Diabetes Type Three and Alzheimer’s with Amy Berger

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Hey, it's JJ Virgin.

And welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle.

Show where I give you the latest.

Cutting edge intel to help you look, feel and think better. And today we're going to be talking about diabetes type 3.

Yep, type 3.

You probably are going type 3.

I thought there was a 1 and a 2.

Turns out that we've been talking about.

This in functional medicine now for a couple of years. It's out in the literature that Alzheimer's is actually diabetes type 3. So we're going to be talking about that, what you can do, most importantly to prevent it. Because by the time you have the symptoms, it's too late, really. There's always things you can do, but you don't want to get to that point because it's developing all along. I'm not going to say anymore. You can hear all of that. Today with my awesome guest, I have Amy Berger. Amy Berger is a United States Air Force veteran. She's a certified nutrition specialist and a nutritional therapy practitioner. And. And she specializes in helping people reclaim their health and their vitality through low carb nutrition. And she has just become obsessed with Alzheimer's disease. It's what she did her master's thesis on. And then she realized how big of an issue it is and so she decided to dig into it. So she is the perfect person to talk to about this. She's got a blog@tuitnutrition.com which is t u I t nutrition.com and she has a book out and it's called the Alzheimer's Antidote. The Alzheimer's Antidote. So I am super excited to share.

Amy Berger with you today.

All right, let's do it.

Amy Berger, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here with me today.

I am thrilled to be here, J.J. this is going to be great.

Well, this is not talked about enough. And this whole idea, I mean, you know, people hear about Alzheimer's, I think they think it's something that happens, you know, to other people way later and not to them. My mother in law just, just died of it after a long, awful. I mean it just was, it was just, it's one of the, to me, the scariest things that can happen. And I'm just curious because I know we're going to dig into this and dig into helping people understand that it's, it is diabetes type 3, which is so interesting. But how did you get interested in it?

Good question. First I'm very sorry to hear about your loved one, but then you have a special passion for this. I got interested in this when I first read Gary Taubes book Good Calories, Bad Calories. It was the first place I'd ever heard about a connection between insulin, glucose and Alzheimer's. I have no family history of this disease, but it was just so fascinating to me and I filed it away in my mind as something that I wanted to dig into later on when I was doing my graduate work in nutrition and I had to pick a thesis topic. I said, you know, what is something that I could research that would be interesting that hasn't been written about a million times already and that there would be enough information that I could write a thesis. And I went back to that Alzheimer's stuff and I was just overwhelmed by the amount of information I found linking this disease to disturbed insulin and glucose signaling.

Yeah, and it's so interesting that it just like isn't talked about, you know, so.

What?

Obviously one of the big risk factors then is a lot of the risk factors, same risk factors for diabetes. But what are those big risk factors for this? Because this doesn't happen just like, just like type 2 diabetes. You know, people all of a sudden said, oh, I got diabetes. I'm like, no, you didn't just get diabetes.

Right. It just happened like it's a contagious disease. Yeah, you're right. There are many risk factors for this. There is a genetic risk factor, but that genetic risk factor is it's not a death sentence. It increases susceptibility in the context of our modern dietary and lifestyle landscape. One of the biggest risk factors, regardless of anything else, regardless of genetics, regardless of family history, is chronic hyperinsulinemia, chronically high insulin levels. And this is true even in people who don't have high risk blood glucose. So even if their blood glucose is normal or their hemoglobin A1C is normal, those glucose measurements are normal because sky high insulin is keeping them in check and nobody's looking for this, because unfortunately, fasting insulin is not part of standard routine blood work.

It should be.

I always fight with my doctor, so my son with the brain injury, I have battled with them. I always run an insulin too. And it's like half the time I have to go back and get another one because they just drop it off the lab. I'm like, guys, we have to see this. He's got all of this dysregulation going on. Let's. Since you talked about numbers or you talked about normals, what I'd love to hear from you is what you consider to be the normal or ideal level, not the normal of everybody, because we got a sick population. But what would you look for for good hemoglobin, A1C, good blood glucose and good fasting insulins?

