Type 3 Diabetes
Type 3 diabetes is the relatively new title given to a previously unknown form of diabetes discovered by scientists in the US.
Studies carried out by the US Brown Medical School research team identified the possibility of a new form of diabetes after finding that insulin is produced by the brain as well as the pancreas.
Whereas type 1 and type 2 diabetes occur when the human body is unable to produce or use insulin from the pancreas, the new form is believed to cause lower than normal levels of brain insulin and does not affect blood sugar as with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
The new diabetes type also strengthens scientists’ belief that people with diabetes have an increased risk of suffering from Alzheimer's disease (by up to 65%).
Researchers at the medical school discovered that many type 2 diabetics have deposits of a protein in their pancreas which is similar to the protein deposits found in the brain tissue of Alzheimer's sufferers.
Dr Suzanne de la Monte, who led the research, and her colleagues studied rodents and post-mortem brain tissue from people with Alzheimer's and found that insulin and its related proteins are actually produced in the brain, and that reduced levels of both are linked to Alzheimer's disease.
Other types of diabetes
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