Alzheimer’s and Type 2 diabetes: correlated but preventable
According to recent studies, both illnesses may be linked
The World Health Organization has stated that over 422 million people have developed type 2 diabetes, a growing disease caused by the body’s inability to assimilate insulin properly. This preventable illness, mostly occurs as a result of a poor diet with a high sugar content, saturated fat, and lack of physical exercise. The consequences of type 2 diabetes range from nerve damage, increased risk of heart attack, possible kidney failure, and blindness. As if these disastrous effects weren’t damaging enough, new studies reveal suggest the existence of a link between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
As people with diabetes get older, small blood vessels that feed the nerves are deteriorated, causing significant cognitive decline, which is correlated to Alzheimer’s. The early signs of said illness tend to be subtle and are often confused with age related changes such as changes in short-term memory. The most common symptoms of Alzheimer’s are confusion, speech and reading difficulties, irritability, forgetting events or daily task (cooking, taking a bath), and apathy, among others.
As both incurable diseases develop gradually and are difficult to diagnose, the best way to tackle or prevent dementia correlated to type 2 diabetes is to avert diabetes itself. Diabetes might be avoidable by performing blood sugar tests for an early diagnosis, keeping a healthy diet, cutting out sugar and decreasing saturated fat intake, stop smoking, maintaining a healthy body max index (BMI), and doing at least 30 minutes of daily exercise.
Decreasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes can be achieved by incorporating non-processed foods IGNORE INTO your diet, such as avocados cranberries, carrots, garlic, fish, broccoli, nuts, oatmeal, red onions, quinoa, tea, soy, and beans.
Latin American Post | Hena M. Vega
Copy edited by Susana Cicchetto
