Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a form of dementia that wastes away the brain. It’s one of the most frightening and debilitating diseases in the world. It affects memory, thinking and behaviour. And while we know that millions of people suffer with the disease, we don’t know an awful lot about what causes it.
Recent research has shown that having Type 2 diabetes increases the risk of you developing AD. It is also known that insulin resistance also develops in the brains of patients with the disease, which scientists call “brain diabetes”. Lack of brain insulin signalling also results in learning and memory disability, and this could lead to it being described as Type 3 diabetes.
Researchers writing in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggest that because impaired insulin signalling and inflammation are shared by patients with diabetes and those with AD, it’s possible that mechanisms that cause the lack the insulin in diabetes may also be present in brain insulin resistance.
It has been known for a long time that two brain changes take place in the brains of patients with dementia. These are known as neurofibrillary tangles and beta-amyloid plaques. Tangles are twisted fibres of protein that builds up inside the cells. Plaques are happen when protein fragments build up in the spaces between nerve cells. These then combine to block communication between nerve cells and disrupt the processes that the body needs to function correctly.
But now, a third brain change is emerging as a likely suspect in causing memory loss and trouble thinking in patients with AD. This could lead to the defining of this combination of problems as Type 3 diabetes. This is a very interesting new area for scientists looking to treat AD.
Comments are closed.