Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals Inc. (fka RCPIQ)

[Buddhahead]

Is Alzheimer's Really a Type of Diabetes? in NextAvenue, Gary Drevitch, October 17, 2012

Excerpts:
"We know that exercising and maintaining a healthy weight can help ward off dementia. We also know that people with Type 2 diabetes appear to be at least twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than others. And now a provocative thesis suggests that Alzheimer's itself should be thought of as "Type 3" diabetes, or "diabetes of the brain." It's a theory that offers cause for both encouragement and concern.

A recent article by Brown Medical School neuropathologist Suzanne de la Monte in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease detailed the connection between insulin and Alzheimer's. "Many of the unexplained features of Alzheimer's, such as cell death and tangles in the brain, appear to be linked to abnormalities in insulin signaling," she explained in a statement. "This demonstrates that the disease is most likely a neuroendocrine disorder, or another type of diabetes."

"Like Alzheimer's, diabetes has no cure. According to the American Diabetes Association, there are already nearly 26 million diabetics in the country, a number that is growing. Many diabetics do not develop Alzheimer's, but there is measurable overlap and the rates of both diseases are rising. If fatty foods provoke insulin resistance in our brains, then, as New Scientist magazine put it in a recent cover story about the link between diabetes and Alzheimer's, "we may be unwittingly poisoning our brains every time we chow down on burgers and fries."

In the New Scientist article, SUNY-Albany neuroscientist Ewan McNay said: "The epidemic of Type 2 diabetes, if it continues on its current trajectory, is likely to be followed by an epidemic of dementia. That's going to be a huge challenge to the medical and care systems."

"Traditional understanding of Alzheimer's has focused on beta amyloid plaques in the brain, but exactly how those plaques amass has challenged scientists. "I believe it starts with insulin resistance," de la Monte has said. "Once it gets going you are going to need to attack on multiple fronts."

The news that Alzheimer's could be a type of diabetes may not appear to be encouraging, but de la Monte offers a bit of hope. "If you could target the disease early," she has said, "you could prevent the further loss of neurons. But you would have to target not just the loss of insulin but the resistance of its receptors in the brain."

Article at:
http://www.nextavenue.org/blog/alzheimers-really-type-diabetes