Good question. It's going to vary a little bit because when you look at a population that's eating a high carb diet, the range of what's considered normal for them is a little different than the range that might be considered normal for someone eating a low carb diet for a long time. Fasting glucose, anywhere from 70 to, I would even say 110 or 115. And the reason I say it so high is because for people who've been following a low carb diet for a long time, their fasting glucose might be higher than we would expect, but their A1C is still going to be low because throughout the rest of the day, their glucose is generally low. So, you know, they might have a fasting glucose in the 90s or low 100s most of the time, but their A1C is 5.2 or 5.1. So for the A1C, I wouldn't want to see it higher than 5.4, but, you know, very high. 4.8, 4.9, 5.2 higher than 5.4, you're getting into a little bit of trouble. And even then that's questionable too, because also people on a very low carb diet, their red blood cells actually live long. So they might have an A1C of 5.5, even 5.4 higher than we would expect. But it might not be a pathological thing for them because their red blood cells are actually healthier and they live longer. They have more time to become glycated and raise that A1C, the fasting insulin, definitely in the single digits. You'll see a lot of different ranges for this. I think you definitely want to be in the single digits probably 50. Fasting under 5 is probably best. I think some people say under 7, but definitely in the mid to low single digits.

I'm so happy to hear you say this. I just got in an argument with one of my son's doctors when they tested his insulin, and it was 17, he said, oh, it's normal. I go, oh, my gosh. No. You know, no, no, no.

I've seen much higher than 17, but certainly 17 is kind of a warning sign.

Yeah.

Well, I remember I was on Dr. Phil, and we were doing teen weight loss stories, and this one poor gal just couldn't lose weight, and I said, run. Like running insulin on her, it was 30. 30.

Wow.

And you know, what people need to understand is this is just going to lock the doors, the fat cells, in terms of weight loss, and just shut off fat burning. But you brought up an interesting point which is so critical for people to understand is you cannot pull a blood test, one marker out in isolation, and go, okay. You got to look at, not just looking at blood glucose and hemoglobin A1C and fasting insulin, but also looking at your diet and lifestyle to see what's really going on. Because if someone is doing specific things and their blood levels don't follow, there's other issues there, too. So you got to look at the whole picture is what I'm hearing from you.

Definitely. There's really no one marker in isolation that's going to do anything. And especially when it comes to Alzheimer's disease, I think so few people are making the connection to glucose and insulin because they're only measuring glucose. But so many of these people have normal glucose in A1C because of the high insulin, and nobody's measuring the insulin.

Yeah. So. So critical to me. The two that I see missed all the time, that I just don't get are vitamin D and insulin. These are things that should just be standard.

Now.

How common is. Is Alzheimer's at this point? How many people. What's the diagnosis? And I know that, you know, and over how many years does it tend to kind of accumulate before people start to get diagnosed and really see the profound symptoms?

That is a fantastic question, because you just hit something very important right on the head. I don't have the statistics in front of me, but this condition is definitely becoming more prevalent. And part of that is because we have an aging population. You know, my dad is 71, and as these. These baby boomers are kind of reaching their golden years, this is hitting them really hard. But you. And in terms of statistics, I mean, I don't. I don't know the numbers offhand of the diagnoses. But economically, this is a catastrophe like we've never experienced before. You know, not only for the national health care system and Medicare and things like that, but individual families literally going bankrupt or, you know, where people have to quit their job to become a full time caretaker of a spouse or a parent. So we have massive losses of income. So, I mean, the estimates put the financial costs into the trillions with a t. Trillions of dollars by the middle of this century. That's. That is completely unsustainable. The other point that you brought up is fantastic. You said, how long does this disease sort of percolate? How long does this gestate in somebody before it really starts to impact their ability to carry out their daily life? And the answer is years, and in some people, decades. So one of the primary things going wrong in the Alzheimer's brain is that neurons in areas of the brain that are affected lose the ability to harness energy from glucose. They basically starve to death. It's an energy crisis in the brain. They can measure this in people at risk for Alzheimer's in as Young as their 30s and 40s. And at that time, these people have no symptoms. They're cognitively normal. They can think fine, they take care of themselves. But the brain is compensating. Yeah.

When you're that young, how do you measure for it?

