Scientists have recently linked the two pathologies of Alzheimer’s and diabetes. On one hand, the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease is increased by the onset of diabetes, particularly if it appears in a person before age 65. On the other, insulin which is a key hormone that lowers sugar levels in the blood would have a protective role in the connections between nerve cells involved in memory.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. It is characterized by the pathological accumulation of a protein called beta-amyloid. Other forms of dementia exist, resulting from diseases of the blood vessels in the brain. It seems that the vascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, excessive cholesterol, and diabetes promote not only vascular dementia but also Alzheimer’s disease.

An American-Swedish team reports in the January issue of the journal Diabetes the results of a study conducted on more than 13,000 twins. The value of this type of research is to eliminate genetic factors. Of these twins, 467 had dementia, including 292 cases of Alzheimer’s disease, and nearly 1,400 were diabetic. The study reveals that “genetic and environmental factors could contribute to the association between diabetes and late-onset dementia, but the environment for adults (food and lifestyle) may be responsible for the association between diabetes in middle age and dementia.”

Another research that came out in the February 10 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests the possibility of a third type of diabetes where the action of insulin on the brain would be reduced, inter alia with age.

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Via vitabeat