Type 3 Diabetes: The Well-Known Insulin Connection to the Soaring Epidemic of Alzheimer's Disease

An informative paper came out this past April called Type 3 Diabetes and Its Role Implications in Alzheimer's Disease. For many years, research scientists have determined that the relationship between diabetes and Alzheimer's disease is so strong that Alzheimer's has been described in literature as "Type 3 Diabetes" and "Diabetes of the Brain." Typing "Diabetes Alzheimer's" into PubMed's database will generate decades of studies that exhibit a distinct link between the two conditions.

The recent paper Type 3 Diabetes and Its Role Implications in Alzheimer's Disease is free to access on your own if you like, but I'll break down a few of the highlights of the paper for you here:

 -Type 3 Diabetes is a lesser-known diabetes that manifests as insulin resistance within the brain and has major potential to impact neurocognition and contributes to the etiology of Alzheimer's disease.

-Type 3 Diabetes occurs when neurons in the brain become unable to respond to insulin, which is essential for basic tasks, including memory and learning.

-Studies suggest that insulin resistance increases the risk for dementia and Alzheimer's disease, even in nondiabetic populations.

-The relationship between Type 3 Diabetes and Alzheimer's is based on the fact that both the faulty processing and clearance of amyloid plaques are attributed to impaired insulin signaling in the brain.

-A toxic cycle exists between continuous insulin exposure and amyloid plaque accumulation inside neurons.

-In mice, curcumin (the medicinal component of turmeric) and piperine, coupled with metformin, have been shown to enhance insulin sensitivity, insulin signaling, and improve systemic glucose tolerance.

-The ketogenic diet may diminish and clear beta amyloid plaques within the brain, while restoring damaged mitochondria and reducing inflammation.

While diabetes proliferates across the globe, so does Alzheimer's. According to the Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death, and deaths from Alzheimer's have increased 146%.