Brains of patients with Alzheimer's dementia often feature key physiologic abnormalities: beta-amyloid plaques and tau-protein tangles. A study lead by Dr. Velandai Srikanth, a geriatrician at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, suggests that type 2 diabetes may contribute to the development of these physiological changes. The study looked at data from 124 older adults with type 2 diabetes and nearly 700 who did not have type 2 diabetes. Results were reported in the journal Neurology. The participants in the study all had MRI brain scans. Half of the participants had cerebrospinal fluid samples drawn to assess beta-amyloid and tau-protein levels. The brain scans revealed that the brains of type 2 diabetes patients had more thinning in the cortex (the part of the brain with the highest nerve cell concentration). The spinal fluid samples revealed that type 2 diabetes patients had higher tau levels, which is correlated with more tau-protein tangles in the brain. Both of these changes are indicative of decreasing brain health. All changes were found after adjusting for APO E4 status, age, gender, cognitive diagnosis, and total intracranial volume. This study does not explain why type 2 diabetes is linked to these brain changes; it only shows a link. It also does not distinguish between correlation and causation. Type 2 diabetes has previously been connected to Alzheimer's disease, which has been termed by some in the scientific community as "type 3 diabetes." Furthermore, type 2 diabetes has been recognized as a risk factor for development of Alzheimer's disease. Read more http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/ar...-2-diabetes-is-linked-with-alzheimers-disease
