amounts during chronic stress and obesity. Cortisol helps keep energy on track by determining the right type and amount of carbohydrate, fat, or protein that your body needs at any particular time. It moves the body’s fat stores from one location to another and prevents the release of substances in the body that lead to inflammation.
Cortisol’s response to inflammation is to produce more fat cells around the abdomen (belly fat), which then increases fluid retention, raises blood pressure, increases blood sugar and the risk of insulin resistance, and increases the risks of memory loss and muscle and bone weakness.
Diabetes: Wreaking havoc with your blood sugar
Inflammation and blood sugar have a somewhat tumultuous, circular relationship. When you have high blood sugar, chemicals are released throughout your body, weakening your immune system and kicking inflammation into gear to help protect the body. Because the immune system has been weakened, however, inflammation goes into overdrive and raises the blood sugar, further weakening the immune system.
When you eat, your body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, a simple sugar that travels through your blood and that your muscle cells and other cells take in and use as an energy source. Insulin serves as the glucose police in that it regulates how much glucose remains in your blood. When glucose begins to build up, the pancreas (the organ behind the stomach) releases more insulin.
In the ideal situation, the pancreas produces the insulin the body needs, and the body cells respond by taking in sugar. But a condition called insulin resistance inhibits the way glucose can get into the body’s cells. Inflammation may be behind the poor reception between the cells and the insulin signals. The glucose builds up in the blood, leading to further inflammation and intensifying the problem.
Figure 3-2 shows how inflammation both causes and is caused by insulin resistance. Infection, stress, toxins, genetic factors, and poor diet increase inflammation, which contributes to increased insulin resistance. Insulin resistance leads to decreased glucose metabolism, which leads to high blood sugar and high insulin levels. High blood sugar and insulin levels contribute to weight gain and increased adipose (fat) tissue. High blood sugar, insulin levels, and bad fats contribute to further inflammation by blocking delta-6 desaturase, an enzyme that’s important in decreasing inflammation, and enhancing delta-5, an inflammatory enzyme.
The key to stopping the cycle is to find ways to lower the inflammation, which then works to lower the blood sugar levels.
© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
FIGURE 3-2: Insulin resistance is both a cause and an effect of inflammation.
Striking the Brain: Neurodegenerative Disease and Inflammation
Neurodegenerative diseases affect a lot of the ways your body works: balance, movement, heart function — even talking and breathing. The brain moderates and controls each of these activities. When your brain is under attack, these seemingly easy tasks become cumbersome and, sometimes, nearly impossible.
Old scientific belief held the body’s and brain’s immune system had no bearing on each other — the two systems didn’t communicate with each other because each system had barriers that kept the other at bay.
Today, science believes that although these barriers still exist, they may be compromised in brain diseases, and that thanks to inflammatory responses within the body, the two systems do, in fact, communicate. This is called the gut-brain connection, and it is a two-way street.
Researchers have come a long way in connecting inflammation to neurodegenerative diseases; a 2017 Harvard Medical School study acknowledged an increasing awareness of the link between inflammation and conditions affecting the central nervous system (CNS). Some of the diseases they saw linked to inflammation were Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Huntington’s disease.
In this section, we take a look at the role inflammation has in these diseases.
Examining Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease is more than memory loss — it’s a type of dementia that affects not only memory, but also thought and behavior. Symptoms are mild at first and worsen over time. Though the majority of people with Alzheimer’s are age 65 and older, an estimated 200,000 people under the age of 65 have early-onset Alzheimer’s.
Although you can’t change your genetics, researchers do believe you can decrease you likelihood of Alzheimer’s by reducing your risk of chronic inflammation. Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, exercising regularly, and maintaining healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels are good ways to start.
EARLY SIGNS OF ALZHEIMER’S
The Alzheimer’s Association lists these ten early signs of Alzheimer’s:
Memory loss that disrupts daily life
Challenges in planning or solving problems
Difficulty completing familiar tasks
Confusion with time or place
Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships
New problems with words in speaking or writing
Misplacing things and lacking the ability to retrace steps
Decreased or poor judgment
Withdrawal from work or social activities
Changes in mood and personality
Alzheimer’s disease begins slowly. Individuals with the disease may quickly forget information they just learned or the names of people they know. The disease worsens over time, and those patients may not recognize family members or may forget how to brush their teeth or comb their hair. They may begin to have trouble reading or even speaking. See the nearby sidebar for a more complete list of early signs of Alzheimer’s.
In early 2019, researchers from Johns Hopkins’ School of Medicine found that people who experience high levels of chronic inflammation in middle age are more likely to have memory loss and problems with cognitive function later in life.
