Junk Food May Up Risk of Alzheimer's

The link between dementia and diabetes is proving to be even stronger than researchers first suspected. Increasingly often, scientists produce evidences suggesting that Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia, may be caused by poor diets, which also play a role in the development of diabetes.

Starting in 2005, some scientists have proposed that Alzheimer's be reclassified as type III diabetes. While this seemed a wild proposal at the time, new studies are revealing that the neural chemistries pertaining to both conditions are suspiciously similar.

Alzheimer's is a known risk for diabetes patients, since they are 200-300 times more likely to develop dementia than healthy peers are. Diabetes is also linked to heart problems and obesity. The latter is largely brought on by addiction to junk food.

Figuring out the connections tying these conditions together will be vital in the future, as an increasing proportion of the world population is expected to develop dementia sooner or later, The Guardian reports.