Well, it's definitely not something you can do at home and not in the standard doctor's office. I mean, they do this in scientific studies. They run a PET scan where they basically inject you with glucose and they can measure the rate at which your brain is taking it up and metabolizing it. So unfortunately, this isn't something you can really measure for yourself, but they can see this in people as early as 30s and 40s, and their brain is compensating. It's only when this has been going on for so long that finally the brain just gives up. It's progressed to the point where you can't compensate for it and it starts to affect your daily life.

And that is not when you want.

To figure it out.

This is not when you wait for symptoms on. And you know, you talk about the financial devastation. If you just extend the financial devastation of diabetes overall, it is just, it is the biggest thing taking us down. And this one is called diabetes type 3. And you don't, I mean, it's like we'll hear that us in more of the functional medicine space, but outside of that, you just don't. You just don't hear it.

You, you don't. It's starting to come a little bit into the mainstream, but even so, they say, oh, type 3 diabetes. And they'. There's an increasing recognition that there are blood sugar abnormalities associated with this disease. But nobody is taking that a step further and saying, okay, if that's the case, we can totally control this. And I don't want to oversimplify, I don't want to say that we can completely reverse this and there's any miracle cure for it. It's very complex. But at the very least, knowing that insulin resistance to the brain and a fuel crisis with glucose in the brain is happening, that should point us towards certain interventions.

So what sort of interventions? Because the medications have been pretty much a fail. So what, what can they do? What are some of the things that people can do? And obviously by the time you have symptoms, you're screwed. You really. This is, this is more of what do we need to do? And so many things that we need to do to prevent this from happening are the same things to prevent, you know, heart disease, cancer. So that's the good news. But what are the top things that you see that can prevent this from happening?

Assuming we can prevent it. You know, we are kind of, this science is in its infancy, so I don't want to over promise, but you know, scientific literature and just that the mechanisms at work suggest that managing your blood glucose and insulin levels over the long term is really the most important thing you can do. And whether or not that requires a low carb diet is debatable. I think many people are very carbohydrate intolerant and we do best on a low carb diet. Other people can handle higher amounts of, whether it's sweet potatoes and beets or lentils and chickpeas. I don't think anyone is well suited to eat pop tarts and sugary cereals. But generally speaking, managing blood glucose and insulin is really the most powerful thing you can possibly do. And then other than that, you know, get good quality sleep, physical activity to the extent that you can. Basically anything that helps improve or maintain insulin sensitivity is really key for this.

Yeah. So I always teach people to do the trifecta. I'm gonna go way more strong here. It's like for the majority of people, they do not do well on a higher carb diet. There's a very small genotype that does for the majority of people. That's not you. It's just like, you know how there's those short sleepers out There that need very little sleep. That's not us. I mean, you know, we're not the.

Grandfather that's that smoked and you know.

We'Re not George Burns. All right, so we're just not George Burns. And you know, the majority of people are going to do better with clean protein. The carbs they are eating are whole foods, high fiber, low sugar impact and good healthy fats. And it's, it's like the same stuff that helps you reduce your risk of heart disease, reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes, reduce your risk of cancer. Guess what? It does this here too, right?

Surprise, surprise.

You know, if it was a drug, it would be.

And here's the thing, right? We're led to believe that Alzheimer's is a complete mystery and we're totally helpless. We don't know anything about it. And yet when it comes to something like type 2 diabetes or heart disease or anything else, what do they constantly say? Diet and exercise, diet and lifestyle, you know, have personal responsibility for this. I don't know why when it comes to Alzheimer's we think it's any different. Like as if the blood brain barrier is this fortress that prevents the brain from suffering the same damage as the rest of the body when we have a bad diet and lifestyle.

It's just, it's, it's that, you know, it's the one organ that we don't really look at and measure like the others. So I think it's just all still so mysterious. But you know, having a son with a traumatic brain injury who I've been working with to come out of that, and watching a mother in law have this and some other friends again, you said a very important thing. This doesn't just impact the person, it impacts the family. It is a devastating, devastating disease. And so much of it can be prevented with just basic diet and lifestyle. And I think that's the key takeaway. So I want to throw a curveball question at you. This is just regarding you, Amy. What's the one thing you do every day that makes the biggest difference in your life.

