All About Diabetes

Researchers from the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York said that insulin combined with a diabetes pill can help lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Studying the brains of 124 deceased diabetics and 124 non-diabetics with comparable age, sex, and severity of dementia, Dr. Sam Grandy of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and colleagues, thought that the medications diabetics are taking play a role in this.

The researchers classified study participants based on the antidiabetic drugs they took in their lifetime—insulin only, diabetes medication other than insulin only, or both. They found that most diabetics used one of the oldest diabetes pill called sulfonylureas.

After grouping these people, the team measured the density of Alzheimer’s-related changes in the brain like bundles of fibrous tangles of brain cells and sticky amyloid plaques. Those who took both insulin and a diabetes pill had 80 percent fewer amyloid plaques compared to the others in the other categories.

In the International Conference on Alzheimer’s disease in Chicago, the researchers said that the drugs did not seem to modify any other Alzheimer’s-related brain characteristics. “These results suggest that the combination of insulin and oral anti-diabetes medications may beneficially influence Alzheimer’s-related brain changes,” said lead study author, Michal Beeri.

One of life’s greatest marvels is the human brain. It coordinates our thoughts, emotions, movement, behavior and sensation. In short, it directs all that we think, feel and do. Its billions of nerve cells are connected to the rest of the body through a network of specialized tissues called the nervous system. (more…)

Diabetes has long been associated with serious complications such as strokes, heart attacks and limb amputations. Yet long-term poorly controlled diabetes may bring about complications that may not be as dreadful and life-threatening but are debilitating to the individual just the same. One such complication is dementia. (more…)