An ancient human survival instinct still embedded deep within our brains may be driving dementia onset thanks to an unlikely accomplice — fructose, a kind of sugar. Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz say this instinctual foraging mechanism, fueled by fructose production in the brain, could provide new clues into both the development and possible treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.
Study authors believe their findings present a unique take on an awful-yet-common disease, which develops due to abnormal accumulations of proteins in the brain, eventually resulting in the deterioration of both memory and cognition.
“We make the case that Alzheimer’s disease is driven by diet,” says the study’s lead author Richard Johnson, MD, professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine specializing in renal disease and hypertension, in a media release.
