Insuliiniresistenssi saattaa olla ensimmäinen merkki lähestyvästä azheimerista. Huffinton Post näyttää julkaisseen alun perin U.S. Newsissä olleen jutun asiasta.
Huffington Post: The Surprising Link Between Type 2 Diabetes And Alzheimer’s DiseaseKannattaa siis pitää verensokerit kurissa.
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But mounting evidence shows that they also need to pay more attention to their blood sugar levels.
Turun tutkimus mainittu.
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According to new research published in Diabetologia, if left untreated, insulin resistance, which results in excessively high blood sugar levels, may be one of the first signs of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s to come – especially in women. Alzheimer’s is an irreversible brain disorder that reduces cognitive skills over time, eventually leading to the inability to perform routine tasks. More than five million Americans currently have the disease. Almost two-thirds of them are women, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
For the study, researchers from the University of Turku in Finland tested the language skills, semantic memory and executive functions of 5,935 men and women, ages 30 to 97. The brain’s temporal lobe, which tends to be smaller in people with higher levels of insulin resistance, is primarily responsible for these functions. The researchers found that higher levels of insulin resistance were associated with poorer scores in women, but not in men.
This research suggests that women’s brains may be more vulnerable to the effects of insulin resistance than men’s brains, says lead study author Laura Ekblad, a researcher at the University of Turku in Finland. She notes that previous research shows that lesions in the brain, called white matter hyperintensities, are common in people with metabolic problems such as insulin resistance, but are more common in women than they are in men.
“More and more evidence from studies on cellular mechanism show that insulin has specific and important effects on the brain. When insulin resistance is present, there is too much insulin circulating in the blood flow, which leads to a reduced transportation of insulin to the brain,” Ekblad says. “Previous studies show that reduced brain insulin levels can directly contribute to cognitive decline and the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease in multiple ways.”
For instance, apart from contributing to brain lesions, insulin resistance alters the flow of blood and the delivery of glucose (or sugar) to brain cells to use as fuel, says Abbott medical director Refaat Hegazi. Also, as Type 2 diabetes is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, elevated blood cholesterol, mainly LDL cholesterol, values can lead to vascular changes in the brain. Research from Albany University in 2013 has even suggested that Alzheimer’s disease is actually just the late stages of Type 2 diabetes.