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Hopes rise that diabetes drugs could tackle Alzheimer’s

Also interesting remark from Alzheimers Scotland that it is well known that people with diabetes are more prone to Alzheimers. Was anyone else aware of this? I have read extensively on diabetes and Alzheimers (which my mother has) and have never seen a mention of this relationship.
 
Of a population of 30 residents at the moment I have three diabetics,only one of whom has dementia.In 18 years I have not had a significant amount of diabetics with dementia.
 
Sue has your peson got Alzheimers or vascular dementia, which is also a risk for diabetics?
 
Just done a bit of research into the research - the project was funded by Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc. Well, surprise, surprise. This just happens to be the company that makes pioglitazone. Was there ever any doubt as to what the outcome of this piece of research was going to be?!?

And could it just happen to have anything to do with the fact that doctors are becoming more reluctant to prescribe glitazones for diabetes because of all the side effects, so the makers are desperate to find a new market for it?

Cynical? Who me? No!!
 
This article suggests a link between Alzheimer's and Type 2 diabetes.

http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/cg ... t/53/2/474

Last sentence of summary says:

"These data support the hypothesis that patients with Alzheimer disease are more vulnerable to type 2 diabetes and the possibility of linkage between the processes responsible for loss of brain cells and ß-cells in these diseases".

In the discussion section it concludes:

"In conclusion, we report that there is an increased prevalence of both type 2 diabetes and IFG in a community cohort of patients with Alzheimer disease followed in Olmsted County, Rochester, Minnesota. We also report increased islet amyloid in patients with Alzheimer disease
compared with control subjects. However, we did not observe an increased frequency of brain amyloid in cases of type 2 diabetes, although in cases of type 2 diabetes that did have brain amyloid, the extent of this amyloid increased with longer duration of diabetes, a correlate that
did not extend to the age of patients with type 2 diabetes. Taken together, these clinical and pathological studies support a possible link between the neurodegenerative processes that lead to loss of cortical brain cells in Alzheimer disease and the loss of -cells in type 2 diabetes."

However, it doesn't hypothesise the opposite that type 2 diabetes increases risk of Alzheimer, but I suppose I may have already started with Alzheimer's (but I can't remember having being diagnosed with it :) )
 
sugarless sue said:
Good ferreting Dennis.Cynical,you? You're no more cynical than I am!!!
Click to expand...

Me too.

I've read other stuff concerning both amyloid plaques being implicated in both Alzheimers and beta cell destruction, and the effects of insulin in the brain, which make links between the conditions, but nothing (yet) either definitive or causal. Research is ongoing.
 
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