Type 2 Diabetes Raises the Risk of Parkinsons Disease

A shocking discovery is just coming out linking Type 2 Diabetes to Parkinson’s Disease. There are nearly 1.5 million Americans diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, according to the National Parkinsons Foundation, which is a disease affecting brain cells and neurons causing reduced levels of dopamine. The lowered levels of dopamine cause such side effects as tremors, paralysis and death.

“Scottie” also suffered from Type 2 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease during Star Trek

Overall, after adjusting for other possible risk factors for Parkinson’s disease, men and women with type 2 diabetes were 83 percent more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those without it.

Although common lifestyle factors may play a role, researchers say more study is needed to fully understand the relationship between diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.

Researchers have found that a patient with Type 2 Diabetes is 83% more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease later in life than someone without Type 2 Diabetes. 83%… that is shocking to me.

People who had type 2 diabetes at the start of the study were much more likely to be later diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Right now there is no clear reason for the link. Researchers are speculating that in obesity driven type 2 diabetes, the excess body weight could be the linking factor. The only thing clear right now is that there is a direct connection between type 2 diabetes and an increase for the chance of Parkinson’s Disease.

The link between these 2 diseases is fairly new and there is not that much released information as of yet. This is something that battlediabetes.com will be following closely and will be making updates on as information is available.

On a more personal note: My grandmother had both type 2 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. It’s really weird to think that the one could have directly caused the other.