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DOES GLUCOSAMINE DRIVE TOWARD ALZHEIMERS? · Your Daily Dose

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  Speaker 1: It's time to dive deep into an article to try
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  Speaker 1: to show that if you don't read the entire article,
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  Speaker 1: you get misdirected. Common joint supplement linked to a faster
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  Speaker 1: Alzheimer's progression. That's the headlines. If you read it, it
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  Speaker 1: said researchers found that a brain pathway may explain why
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  Speaker 1: glucosamine affects cognitive decline. Does it really progress you toward Alzheimer's?
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  Speaker 1: That's what it seems to tell you. But what's the
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  Speaker 1: truth behind these headlines?
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  Speaker 2: Stay tuned. Hi, and welcome to Health Talk with Dr. Len,
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  Speaker 2: your daily dose.
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  Speaker 1: The information you hear on this show is informational. It's
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  Speaker 1: not meant to diagnose or treat any disease. Any kind
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  Speaker 1: of complete health conditions must be checked out and discussed
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  Speaker 1: with your primary care physician.
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  Speaker 2: Get ready for the good news of the day.
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  Speaker 1: God bless you folks.
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  Speaker 2: And here is Dr. Len.
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  Speaker 1: Daily devotional today for September 14th. 2026, Genesis chapter 2.
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  Speaker 2: Worship me by living close to me.
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  Speaker 1: This was my original design for man into whom I
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  Speaker 1: breathed my very breath of life. This is my desire
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  Speaker 1: for you, that you stay near me as you walk
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  Speaker 1: along your life path. Each day is an important part
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  Speaker 1: of that journey. Although you may feel as if you're
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  Speaker 1: going nowhere in this world, your spiritual journey is another
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  Speaker 1: matter altogether, taking you along steep, treacherous paths of adventure.
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  Speaker 1: That is why walking in the light of my presence
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  Speaker 1: is essential to keep you from stumbling. By staying close
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  Speaker 1: to me, you present yourself as a living sacrifice. Even
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  Speaker 1: the most routine part of your day can be a
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  Speaker 1: spiritual act of worship, holy and pleasing to me.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, good word. Stay tuned.
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  Speaker 3: ¶ ¶ 727-916-4215 You know, I've been doing this for
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  Speaker 3: 38 going on 39 years. Back when I had my
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  Speaker 3: syndicated show on Sirius and XM.
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  Speaker 1: We had numerous times that we would yell and scream
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  Speaker 1: about reading behind the headlines. And the same thing goes
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  Speaker 1: in this political realm. You read the headlines and you
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  Speaker 1: get all depressed and you move on. So when you
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  Speaker 1: read the headlines, it says a very common joint supplement
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  Speaker 1: called glucosamine might take you faster to Alzheimer's.
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  Speaker 2: What's your first move?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I go in my closet and I pull out
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  Speaker 1: my glucosamine and I throw it in the trash, right?
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  Speaker 2: What's the truth behind the headlines? Let me read this
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  Speaker 2: to you.
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  Speaker 1: Scientists hunting for clues to Alzheimer's progression didn't expect to find.
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  Speaker 2: Them in a bottle of joint supplements.
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  Speaker 1: But a study published in June suggests glucosamine, taken by
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  Speaker 1: roughly 20% of Americans, may be worsening cognitive decline in brains.
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  Speaker 2: There's a key word.
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  Speaker 1: Highlight it in orange or yellow or pink or whatever
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  Speaker 1: you use. Cognitive decline in brains that are all already affected.
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  Speaker 1: Findings appear to apply only to people who have mild
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  Speaker 1: cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease already. If you're a healthy
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  Speaker 1: person taking glucosamine for joint pain, our findings aren't about you.
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  Speaker 1: And there's no reason to be alarmed or throw out
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  Speaker 1: your supplement. The concern is specifically to brains already affected
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  Speaker 1: by Alzheimer's. In that setting, glucosamine appears to feed the
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  Speaker 1: very process driving the disease.
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  Speaker 2: And in our data, those patients had worse outcomes.
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  Speaker 1: The study recently published in Nature Metabolism combined patient records,
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  Speaker 1: advanced brain imaging, human tissue samples, and Alzheimer's disease mouse models.
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  Speaker 2: Let's highlight that as well. Mouse models. Poor little mice.
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  Speaker 1: Sun's team has examined clinical records from the University of
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  Speaker 1: Florida Health System for more than 4,600 patients diagnosed with
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  Speaker 1: mild cognitive impairment or dementia between 2012-2024, 12 years. About
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  Speaker 1: 8% reported using glucosamine, not the 20% that's.
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  Speaker 2: Being used nationwide.
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  Speaker 1: Glucosamine use was associated with a 25% higher chance of
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  Speaker 1: progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia. as well as
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  Speaker 1: a 25% increased risk of death within 10 years among
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  Speaker 1: patients who already had dementia. What's the reason for death?
