Steven Arnold, MD, professor of Neurology and Psychiatry and director of the Penn Memory Center, tells the Philadelphia Inquirer that diabetics are 50 to 100 percent more likely to get the fatal, memory-destroying Alzheimer’s disease. Arnold is the senior author of a new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation that looked at the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment, often a precursor to dementia. He found insulin resistance in their brains, even though the people did not have diabetes. Arnold said the chemical differences between those who did and did not have memory problems were striking. "I've never seen a difference this large," he said. Arnold said it's likely that people with diabetes have brain insulin resistance, but others could have it, too. Arnold is now seeking funding to test whether a diabetes drug that lowers blood sugar and increases sensitivity to insulin, metformin, can help people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment.

Philadelphia Inquirer