Madrid Meeting Says Diabetes Figures Into The Riddle Of Alzheimer's, Says Lawrence Broxmeyer, MD

Lawrence Broxmeyer MD had long ago as much as predicted, through peer-reviewed publications, that Diabetes and Alzheimer's diseases were related through their root cause, a destructive protein called amyloid, which was the by-product of what to Broxmeyer was a common chronic infectious disease.

While some speculated that diabetic's insulin deficient or resistant cells led to a cut-off of vital blood sugar to brain neurons, disabling their ability to remove clumps of incapacitating Alzheimer's amyloid - others thought it was a one-two punch: Alzheimer's tendency to attack cell's mitochondria or energy factories, leading to a neuronal death facilitated by diabetes's own attack on the brain's neurons.

Lawrence Broxmeyer MD was neither convinced nor impressed by either view.

"Over 3 decades ago", said Lawrence Broxmeyer MD, "pathologist and lead researcher, Dr. Phillip Schwarz, in a 50 year autopsy-driven study for a State facility in Warren Pennsylvania, published a report of 331 autopsied cases of amyloid, ages ranging from 16 to 87, with the finding that with regard to both diabetes and Alzheimer's there were not only tuberculous lesions somewhere in the body in practically all cases, usually from childhood infection, but more specifically amyloidosis of the pancreas in 224 out of the 331 from previous tuberculosis infection."

Furthermore, Schwartz found similar amyloid from similar cause and effect with regards to Alzheimer's.

"Moreover", continued researcher Lawrence Broxmeyer MD, "in the case of diabetes, most of those diagnosed as diabetic prior to death showed intense islet cell amyloidosis and Schwartz hypothesized that once amyloidosis of the pancreatic islet cells hit a critical mass, the result was diabetes mellitus. Thus, according to Schwartz, most cases of pancreatic amyloidosis, as well as the inflammatory infiltrate of the islet cells characteristic of Juvenile diabetes, and Alzheimer's, ought to be considered an immunopathy induced by tuberculosis and the mycobacteria. Diabetes was easy enough to pick up with routine laboratory tests, TB was not, its main weapon being its insidious nature, often taking decades to discover, if then."

Although stressing that it is still highly experimental, Lawrence Broxmeyer MD mentioned that The Puget Sound Seattle VA study showed subtle improvement in Alzheimer's patients placed on insulin mist. As a result researchers have now begun to reemphasize that diabetes not only attacks the body but the mind. "There are even those who, as a result of recent studies, now consider Diabetes a precursor for Alzheimer's," said Lawrence Broxmeyer MD.

"One thing is certain, as blood sugar control in diabetes worsens, Alzheimer's risk climbed," said Broxmeyer, " in one study by 70%, in another by 83%.

Why this poses a particularly challenging problem is the present explosion of diabetes with approximately 20 million in the US already having the disease and 40 million prediabetics with faulty blood sugar-insulin response, close to joining their ranks. These pools could just increase the current 4.5 million American Alzheimer's sufferers.

Lawrence Broxmeyer MD, lead author in an October, 2002 study published in the prestigious Journal of Infectious Diseases and many other Medline publications, thinks the diabetes-Alzheimer link is important and certain to stimulate still other meaningful studies.

For a more complete picture of how these diseases originate, download and read Lawrence Broxmeyer MD's articles on the common cause of Diabetes and Alzheimer's at http://drbroxmeyer.netfirms.com/

Distribrution: Lawrence Broxmeyer MD, Diabetes mellitus, Alzheimers