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Comment by acangiano | Hacker News Reader

Reading this will rightfully scare the bejeezus out of us. The question is, what can we do? Alzheimer is sometimes referred to as diabetes type 3. Cutting out sugar and eating a low carb diet is a good precaution. It likely wouldn't have helped Jo, but it might save quite a few of us from this scary outcome.

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> Alzheimer is sometimes referred to as diabetes type 3.

Just because it is referred to that way doesn't mean that it is actually the case.

The hypothesis that AD=Diabetes has been around for at least ten years [1]. If it were true, I would have expected to see some results by now about how diabetes interventions can slow the advance of AD, if not prevent and/or reverse it entirely. AFAICT there have been no such results. That casts the hypothesis into serious doubt IMHO.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/

We're only now just waking up to the reality that type-2 diabetes can be reversed w/ carbohydrate restriction, even though the data to support that has been around for decades. I don't think a decade is an unusual latency for the medical institution to lay idle on.

>We're only now just waking up to the reality that type-2 diabetes can be reversed w/ carbohydrate restriction

I don’t think this is a new/recent revelation at all (and in fairness, I cut the next part of your quote that acknowledges decades old research).

And while not all cases of type 2 can be reversed (most can) but maybe more importantly 100% of cases can be prevented through diet/exercise.

>100% of cases can be prevented through diet/exercise.

Is that accurate? Honest question. I know adult onset diabetes is strongly linked to obesity, but would have thought there are other potential causes as well.

This is 100% wrong. There are cases of monogenic type 2 diabetes (e.g MODY) which has a similar inheritance as the Alzheimer's case in the story. Though rare, it certainly refutes the 100% assertion.

Ugh, I did my PhD work in a lab that did both Alzheimer's and diabetes research, and the "type 3 diabetes" label drove me up the wall. Especially considering type I and type II have totally different etiologies anyway (athough there were totally crazy attempts to unnecessarily strongly connect those, by PIs looking to justify grant money)

I found this study that a ketogenic diet improved some cognitive scores in some patients with mild alzheimer's [1]. The diet is also sometimes prescribed for intractable epilepsy [2]. There is also a link between epilepsy and alzheimer's, with some AD patients having seizures as the disease progresses (like in Jo's case).

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19664276

2. https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/treating-seizures-and-epileps...

Diabetes type 3!?!?! I have never heard this but I'll sure as he'll keep this in mind now.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3045545/

"Epidemiological and basic science evidence suggest a possible shared pathophysiology between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). It has even been hypothesized that AD might be ‘type 3 diabetes’. The present review summarizes some of the evidence for the possible link, putative biochemical pathways and ongoing clinical trials of antidiabetic drugs in AD patients."

If they are linked by a common factor, it makes me scared to think of how many alzheimer's patients there will be in 40 years.

You really need to cite such a claim. Thanks.

The term 'type 3 diabetes' has been around for at least a decade and has been written about in some of the most mainstream publications around. It's hardly a term that needs to be cited. If you were to use Google, you could find well cited articles like this.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/

Or, here's some more current research being done at the Mayo clinic.

https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-mi...

I've now googled it and learned it's a controversial term not embraced by the medical community. Thanks.

I'm in the medical community, and one of the largest Alzheimer's research centers. It's embraced by many.

He only seemed slightly overweight. I think this is only to be considered when a patient is significantly overweight or obese. Dementia rates are certainly higher in the Obese population.

In any event--this man had a confirmed genetic condition that was the definite cause of his dementia. He was going to get it, no matter what actions he took.

While it may be true that some dementia in obese people may not have manifested if that person did not overeat, that is not the case here.

I recommend you read the article.

I literally said "It likely wouldn't have helped Jo" in my comment.

That Diabetus 3 theory does not correlate with the actual data.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fig-1-World-map-illustra...

Note that the data is obviously tainted by the reduced average lifespane in some countrys.

There is a nice list of theorys allready:

- If sleep deprivation was the source, then citys with a wild nightlife should show more cases then countryside citizens.

- Diets exist in all forms and colours, if one would exclude the alzheimer component- the ethnic group would stand out. Instead they seem rather more prone then the default groups.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278789418_Prevalenc...

- Blood-Brain Barrier crossing viral Infections introduced DNA-Damage http://coconutketones.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/JAD_ene...

-Genetic Disposition http://www.scielo.br/pdf/dn/v9n3/1980-5764-dn-9-03-00219.pdf

- The usual noise. People condemning any behavior they dislike of any group they dislike as the source.

I can only add speculation of dubious value:

- What if dementia was the result of the memory storage process being finite? But wouldn't a sensory value deprived mice for example then be save from the effects? Has anybody seen a experiment, where high cognition loads and stress/ sleep deprivation where driven against low cognition, stress and sleep deprivation?

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