Other than sticking to a good low carb diet? I find for my mental health and probably my physical health, getting out outdoors, I have to have fresh air, I have to get outside. Even if it's not sunny, I have to have daylight. It does me so much good. And I know if there's a two or three days in a row where I don't get a long walk outside, I start to get angry and antsy.

We don't want angry, Amy.

No Nobody does.

All right, well, I know that you have a free chapter for everybody for your Alzheimer's antidote book. So you will get a copy of that chapter if you go to jjvirgin.com amy so you can get started reading right away.

So be sure to grab that.

And Amy, I want to thank you so much for joining me today. I super appreciate it.

Thank you. Thanks for helping me get the word out about this.

Oh, sure. Super important to get out there. All right, now after the break, I'm going to be answering a listener's question, so stay with me.

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Alrighty. Welcome back.

This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And today's question comes from Steve in Kalamazoo. I always love the name of that city. All right, so Steve from Kalamazoo. Kalama.

Kalamazoo.

I can say that asks J.J. i know that you are not a fan of snacking, but hypothetically, if one didn't need a snack, what should they have? You sound like one of my kids when they ask a question, Steve. Hypothetically, mom, if I were to fail school. Anyway, so here's the deal. I still believe that we should always carry emergency snacks with us. And sometimes, you know how I feel. I want you to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then close the kitchen. And ideally, when you're eating from the trifecta of clean, lean proteins, healthy fat and high fiber, low sugar impact more on, you know, whole types of foods like butternut squash, things like that. You should be able to go longer in between meals. And of course you're drinking a lot of water and maybe some ice green tea in between meals. Because so often we're not hungry, we're thirsty. But sometimes you'll go too long in between meals. You're out, things come up. That's where I really think the most important thing you can do is always keep emergency food with you. Now, cheap, shameless plug. But it is my podcast. I always carry one of my bars with me. Now, I have a couple different kinds of bars, but the ones that I carry with me For a snack are my all in one bars. And I'm totally addicted right now. Full disclosure to my dark chocolate mocha. Oh, my gosh. I had it. I designed it because I love dark chocolate and coffee, so that's where it came from.

But why I like that is it's.

Got protein, fat, and fiber. And your snack should be the same. It should just be a mini meal. So you want to think of how do I get some protein, fat, and fiber if I am doing a snack? So maybe that could be some sliced turkey rolled up with a little bit of avocado and cucumber. So wedge, cucumber or wedge of red pepper rolled up with some turkey and avocado would be a great example. Or a little nut butter with on a celery stick or hummus on a celery stick. So think about what you can do like that. And ideally, you should always have emergency food with you. The rare occasion that I don't have emergency food is always the time that I need it.

It's like Murphy's Law.

It's crazy. Okay, now, if you'd like to submit a question, here's how we do these. Head on over to my Facebook page @jjvirginofficial. That is where I grab and pick up questions, and I always try to get ones that fit well with the show. So I super appreciate those questions. I also jump on my Facebook page quite often and do Facebook lives, so I'd love to interact with you live as well. And one more thing I would love. I'd love to appreciate you publicly on my podcast. So here's what I'm up to. I'm going to start, and I'm not starting it yet because I've got to get some. Some of these built up. But I'm gonna start a gratitude portion of the show where I highlight the review of the week. So I've got a good amount of reviews and I have star ratings and I hugely appreciate that. But I'd love to read some reviews. So if you're feeling inspired, pop on over to itunes, jump on my podcast page and leave a review. I'd love to feature you and honor you for doing so on my podcast. Alrighty. Thanks for joining me today. I want to remind you to take courageous, inspired action. Hopefully you heard something today that you go, ah, I need to be doing that. Because each time you do something that feels a little uncomfortable or a little scary, guess what? You get more courageous. You build resilience. And every time you do that, you.

Can show up bigger in your life.

Now I'm going to leave you with a question to help open you up to possibility. And that is, what do you want.

To show up for in your life? Alrighty.

Until next time, this is JJ Virgin signing off. Goodbye.

Hello listeners. This is Anne Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a froth page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website what Should I read next podcast.com to find out more.