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By Endocrine Today

People with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes appear to be at increased risk for developing plaques in the brain that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, new research revealed.

“With the rising obesity rates and the fact that obesity is related to the rise in type 2 diabetes, these results are very concerning,” Kensuke Sasaki, MD, PhD, of Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, said in a press release.

The study by Sasaki and colleagues included 135 people (mean age, 67 years; 74 men) who were living in Japan. The participants had several glucose tests and were also monitored for symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease during the subsequent 10 to 15 years. During that time, about 16% developed Alzheimer’s disease.

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Presence of plaques

According to the results, those who had abnormal results on three tests of blood glucose control had an increased risk for developing plaques. Plaques were found in 72% of people with insulin resistance and 62% of those with no indication of insulin resistance. After adjustment for age, sex and other confounders, presence of neuritic plaques was associated with significantly higher levels of 2-hour post-load plasma glucose in a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OR=1.71); fasting insulin (OR=2.03); and insulin resistance measured by homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR; OR=2.11).

However, the study did not find a link between diabetes-related factors and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain.

In addition, those with hyperglycemia who carried the apolipoprotein E (APOE) allele had an increased risk for neuritic plaque, which has been reported in other epidemiologic and pathologic studies. A similar increase was observed for hyperinsulinemia and high HOMA-IR.

To read more, visit: http://www.endocrinetoday.com/view.aspx?rid=68395

Los Angeles Times

The vaunted protection that intellectually active adults get from Alzheimer’s disease has a dark downside, a study released Wednesday has found. Once dementia symptoms become evident and Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosed in such patients, their mental decline can come with frightening speed.

That finding, published in the journal Neurology, comes from a study of 1,157 Chicago-based seniors who were followed for an average of just over 11 years. Six years after gauging the extent to which the study participants engaged in activities that challenged their mental capacities, researchers from Rush University Medical Center Alzheimer’s Disease Center made periodic assessments of the study participants’ cognitive health and traced the trajectories of their brain health.

All told, 148 of the participants were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease during the follow-up period, and 395 were found to have mild cognitive impairment—intellectual problems that are less severe than Alzheimer’s disease, but which often precede such a diagnosis.

While all participants’ mental function showed yearly declines, the steepest downward trajectories belonged to those who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, but who had reported high levels of mental engagement at the outset of the study. Fellow Alzheimer’s sufferers who had not sought out much intellectual stimulation at the study’s outset showed a more gradual decline in their function.

“In effect, the results of this study suggest that the benefit of delaying the initial appearance of cognitive impairment [in Alzheimer’s disease] comes at the cost of more rapid dementia progression,” the author wrote.

To read more, visit: http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-alzheimers-20100901,0,2206493.story?track=rss