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  Speaker 1: Alzheimer's is a terminal illness. Again, they described these findings
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  Speaker 1: as preliminary and said testing in human trials is next because.
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  Speaker 2: These were done in mice.
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  Speaker 1: Glucosamine contributes to a chemical reaction that often goes into
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  Speaker 1: overdrive in Alzheimer's disease. Now this is where it changes course.
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  Speaker 1: Just as diabetes is a disease caused by the body
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  Speaker 1: being unable to metabolize sugar, recent studies have also found
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  Speaker 1: evidence that the same may be happening in the brain
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  Speaker 1: during Alzheimer's disease. One way the brain metabolizes sugar is
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  Speaker 1: by tagging it to proteins, a process known as glycosylation. Hyperglycosylation,
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  Speaker 1: in excess of buildup of sugar protein chains, may act
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  Speaker 1: as a primary metabolic driver of Alzheimer's disease pathology, rather
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  Speaker 1: than just a byproduct. The sugar tagging system appears to
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  Speaker 1: be overactive, says study co-author Matt Gentry, chair of the
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  Speaker 1: University of Florida's Department of Biochemistry. The Alzheimer's brain is
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  Speaker 1: adding too many of these sugar structures, and this seems
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  Speaker 1: to contribute to the disease rather than to protect against it.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody ever said glucosamine is going to protect against it.
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  Speaker 2: Yet.
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  Speaker 1: Glucosamine is a naturally occurring type of sugar molecule that
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  Speaker 1: can also feed into the glycosylation process. In mice models,
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  Speaker 1: researchers find that supplemental glucosamine increased glycosylation was associated with
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  Speaker 1: worsening Alzheimer's disease pathology. Brain tissue samples from Alzheimer's disease
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  Speaker 1: mice had higher glycosylation levels and healthy controls, suggesting the
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  Speaker 1: dysfunction may actively drive the disease progression rather than simply
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  Speaker 1: result from it. Our findings suggest that metabolic changes in
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  Speaker 1: the brain are important to the progression of Alzheimer's, Fixing
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  Speaker 1: this metabolic problem might be a helpful addition to existing
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  Speaker 1: treatments focusing on brain plaque and tangles. They noted that
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  Speaker 1: the pathway's potential reversibility is the encouraging side of the findings.
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  Speaker 1: The important point is that the pathway runs in both directions.
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  Speaker 1: If feeding it makes things worse, turning it down should help.
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  Speaker 1: When the team reduced glycosylation in mice, there it is again,
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  Speaker 1: both genetically and with a drug-like inhibitor, their memory improved.
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  Speaker 1: The discovery adds to existing research pointing to, here it is,
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  Speaker 1: insulin resistance and impaired glucose metabolism as potential drivers of
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  Speaker 1: Alzheimer's disease. You've heard me yell and scream about.
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  Speaker 2: The potential.
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  Speaker 1: For blood sugar regulation and breaking insulin resistance using perhaps
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  Speaker 1: like neutroglutide, which is phenomenal.
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  Speaker 2: But we'll talk about that.
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  Speaker 1: Discovery adds to existing research pointing to insulin resistance and
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  Speaker 1: impaired glucose metabolism. Study authors describe Alzheimer's as a manifestation
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  Speaker 1: of diabetes. The benefit, esteem observed in mice, came through
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  Speaker 1: a completely separate route from the amyloid or tau tangles,
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  Speaker 1: where medicine has focused for years. We improved function without
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  Speaker 1: changing either of those. So this pathway is a target
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  Speaker 1: on its own, one that could potentially combine with existing
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  Speaker 1: therapies rather than replace them. Findings support a larger shift
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  Speaker 1: in how we think about Alzheimer's, not only as a
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  Speaker 1: disease of plaques and tangles, but as of a disease
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  Speaker 1: of metabolism. That view is opening up new ways to
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  Speaker 1: understand it, and I hope new ways to treat it.
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  Speaker 1: The practical challenge, Sun emphasized, is developing a drug that
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  Speaker 1: shuts down this pathway while still crossing into the brain,
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  Speaker 1: which is the hard part of any neurological problem. This
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  Speaker 1: is one of the directions we're now pushing alongside work
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  Speaker 1: to identify exactly which patients are most affected. It is
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  Speaker 1: a question that still needs proper clinical trials to settle.
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  Speaker 1: Healthy versus unhealthy. Diabetic versus non-diabetic. Hmm.
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  Speaker 2: Dahlia extract. Sweet balance.
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  Speaker 1: Crosses the blood-brain barrier. Helps with that insulin resistance in
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  Speaker 1: the brain. Why not add that to Google?
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  Speaker 2: That's what we've got for you today, folks. Have a great,
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  Speaker 2: healthy day. Talk to you soon.