For nearly half of her adult life, starting with her last pregnancy 40 years ago, Christine Miller has been a sufferer of Type-two diabetes. Because she did not need to take insulin, Miller was able to tackle her ailment with tablet based drugs.
However 3 years ago, at the age of 79, Miller hit another problem -- cognitive decline. Her children took her to the health centre where she was diagnosed with Alzheimers.
Was there possibly something that connected Miller's many years of diabetes and her mental deficiency?
Until quite recently, diabetes experts could have ignored such a link as irrelevant.
Now, it is one of the most important areas of study into alzheimers disease. It is also becoming an accepted view amongst some Alzheimer's experts: Keep your blood sugar levels tightly controlled and you might minimise your risk of getting alzheimer's.
The link has been showing up more and more, both in epidemic studies and medical trials that use diabetic drugs to treat individuals with dementia.
But the exact reason that increased sugar or uncontrolled insulin can cause significant brain cell death still is not totally appreciated.
Right now, most of the focus of Study into alzheimers disease is on beta-amyloid, the protein that rises in the brains of individuals with the condition.
