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Thursday, May 20, 2004People with diabetes have a markedly increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease later in life, according to a new study. The research adds to a growing body of evidence that being overweight can have a deleterious effect on the mind, as well as the body. But it also suggests that treating conditions like diabetes aggressively early in life could help prevent, or at least slow, the development of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. At least, that's what the diabetes people are saying. Here's what the people who did the study say: The tests showed that only speed of perception - being able to tell whether two things are the same or different - declined faster in diabetics than in healthy patients, by around 44%. However, because common vascular conditions such as stroke have been shown to affect this function, the researchers say more work would have to be carried out before the mental change could be linked to diabetes. In other areas of cognition, the rate of change over the period people were studied was no different in diabetics and non-diabetics. Dr Zoe Arvanitakis, who led the research, said: 'We found that diabetes was related to decline in some cognitive systems but not in others.' It isn't so surprising that diabetics would have higher rates of dementia than non-diabetics. Diabetes ages the small blood vessels of the body prematurely, and in so doing, it damages the heart, the kidneys, the eye, and the brain. But does it cause Alzheimer's disease? Who knows. It doesn't appear to from this study. The study, whose subjects are all members of Catholic religious orders, can be found here, for a price. posted by Sydney on 5/20/2004 09:05:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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