Will the older generations begin to look different with the rise in type II diabetes? Recently more and more studies have been shown to prove that having type II diabetes greatly increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
The way our society has been eating and the lack of exercise as a whole has contributed to an exponential growth in the amount of individuals who now have diabetes. With this being known, will the baby boomer generation cause an increase in the number of Alzheimer’s disease patients?
In Alzheimer’s disease brains, large plaques of amyloid-beta oligomers (ABO’s) are found and is thought to be one of the main components in cognitive impairment. The initiation of Alzheimer’s disease is still unknown but is thought to be caused by a various collection of impairments, such as endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, malfunctioning insulin signaling, and inflammation.
Another large factor in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease is the loss of insulin receptors in the brain. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and travels through the blood. Once near the brain, it crosses the blood brain barrier. When, for example, someone has insulin resistance, insulin is not properly being used and the brain is then affected.
Receptors are continually being recycled into the cell through clathrin-coated pits and replaced for maintaining the cell membrane. But in Alzheimer’s disease, insulin receptors are not being replenished back into the membrane, inhibiting the amount of insulin that needs to bind and then enter the cell. Insulin begins to accumulate in the synaptic cleft, and this is where research is still unclear but is thought to cause a cascade of events that ultimately leads to neuronal death and memory loss.
With all that we know about the relationship between insulin resistance in type II diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, our society should begin thinking about the potential rise in Alzheimer’s disease patients throughout the United States.
Questions arise like, how we will take care of these individuals and whether or not we should be putting more money into researching a cure so that it can be prevented as much as possible. With no concrete future direction it is up to us to inform others and begin taking better care of our bodies.
The Rise of a New Era?
