Impaired Insulin Response Linked to Alzheimer's Disease
Along with your pancreas, your brain also produces insulin. Insulin and insulin receptors in your brain are crucial for learning and memory, and it’s known that these components are lower in people with Alzheimer’s disease. In your brain, insulin binds to an insulin receptor at a synapse, which triggers a mechanism that allows nerve cells to survive and memories to form.
However, researchers have found that a toxic protein in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients -- called ADDL -- removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, and renders those neurons insulin resistant.
It has been suggested that ADDLs accumulate at the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease and thereby block memory function.
There is even a test that measures ADDL in your spinal fluid that claims to detect Alzheimer’s disease in its early stages.
Of course, what you want is to prevent Alzheimer’s disease from occurring at all, and this is entirely possible.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/05/03/impaired-insulin-response-linked-to-alzheimer-s-disease.aspx
