Researchers deem Alzheimer's a Type 3 diabetes

Sometimes it's better if great minds don't think alike. Neurobiologists with decidedly different interests recently collaborated at Northwestern University and came up with new evidence about Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia that affects about 5 million Americans. They now consider it a Type 3 diabetes.

Researchers discovered that a specific toxin does its damage by causing the brain to become insulin resistant. Just as Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body becomes insulin resistant, Alzheimer's would be a Type 3 diabetes.

The team claims, "Whenever insulin can bind to a receptor, it sticks very tightly, and this turns on those insulin receptors; and that's essential for memories to form. That's the normal physiological process. But now, on the other hand, if we have ADDLs [binding] -- these are the toxins that are building up in Alzheimer's brains -- the insulin receptors are removed from the membrane. There's nothing [for the insulin] to stick to, ... and memories cannot form."

The toxic ADDLs, or amyloid beta-derived diffusible ligands, are the result of an overproduction of the amyloid beta protein. The body can't clear away this protein fast enough, and it binds itself into small clumps and attaches to the synapses in the brain's hippocampus and cortex regions. The plaques that are the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease are also made from this protein, but many researchers now believe that these plaques could be the body's attempt to limit the damage by locking the toxins into immovable masses.

Bonnie - neurological imbalance from insulin resistance is not a new concept. Calling it Type 3 Diabetes will give it more cache.