find in adapting to challenging situations. The more sleep you have, the less stressful everyday pressures seem.

As a society we are sleeping less; the time we sleep each night has reduced from 9 hours to 7.5 hours since the 1900s. One in three people are affected by insomnia which can be difficulty in getting to sleep and/or waking during the night and not being able to get back to sleep.

Sleep is important for your health because it gives your body time to recharge its batteries and repair cells and tissue. When you don’t get enough or good quality sleep, you can feel anxious and irritable and, of course, feeling tired.

Sleep nowadays is almost seen as a luxury because it means you can pack more into the day if you sleep less. This might seem logical because you will have more hours awake but by depriving yourself of sleep, you may find that you are not as productive the next day and that lack of sleep will have long term consequences on our health. Not getting enough sleep increases your risk of type 2 diabetes, cancer, being overweight and Alzheimer’s.

There are some very good traditional herbs that have been used for centuries to help with sleep problems. These include valerian, chamomile, hops, lemon balm and passionflower. Valerian has been shown to reduce the time it takes to fall asleep by 15-20 minutes and improve sleep quality. Chamomile has calming effects which decrease anxiety and help to initiate sleep.

Lemon balm has been used with stressed volunteers with anxiety disorders and sleep disturbances. It not only helped them sleep better but also reduced anxiety. Passionflower is helpful for sleep problems and when combined with valerian and hops was as effective as a mediation for insomnia at improving sleep quality.

The amino acid l-theanine is really helpful for those who are ‘tired but wired’ where they are exhausted but as soon as their head hits the pillow their brain is very active and doesn’t allow them to fall asleep. There has also been good research on tart cherries which has shown that these have helped people with insomnia increase sleep time by up to 84 minutes. There is a good combination I use in my clinics called NHP’s Advanced Sleep Support which contains all these nutrients.

Taking deep breaths when someone is anxious can help them to feel calmer and more relaxed. When a person shallow breathes, they are hyperventilating and that can make them feel more anxious. Deep breathing helps to switch off the stress response.

Factoring in time for gentle exercise to walk outside in the fresh air is important to help reduce anxiety and people can even use walking as a form of mindfulness just to be in the moment and quietening the mind.

Why Is Vitamin D Crucial For Brain Health?

We have known for many years that Vitamin D is important for bone health and in the prevention of osteoporosis. However, it is only in recent years that we have realised how important this nutrient is for general health and, particularly, for brain health. Here are just some of the main benefits of vitamin D:

• It plays a major role in breast and bowel cancer prevention
• It is important for your immune function, particularly when you need to fight off colds and flus
• It helps protect your body against conditions as diverse as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, joint pain, dementia, infertility, autism, and allergies
• It reduces the risk of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

Vitamin D also balances your immune function (if you have an autoimmune problem, it’s especially important to have your vitamin D levels tested), helps control inflammation, has antioxidant properties, and helps to control beta-amyloid plaque build-up. All these benefits are important for your brain health, so getting your levels exactly right is crucial if you are to benefit from them.

Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D deficiencies have also been implicated in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and inflammatory bowel disease. We get most of our vitamin D quota from sunlight because natural food sources are few. Those most at risk of vitamin D deficiency are those who:

• Don’t go out much in the daytime
• Don’t expose their skin to sunlight
• Constantly wear make-up or cosmetics with built-in sun protection factors

The tone of your skin affects vitamin D production, so the darker your skin, the less your body produces vitamin D. Covering up large area of skin for religious reasons also reduces vitamin D production. It is estimated that we need about 30 minutes exposure to the sun every day to produce enough vitamin D to keep us healthy.

If you are moderately deficient in vitamin D, you have a 53% increased risk of dementia, and your risk of increases by 125% if you are severely deficient. With Alzheimer’s, one study found that those who were moderately deficient had a 69% increased risk, and the risk increased to 122% in those who were severely deficient.

This research showed evidence that these seem to be a threshold level in the blood below which the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s increases. Levels above 50 nmol/L are the most strongly associated with good brain health. However, I think a level between 80 – 100 nmol/L gives the best overall effect on general health, and this is the level I get my patients to aim for in my clinic.

How To Know If You’re Vitamin D Deficient

A question lots of people ask me when I give talks, is how much vitamin D should I take? The answer, of course, is that it depends on the level of your deficiency. For this reason, I now recommend that everyone gets their vitamin D levels checked, given this nutrient’s far-reaching health benefits, and then supplement to get the level back to normal. We have had instances in the clinics where the lab has even phoned to say there was no vitamin D detected at all.

