Gloria Swanson is known for playing the delusional Norma Desmond in the movie “Sunset Boulevard.” But in real life, she was a very sane and smart woman, and an early convert to the natural health movement. In the 1970s she toured the US helping her husband William Duffy to promote a book he authored that became a dietary classic, Sugar Blues. Sugar Blues is an indictment of refined sugar as a dangerous and addictive toxin with disastrous effects on the brain and mental health (both Linus Pauling and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, who agreed with Duffy about sugar, are cited in the book). Although Duffy’s book has had a significant impact on a health-conscious minority, sugar consumption continues to ravage the mental health of millions of Americans in minor and major ways. It has been linked with all kinds of mental distress, from depression to schizophrenia, while sugar and a high-glycemic diet have been linked specifically with depression. As noted in a recent Newsclips article,…

It is now considered normal to lose cognitive function as you age -- to experience diminished memory, reasoning and speed in processing information. This "normal" age-related cognitive decline is contrasted to dementias, like Alzheimer's, which are much more debilitating and include severe nerve cell damage and death of nerve cells. In fact, age-related cognitive decline and dementia are the same thing. What you call it is a matter of degree, and it is primarily a product of our unhealthy diets and lifestyles.Maintaining a youthful brain does, however, require superior nutrition from both diet and high-quality supplements. A brain support program would include the B vitamins and the antioxidant vitamins A, C, D and E. Fish or flax oil is a must, and the need for it increases with age.By middle age, it's best to be supplementing with CoQ10, acetyl-L-carnitine, and multiple B vitamins. (Deficiencies in vitamin B12 are common and often misdiagnosed as dementias or…