How Similar are Toxic Sugar and Alcohol

Dr. Mercola had a nice article recently focusing on the adverse effects of fructose. It is really well written. Below are thoughts on this article:

Yes indeed, fructose does seem to be one of the most potent toxins in our modern environment. With tobacco and alcohol at least we were wise enough to try to keep these obvious toxins away from our children, but sadly we continue to allow children to consume large amounts of fructose. When I started practicing medicine, insulin resistance, fatty liver and type II diabetes were never seen in children, but today they are common in this age group.

As this article points out, it is now well established that excessive fructose is the driving force behind insulin resistance, central obesity, metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes. Evidence is now starting to emerge that excessive fructose is bad for your brain. Although we don’t understand the exact mechanisms, it’s probably the combination of excessive fructose and glucose that leads to brain dysfunction. It is now well established that people with diabetes and poor glucose control have a form of reversible cognitive dysfunction.
When you study populations of people with insulin resistance and obesity, many of these people have co-morbid brain disorders such as depression, ADHD, PTSD, anxiety disorders, autism, fibromyalgia, bipolar II, irritable bowel syndrome and similar conditions. Hudson and Pope from Harvard recognized that these conditions seem to be driven by a single pathological process and they named this disease “Affective Spectrum Disorder”. Because they failed to identify the triggers or pathology of the disease, their concept never made it out of academic medicine.

When people with insulin resistance from excessive fructose consume high glycemic carbohydrates, especially from grains, their brain is exposed to magnified glucose spikes. Because high levels of glucose are harmful to neurons, eventually these glucose spikes seem to trigger diffuse brain dysfunction. We now call this disease first recognized by Hudson and Pope “Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain Syndrome” or CARB syndrome.

People with CARB syndrome can develop up to 22 brain dysfunction symptoms that reflect low levels of monoamine neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. It is also clear that CARB syndrome is not the same as traditional hereditary brain disorders. For example, prior to our exposure to large amounts of fructose, all depressed patients lost their appetite and lost weight. This is true hereditary depression that has been with us since the dawn of mankind. Today most depressed people have an increased appetite, carbohydrate cravings and weight gain. This is CARB syndrome, not hereditary depression. If you treat CARB syndrome depression like true hereditary depression with high dose SSRI medications, they eventually get worse, not better. Although short-term use of medications can be helpful for some patients with CARB syndrome to control symptoms and improve compliance, the primary treatment for CARB syndrome is to remove sugar, HFCS and grain-based carbohydrates from the diet.

When I was in school years ago, in each class there was perhaps one kid who was overweight and one kid who couldn’t learn because of some type of learning disability. Today the majority of kids are overweight and half the class has trouble learning because they have been diagnosed with one of the conditions under the CARB syndrome umbrella. For the sake of our children, we need to explain why this is so and come up with a strategy to deal with the problem. The CARB syndrome disease model does seem to provide a framework for doing so. Dr. Johnson, Dr. Ludwig and Dr. Mercola have certainly led the way by focusing on the toxic effects of excessive fructose. The next step is to remove sugar and HFCS from our food supply.

Click to read Dr. Mercoloa’s article.