More evidence links diabetes to Alzheimer's risk

Washington (AP): Diabetes can hurt the heart, the eyes and the kidneys. New research indicates a more ominous link:- That diabetes increases the risk of getting Alzheimer's disease and may speed dementia once it strikes.

Doctors long suspected diabetes damaged blood vessels that supply the brain. It now seems even more insidious, that the damage may start before someone is diagnosed with full-blown diabetes back when the body is gradually losing its ability to regulate blood sugar.

In fact the lines are blurring between what specialists call "vascular dementia" and scarier classic Alzheimer's disease. Whatever it is labelled, there is reason enough to safeguard your brain by fighting diabetes and heart-related risks.

"Right now we can't do much about the Alzheimer's disease pathology," those sticky plaques that clog patients' brains, says Dr Yaakov Stern an Alzheimer's specialist at Columbia University Medical Centre. But, "if you could control these vascular conditions you might slow the course of the disease."

The link has staggering societal implications: More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, and cases already are projected to skyrocket in the next two decades as the population ages.

Source :- More evidence links diabetes to Alzheimer's risk