A new study has shown that diabetes and Alzheimer’s diseases are more related than everybody thought. Some researchers have come to believe that Alzheimer’s could be a form of diabetes, because findings show that insulin production in the brain declines as Alzheimer’s disease advances.

In a series of experiments, researchers discovered that the brain produces insulin and that this substance produced by the brains of Alzheimer’s patients tend to fall below levels considered normal.

Suzanna M. de la Monnte, neuropathologist at Rhode island Hospital and professor of pathology at Brown University Medical School, said; “...insulin disappears early and dramatically in Alzheimer’s disease and many of the unexplained features of Alzheimer’s, such as cell death and tangles in the brain, appear to be linked to abnormalities in insulin signaling. This demonstrates that the disease is most likely a neuroendocrine disorder, or another type of diabetes”.

During the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, brain levels of insulin and its related cellular receptors fall precipitously, as her group of researchers explained. They believe that Alzheimer’s might be a new form of diabetes since the evidence shows insulin levels continue to drop progressively as the Alzheimer’s disease becomes more severe.

The team, led by de la Monte, also found that low levels of acetylcholine (a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease) are directly linked to this loss of insulin and insulin-like growth factor function in the brain.