Type 3 Diabetes?

I read an article today called “Why Alzheimer’s is called type 3 diabetes” and was immediately very interested in reading the article. For one, the title was very appealing because I had never really heard of Alzheimer’s disease described in such a way, and secondly, even after studying nutrition for four long years, I simply could not see the link between Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

The article mainly discussed how recent studies have shown that the development of Alzheimer’s disease is strongly linked to insulin and diabetes, and that insulin actually plays a large role in the formation of memories. The article also concluded that diabetics are at a higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease, and that glucose does not get utilized properly in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s.

After reading this article, I was very surprised with the findings! Whenever I hear the word insulin, the first thing that comes to my mind is blood glucose, glycemic index, and diabetes. I seriously never knew that insulin was involved with the formation of memories as well, which really surprised me. This then brings me to my next point: if newer studies are finding such a strong link between Alzheimer’s and Diabetes, then shouldn’t we be educating more people about this? I mean, I’m pretty sure that most people know about diabetes and how it’s important to control their blood glucose, but I don’t think they know why it’s so important, or what actually causes diabetes. I constantly hear people talking about diabetes, and how it’s a condition that only older individuals get, but this is obviously not true. Why are there so many misconceptions about diabetes? I just think that we need to educate the public more about diabetes prevention and not just about diabetes management. I hear a lot about what we should eat if we have diabetes, but not enough about what to do to prevent one from getting diabetes.

On a second note, the article also talked about a woman whose father has both Alzheimer’s and diabetes, and how he constantly forgets whether or not he ate because he had Alzheimer’s, which in turn affected his diabetic condition. It was just interesting to see that Alzheimer’s can also have an impact on diabetes, and not just the other way around. I also felt bad for her because the management of both of these conditions is troublesome, and it’s hard for her to monitor her father all the time. I guess I can relate to this as my father is also diabetic, and it can be frustrating sometimes convincing him to eat smaller portions of certain food. I can tell that it’s hard for him, and at the same time I feel horrible for having to remind him all the time.

source: http://healthzone.ca/health/yourhealth/agingwell/article/752820--why-alzheimer-s-is-called-type-3-diabetes