- 25 million Americans have type II diabetes
- 16 million Americans will have Alzheimer’s disease by 2050
Did you know that two of America’s biggest health problems: Type II Diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease, may be linked? On Sept. 19, 2011, NBC nightly news ran a news story about insulin being the “common culprit” between the two diseases. Check out the link below to watch the news story.
MSNBC video: study reinforces Alzheimer\’s/diabetes link
In Neurochemistry class this week, students looked more deeply into this possible link and raised some interesting questions. Why do we age? It turns out that signaling from insulin plays a role in causing “normal lifespan” – meaning we age. If there is a link between aging and age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, should we look at trying to slow down aging? What would this look like and what effect would that have on society? In addition, like the above story mentions, insulin signaling is involved with the formation of the amyloid-beta plaques that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. How exactly does insulin act and could we manipulate its actions to treat Alzheimer’s disease? Time will tell, but given the difficulty in this country to eat well and exercise, we may need to simply find a way!
