David PerlmutterPresident,, Perlmutter Health Center · Board-Certified Neurologist | Functional Medicine Pioneer | #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author | International Speaker | Host of The Empowering Neurologist Podcast

Elevated Blood Glucose Shrinks the Brain

7 Aug 2014 · 2 min

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1:43

In this presentation, Dr. David Perlmutter emphasizes the importance of maintaining low blood sugar levels for brain health. He references a 2012 longitudinal study published in Neurology that followed 266 cognitively intact adults, measuring fasting glucose and hippocampal volume at baseline and again after four years. The study found a direct, perfect correlation between higher initial fasting glucose and greater shrinkage of the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, indicating that elevated blood sugar accelerates brain atrophy. Perlmutter interprets this as evidence that brain size matters for cognitive function. He recommends a low‑carbohydrate, low‑sugar diet combined with increased intake of healthful fats as a strategy to keep blood glucose low and protect the brain.

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As you know, in Grain Brain, I hammer away at this idea that you've got to keep your blood sugar levels down. Why do I talk about that? I talk about it because studies have demonstrated that the higher your blood sugar, the more rapidly your brain will shrink. And when it comes to your brain, size does matter. Let's take a look at this study. This is a study from the journal Neurology published in 2012. And what they did was really quite interesting. They took a group of about 250, 266 actually, individuals, adults who were intact mentally. They measured their glucose level and they did a brain scan to measure the size of their hippocampus. That's the brain's memory center. Then they brought these individuals back at 4 years and they measured again the size of their brain's memory center. And when you look at this slide, you see a perfect correlation between shrinkage of the memory center and their original fasting blood sugar. This is very powerful information. It shows that there's this perfect direct relationship between a person's blood sugar and the rate at which the brain's memory center will shrink. The way to keep your blood sugar low is to go on a low carbohydrate diet. Cut out the carbs, reduce your sugar, and you know what you should do at the same time? Increase your consumption of good, healthful fats. I'm Dr. David Perlmutter.