Diabetes and Alzheimer's linked
Diabetes and Alzheimer's linked
By Mayo Clinic Staff
Nov. 6, 2008
Diabetes increases your risk of Alzheimer's. Reduce this risk by controlling your blood sugar. Diet and exercise can help.
Diabetes and Alzheimer's disease are connected, in ways that still aren't completely understood. Diabetes has been implicated as a risk factor for eventually developing Alzheimer's disease. And some diabetes drugs appear to slow the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease.
The link between diabetes and Alzheimer's disease may provide new targets for future Alzheimer's treatments. But it may also mean an escalation in the number of people dealing with dementia, as the incidence rate of diabetes keeps increasing.
Diabetes growing more common
Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common variety of diabetes, usually occurring in people who weigh too much and exercise too little. Skyrocketing obesity rates have helped double the number of Americans with diabetes in the past 15 years. Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expect that number to double again by 2050.
Losing weight and exercising can help prevent type 2 diabetes. If you already have diabetes, controlling your blood sugar with diet and medication, if needed, may help break the link between diabetes and the development of Alzheimer's.
Diabetes linked to dementia
Because diabetes damages blood vessels, it has long been connected with vascular dementia — a type of dementia caused by damaged blood vessels in the brain. Many people have vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease at the same time.
While not all studies confirm the connection, many researchers have shown that people who have diabetes are at higher risk of eventually developing Alzheimer's — independent of their risk of vascular dementia.
Diabetes also increases the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, a transition stage between the cognitive changes of normal aging and the more serious problems caused by Alzheimer's disease.
Diabetes drugs help memory
People who keep their diabetes under tighter control tend to have better mental function. Many people who have Alzheimer's disease also have a condition called prediabetes, in which their bodies have become resistant to insulin, a hormone necessary for cells to absorb glucose.
Small studies involving inhaled insulin have shown improvements in memory and attention spans in people who have Alzheimer's disease.
Reducing your risk
If you have prediabetes, you can cut your risk of developing type 2 diabetes in half by losing as little as 5 percent of your body weight — 10 pounds for a 200-pound person — and exercising 30 minutes most days of the week.
In addition to reducing your risk of diabetes and possibly for Alzheimer's, these lifestyle changes can also help protect you from heart attacks and strokes.
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