By Jimmy Downs

Tuesday Jan 28, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- Type 2 diabetes mellitus may increase risk for Alzheimer's disease, according to a review in Epdemiologic Reviews

Guy D. Eslick, The Whiteley-Martin Research Centre Discipline of Surgery, The University of Sydney Nepean Hospital in Penrith, NSW, Australia and colleagues reviewed previous studies and found individuals with type 2 diabetes were at higher risk for Alzheimer's disease.

The review was based on 15 epidemiolgic studies identified from major databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, Current Contents Connect, and Google Scholar.

The authors found 14 studies reported positive associations with some finding that men and women who had type 2 diabetes mellitus were at more than 100% increased risk for Alzheimer's disease.

The average increase in the risk of Alzheimer's disease was found to be 57% higher among those with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

In those with type 2 diabetes mellitus, smoking and hypertension were associated with increased risk for Alzheimer's disease, compared with those who had only type 2 diabetes.