Brain damage-diabetes link
The link between Alzheimer's and diabetes is now believed to be even stronger, with new research released yesterday showing that diabetes can be caused, or worsened, by brain degeneration. It is known that up to 80% of elderly Alzheimer's patients have blood sugar problems or full-blown diabetes, and that diabetes worsens the risk of the disease.But new research published in the journal Diabetologia yesterday found that the reverse is also true.Brain damage in mice led to diabetic complications in their blood, the study found.The discovery could lead to better treatments for both diseases, said lead researcher and chairman of Neuroscience at Aberdeen University in Scotland, Bettina Platt.Alzheimer's has no known cure and is only diagnosed once brain damage is too late to reverse.It is believed there are 750000 Alzheimer's patients in South Africa and 44million worldwide.Platt said their data showed that some diabetes and obesity medicines can normalise body and brain glucose sugar control."These medicines may be particularly effective for patients that have the both Alzheimer's and diabetes, and may be able to interrupt the detrimental cycle."Drugs tested in trials to treat Alzheimer's may be able to help with diabetic complications, but this "remains to be confirmed".Platt's team of scientists worked with endocrinologists to look at why both diseases co-exist in up to 80% of Alzheimer's patients."This is hugely relevant as Alzheimer's is in the vast majority of cases not inherited and lifestyle factors and other diseases must therefore be to blame," Platt said.The researchers discovered a gene that leads to a toxic build-up of protein in the brain which leads to irreversible memory loss and can create diabetic complications."Until now we always assumed that obese people get type 2 diabetes and then are more likely to get dementia.We now show that actually it also works the other way around," Platt said.She added that it could be assumed that reducing the diabetes risk by eating well and managing weight could also reduce the risk of Alzheimer's...
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