A viewer asks: “Dr. Suneel Dhand argues that dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s, is closely linked to insulin resistance, rather than genetic predisposition or aging alone. He states that high blood sugar and insulin spikes damage neurons, leading to cognitive decline. (He cites studies showing that individuals with diabetes have a significantly higher risk of developing dementia and that loneliness and poor sleep also increase the risk of cognitive decline).” Is this an accurate description?

His is a nice hypothesis but we see it as one of many, many examples, as happens all through the field of medicine, where medical therapies are based on assumptions supported by observed correlations that are not necessarily in a causal relationship. As we have said before, the major dementias are all viral in origin, and so is diabetes. So there will often be concomitant presence in the body of some other disorder, like an autoimmune disease in individuals who eventually develop dementia. The common link is that there is a pathogenic virus smoldering and causing trouble, most particularly in those specific organs and areas of the body giving rise to symptoms.