New Research Links Type 2 Diabetes to Alzheimer’s Disease

More new evidence is emerging that if you have type 2 diabetes and don’t control it — or if you have pre-diabetes — that you can increase your risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease.

Indeed, new research findings linking the two diseases were presented Sunday by the Alzheimer’s Association at the 10th International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (ICAD), an event in Madrid that drew 5,000 researchers from around the world, according to the organization..

New York Times reporter Denise Grady wrote about this alarming phenomenon, which I pieced together four to five years ago while researching and writing my upcoming book SUGAR SHOCK! (Jan. 2007, Berkley Books). (I even wrote a chapter about how too much sugar and refined carbs can mess with your memory and possibly contribute to Alzheimer’s.)

See Grady’s excellent, insightful, well-researched Times article, in which she explains:

"The connection raises an ominous prospect: that increases in diabetes, a major concern in the United States and worldwide, may worsen the rising toll from Alzheimer’s. The findings also add dementia to the cloud of threats that already hang over people with diabetes, including heart disease, strokes, kidney failure, blindness and amputations."

Reporter Grady makes sure to point out that "some of the studies also hint that measures to prevent or control diabetes may lower the dementia risk, and that certain diabetes drugs should be tested to find whether they can help Alzheimer’s patients, even those without diabetes. Current treatments for Alzheimer’s can provide only a modest improvement in symptoms and cannot stop the progression of the disease." (As you may have guessed, I’m a big fan of seeing if diet could help.)

It’s simply mind-boggling to think of the consequences of people not taking better care of their diabetic or pre-diabetic condition. Although some select researchers were hip to the connection, now the rest of the world knows about this new scary link.

People out there — especially those of you who are overweight or obese or diabetic — please begin to take better care of yourself so you don’t develop a whole bunch of other diseases, too, including Alzheimer’s!

Begin by kicking or at least drastically cutting back on sugar and refined carbs to help get your blood sugar under better control. Make sure to exercise, too.

The other consquences of diabetes are bad enough. You don’t want to develop memory problems, too, especially when just changing your diet and exercise could help so much!