There is a named phobia for just about everything that people can fear. Ever heard of athazagoraphobia? That’s the fear of memory loss. A Harris poll showed that 87% of Americans have some fear about getting old, whether it be loss of physical ability, financial issues, disease, or memory loss. Most of us know someone with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and dread any memory loss that might be a forerunner of AD. Athazagoraphobia is a real and present phobia for many, especially in older age.
Some causes of memory loss are temporary. Stress will often bring on memory loss, as well as some diseases, and often the memory problems remit along with the stress or disease. Various prescription drugs can also affect memory. Loss of sleep will quickly bring on memory problems. However, some causes of memory loss can be long term: obvious ones such as physical trauma or stroke, but also inflammation caused by stress or diet can cause long-term damage. Even so, memory will generally improve when the inflammation is brought down.
In a study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, researchers from Northwestern University and Trinity College Dublin in Ireland studied the societal impact of fear of memory loss diseases and found that such fear promotes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Fear of memory loss can cause a hyper focus on any memory issues, leading to an expectation of more issues to follow. Thus dwelling on memory loss can aggravate the problem. So it is important to both prevent long term damage while also improving overall memory function. Doing both takes away athazagoraphobia, giving you confidence that you are not promoting disease that would cause memory loss and seeing for yourself that your memory is improving.
Better fuel
When you realize that the brain is part of your body and affected by what affects the rest of your body, you can see that diet should be a major factor in brain operation, including memory. Although the brain normally runs on glucose, it does have an alternative fuel source — a ketone source — which is more efficient for brain operation than sugar. A clean diet that is low on sugar but high in fat will actually make the brain run more efficiently. This leads to better memory function.
Your body has an energy production cycle known as the ATP cycle (also known as the Krebs cycle or citric acid cycle). ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is a high-energy molecule which can be chemically broken down by reaction with water to produce smaller molecules plus energy. It is that energy that we run on. More ATP is produced with each ketone molecule than with a glucose molecule because they skip part of the ATP cycle and are thus more efficient. Most of your body can run on glucose or ketones, but ketones are more effective in producing energy. There is another value of ketones: cancer cells prefer glucose as a fuel, and some cancers cannot use ketones as a fuel source at all. So ketones are a great fuel source for you. This is becoming mainstream knowledge, and you are seeing ketogenic diets and “keto-friendly” foods cropping up everywhere.
Easy to remember
Now what is its effect on memory? According to a study published by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Cell Reports Medicine, a high fat, low carbohydrate diet has been proven to enhance memory function. In their animal studies, researchers had a test group on a 90% fat and 10% protein diet, while the control group had 10% protein, only 13% fat, and the rest from carbs. “The most striking effect on their health as they aged was that their memory was preserved; it was possibly even better than when they were younger,” said the lead researcher. How would you like a memory better than you had in your youth? That may be possible!
The ketogenic diet can be tricky with certain health conditions, but it is generally good for everyone. It can potentially rescue a person from insulin-resistive diabetes. And we see that it can improve memory function. But it is always a good diet? That depends upon the details, because there are many variants of the Keto diet. Technically the diet only requires high fat, but what is the source of that fat? Remember that inflammation is harmful to memory, the brain, and the body overall, and while some causes of inflammation are beyond your control, diet is very controllable.
Since the keto diet is very low carb, many consider that a whole foods plant based diet is necessarily different from the Keto diet. In a head-to-head competition, research is generally showing that plant-based diets are vital and trumps even the Keto diet, when that diet relies on animal products. In a review study published in JAMA Oncology, researchers from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College, both in New York, determined in review of multiple studies that a whole foods plant based diet was better at fighting cancer than the Keto diet. This study does not address memory issues, but we can easily infer that the plant diet would win here as well. But can we have the best of both worlds?
Go green
The “Keto-Green” diet does combine them. The idea is to substitute animal products with high fat and low sugar plants. Avocados, seeds and nuts are plant sources of high fat. So long as the carbohydrates are low sugar, they do not shift the diet away from ketone production. It’s the easy sugar provided by many of the carbs we eat that throw the Keto diet off track. Low sugar vegetables — the kind that most people shun because they are not sweet — work perfectly well. They also provide much higher vitamin and mineral content than their animal counterparts. And the key point: they lower inflammation rather than spiking it.
