NBC Augusta's Health Check: Local News
Diabetes appears to be risk factor for Alzheimer's
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Story Updated: Mar 16, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) - New research indicates that diabetes increases
the risk of getting Alzheimer's disease and may speed dementia once
it strikes.
Doctors have long suspected diabetes damaged blood vessels that
supply the brain. It now seems even more insidious, that the damage
may start before someone is diagnosed with full-blown diabetes, back when the body is gradually losing its ability to regulate blood sugar.
The study found that brain functioning subtly slows as Type 2 diabetics' blood-sugar rises, well before people have any obvious
memory problems.
The findings are the result of a battery of cognitive tests to nearly 3,000 diabetics and are published in the journal Diabetes care.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)