Alzheimer's disease and diabetes

'The research by Zoe Arvanitakis, M.D., David Bennett, M.D.,and colleagues at the Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago, IL is an important large longitudinal study clearly demonstrating an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease in people with diabetes, which adds to and confirms the findings of several large previous studies.

Diabetes along with other conditions such as high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol, are well-recognised risk factors for Alzheimer's. As we get older, eating a healthy diet including fresh fruit and vegetables, getting our blood pressure and cholesterol checked regularly, taking exercise and watching our weight may all turn out to be important ways of reducing our risk of developing dementia in later life.

Further work to determine the mechanism linking diabetes to Alzheimer's disease will be important for people with diabetes, but may also give new insights to some of the processes that are important in the evolution of Alzheimer's disease more generally.'

Professor Clive Ballard
Director of research