Especially combined with intermittent fasting, you can become a great ketone factory with this diet. You get the nutrient, alkalinity, and low toxicity bonuses from Keto-Green. Remember, your brain will work better too, perhaps rivaling how it worked for you in your youth. But, of course you will remember, because the diet will improve your memory!
Dr. Nemec’s Review
Take home message
Your brain and cell membranes like living and raw plant fat — they like neither carbs nor proteins. Whereas cancer and other pathogens like carbs and proteins and don’t like plant fats.
According to the Cell Reports Medicine article: “a KD ketogenic diet, long-term evidence changes predominantly at the presynaptic compartment associated to the protein kinase A (PKA) signaling pathway. These findings showed an increase in BDNF (brain, derived neurotrophic factor -which is a growth factor for brain cells, meaning growing more neurons for better memory and cognitive function). Overall, a KD modifies brain function even when it is administered later in life and long-term administration, increases the PKA signaling pathway, thus promoting synaptic plasticity at advanced age. Synaptic plasticity is adaptability of the brain to function at a higher level. This always goes along with better memory and cognitive ability.”
That is much better fuel for your brain as opposed to carbs or proteins. The question is: what type of fat?
Most important
Plant fats decrease inflammation, and do not carry toxins or hormones
Animal fats increase inflammation, and do carry toxins stored in the fat tissue of the animal, and hormones also stored in the fat of the animal.
Final point
If you want to remember your life when you’re 80, 90, 100 and beyond, you need to eat living and raw plant fat, cut out the carbs and decrease protein.
The journal of the American Medical Association article says it all: a whole foods plant based diet was better at fighting cancer than the Keto diet.
And a green keto diet is far superior than a keto diet for many reasons, including the green keto decreases inflammation whereas the animal keto increases it.
But probably most important of all and least noted is this:
The most important quality of food is that it be living and / or raw — meaning it is either still alive and growing, containing biophotonic energy, or it has at least never been cooked (it has its original enzymes in the food). Every cell in your body is run by biophotonic energy and enzymes. Energy is the movement of life and enzymes are how every biochemical reaction can occur at high speeds and keep cells alive and thriving.
Did you ever notice that animals in the wild all eat living food? This living food contains biophotons and enzymes. It has been this way since the beginning — that says a whole lot. Since the beginning of creation, every animal eats living food and we were designed to eat living food — think about it.
Really think about it.
Animals versus people
Animals in the wild don’t really get sick because they can’t afford to for survival. How do they achieve this task?
It’s built into their diet and lifestyle by nature. They only eat living food. They don’t have a mind that keeps them stressed. And they go to sleep when the sun goes down. They exercise most all the time. They do most of the Seven Basic Steps to Total Health naturally.
So go green, eat lots of living and raw plant fats, greens and vegetables. This will help you stay disease free, healthspan extended and cognitively sharp.
Here are the ways we can help you in your health journey:
- Outpatient Comprehensive Teaching and Treatment Program-has the most benefit of teaching, treatment, live classes and personalized coaching. This program has the most contact with Dr. Nemec with 3- 6 month programs that can be turned into a regular checking and support program for life. This is our core program that has helped so many restore their health and maintain that restoration for years.
- Inpatient Comprehensive Teaching and Treatment Program-is our four-week intensive inpatient program for those that are not in driving distance, usually over 4 hour drive. This is the program that is an intensive jumpstart with treatment, teaching, live classes and coaching designed for all our international patients along with those in the US that do not live in Illinois. This program is very effective especially when combined with our new membership program support.
- Stay at Home Program-is offered to continental US patients who cannot come to Revolution New Medicine but still want a more personal, customized plan to restore their health. This program also includes our Learn Membership Program.
- Membership Program is our newest program offered for those that want to work on their health at a high level and want access to the teaching at Revolution New Medicine along with the Forums: both Dr. Nemec’s posts and other members posting. And also, to have the chance to get personalized questions answered on the conference calls which are all archived in case you miss the call. The Membership Program has 3 levels to choose from: Learn, Overcome and Master. The difference is at the Overcome and Master levels you received one on one calls with Dr. Nemec personalizing your program for your areas of focus.