There is, though, such a thing as too much vitamin D. A vitamin D level that is too low (less then 10nmol/L) increases the risk of all-cause mortality (dying of any cause) – but the same is true if your vitamin D levels are too high (more than 140 nmol/L). That’s why it’s important to get tested regularly, at the clinic we use this test that can be done via the post.

What Vitamin D To Choose?

Choose vitamin D in the form of D3, also called cholecalciferol. There is a cheaper form, called D2 (ergocalciferol), but research suggests that vitamin D3 is 87% more effective at raising and maintaining your vitamin D levels than vitamin D2. Researchers have said that ‘the assumption that vitamins D2 and D3 have equal nutritional value is probably wrong and should be reconsidered.’ Most people (especially older people) do not convert vitamin D2 to the active form that their bodies can use efficiently so it is best to speak to one of our nutritionists for advice.

A Beginner’s Brain Breakdown

woman looking down to the title of beggings brain breakdown in purple box with a colourful brain painting behind her head

The terms dementia and Alzheimer’s are often used interchangeably but dementia is actually an umbrella term for up to 100 different types of disease, of which Alzheimer’ is just one of them. What’s more, a person can suffer from more than one form of dementia at any one time and that’s because our brain – though all connected – has different parts which all serve different functions.

The type of dementia a person suffers from depends upon which brain function has become impaired – that is, which part of the brain has become diseased. You can start to spot early signs of dementia or disease by identifying the impairments. The main parts of the brain and their functions are:

The Brain Stem

At the base of the brain, this area controls your automatic body functions such as heartbeat and breathing.

The Cerebellum

Is responsible for your balance and posture

The Limbic System

Lies deep inside the brain, includes the hippocampus (the key to your memory) and the amygdala (which plays a role in your emotional health)

The Cerebrum

Compromises the cerebral hemispheres that make up three quarters of the whole brain. The cerebrum is responsible for consciousness, memory, reasoning, language, and social skills. The left cerebral hemisphere is responsible for language; while the right governs our understanding of where we are in relation to the things around us.

The Cortex

Is a thin layer of grey matter covering the cerebrum and containing billions of brain cells. Beneath the grey matter of the cortex is white matter, which is made up of bundles of nerve fibres. These fibres transport nerve signals between parts of the cortex and from the cortex to other parts of the brain.

The Lobes

Which are located in the cerebrum. There are four lobes in each cerebral hemisphere (right and left) with each one having its own vital role to play, as well as working in conjunction with the other lobes:

The Occipital Lobe – at the back of the brain deals with visual information

The Parietal Lobe – in the upper rear part of the cerebrum, handles information from your other senses and enables you to know how to pick up a fork to eat with, or to put one leg in front of the other to walk. You use your left parietal lobe to read, write and process numbers while your right parietal lobe helps you recognise objects as being three-dimensional.

The Temporal Lobe – on either side of your brain (near your temples), these are themselves divided into sections that govern different brain functions including the hippocampus (crucial for forming new memories) which lies inside the temporal lobes, as well as the outer part of the temporal lobe which is where you store your general knowledge or semantic memory. Again, within the semantic memory, the different sides of the brain (left and right) have different functions. The left side stores facts, word meanings and names of objects while the right stores the visual memories that help you recognise familiar faces and objects.

The Frontal Lobe – forms the large and complex management centre of your brain, helping you to solve problems and make decisions. You use this management centre to follow the steps of a familiar task as well as it helping to keep you focused to complete the task, learn a new one or develop complex skills until they become automatic – like learning to drive.

The reason it’s important to recognise the different areas of the brain, especially when it comes to dementia, is you can notice when something is not quite right with a particular function; for example, if your memory is not what it used to be or if you are feeling more reluctant to engage with life or socialising.

Frontotemporal dementia is the second most common cause of dementia in the under 65’s, but less common in older people. This is caused when abnormal proteins prevent the brain cells from communicating with each other as they should. One-third of cases are thought to be genetic. Symptoms may include personality changes, repetitive behaviour, changes in appetite and difficulties with decision making, problem-solving and concentration.
This form of dementia may be confused with depression, psychosis, or obsessive-compulsive behaviour.

As a nutrition clinic, the aspect of self-care in preventing dementia we are most interested in is, of course, diet – and we believe that what you eat can have a huge impact on the health of your brain.