Recent research out of Northwestern shows that there may be a link between loss of insulin receptivity in the brain and Alzheimer’s disease. The article suggests this may be a new form of diabetes and calls it ‘Type 3″. This probably isn’t going to happen especially since there are already at least 6 forms of ‘diabetes’ that I know of.

• MODY
• LADA
• Type 2
• Gestational
• IDDM
• Diabetes Insipidus (DI)
• and at least a few more…

However, if the tie in is proven to cause Alzheimer’s, this brings yet more support for renaming type 1 diabetes as so many people with type 1 would like to see happen. It could also mean further segmentation and renaming of type 2. After all, with diabetes are we naming a cause or an effect? Seems like a good time to clean things up but in so doing, does this also have the potential to fragment fundraising efforts, care models, insurance, etc… Obviously I have more questions than answers and more discussion on this topic might lead to rationale that would support renaming the various conditions that have a common thread of inadequate self-regulation of blood glucose levels in the body.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Clinical, Thoughts From the Road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.