Alzheimer's 'is brain diabetes': BBC Report

There is currently no cure for Alzheimer's disease
The most common form of dementia may be closely related to another common disease of old-age - type II diabetes, say scientists.
Treating Alzheimer's with the hormone insulin, or with drugs to boost its effect, may help patients, they claim.
The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports insulin could protect against damage to brain cells key to memory.
UK experts said the find could be the basis of new drug treatments.

The most exciting implications are that some diabetes drugs have the potential to be developed as Alzheimer's treatments
Spokesman, Alzheimer's Research Trust
The relationship between insulin and brain disease has been under scrutiny since doctors found evidence that the hormone was active there. More


Study: Diabetes Linked to Cognitive Decline
By ALICE PARK Monday, Jan. 05, 2009
Studies have shown that diabetes may speed up aging-related deficits in mental function and lead to a twofold increase in the risk of dementia. Some researchers have speculated that diabetes could even boost the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Roger Dixon, a psychologist at the University of Alberta in Canada, wanted to learn whether this was true and set out to study exactly how uncontrolled blood sugar affected the brain.

Dixon and his colleagues studied 41 adults with diabetes and 424 healthy adults between the ages of 53 and 90, and reported their findings in the journal Neuropsychology. After testing the participants on memory, recall, verbal fluency, executive functions involving critical thinking and the speed of their mental faculties, researchers found the most significant deficits in diabetes patients on tasks of executive function and speed. These problems showed up in the youngest patients as well as the older ones, and once the cognitive symptoms appeared, they did not seem to worsen or change over time. Although Dixon's study failed to add new information on the question of diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, other experts view these results as useful fodder in the growing field of diabetes research.

"This study in general supports what we understand," says Dr. Alan Jacobson, chief of psychiatric services at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. "It's another study adding to our recognition that Type 2 diabetes portends some type of problem in terms of cognitive function." More