around to gum up the works.
Diabetes of the Brain
Before my mother’s diagnosis, dementia seemed to me a
distant, vague concept evoking images of cute nursing
home residents whiling away their final days by shuffling
through a fluorescently lit pastel pasture, playing bridge and
whining about the food. My disbelief when my mom’s
diagnosis landed in her fifties was underscored only by the
shock I uncovered in my research soon after—that in reality,
the disease process begins as early as thirty years prior to
the first symptom (some data suggests even earlier). When
the doctor was giving me the bad news about her illness, he
may well have been assigning the same fate to me. Still,
even in the odd chance I’d wind up with whatever mental
monstrosity my mom had developed, a thirty-year window
isn’t exactly cause for immediate concern, right?
Not quite. Long before the onset of disease, the same
factors that may lead to dementia can very likely affect the
mechanics of your cognition. I’ve already explained how
insulin facilitates the uptake of glucose into muscle, fat, and
liver cells. In the brain, insulin is used as a signaling
molecule, influencing synaptic plasticity, long-term memory
storage, and the workings of neurotransmitters like
dopamine and serotonin.^16 It also helps brain cells process
glucose, particularly in energy-hungry regions like the
hippocampus.
When biochemical signals become too loud, cells protect