Obesity puts you at a higher risk of metabolic syndrome, which makes you twice as likely to develop heart disease and five times more likely to develop diabetes. Nearly 80 percent of diabetics are overweight, and being overweight increases your risk of heart disease by 17 percent (obese = 40 percent).
As much as we'd like to feel sorry for those around us when they develop a degenerative disease, should we?
What about diseases of the brain, like Alzheimer's?
Obviously genetics and other uncontrollable factors come into play when the young and otherwise healthy get sick, but nine times out of 10 this isn't just the luck of the draw. Most understand that excess fat puts us at a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes but fail to make the connection with diseases of the brain. Well what if I told you that:
-- Cognitive impairment (decline in brain performance) increases by 220 percent if you develop diabetes before age 65.
-- Diabetics are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and 1.75 times more likely to develop dementia of any kind.
If diabetes increases our risk of Alzheimer's and dementia, and obesity increases our risk of diabetes, why are we still believing that cognitive decline is part of the natural aging process?
A 2008 study looking at 6,500 adults from the journal Neurology found a two-fold increase in dementia in participants with the highest body fat.
After analyzing the brain images of 94 people in their 70s, researchers from UCLA and the University of Pittsburgh found that the brains in the obese subjects looked 16 years older.
There's a reason Alzheimer's is now referred to as "Type 3 diabetes." The cells in our brain become resistant to insulin and glucose just like those in the rest of our body.
What produces insulin resistance?
Chronically-elevated insulin from the overconsumption of sugar and carbohydrates!
Without a doubt we will all die one day, but the question of how is largely dependent on your behavior. Whether of the heart, or of the brain, degenerative disease is not inevitable. Change your actions and you change your outcome!
Stay Lean!
Coach Mike
Mike believes the first step to rescuing your health is understanding that it's NOT about Calories. Click here to download his Free E-book - Reducing Calories to Lose Weight is Making You Gain...Fat!