Endocrine Abstracts

JOINT2226

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes and different types of dementia including Alzheimer’s disease(AD) are widespread diseases that share metabolic defects, such as insulin resistance, impaired glucose metabolism, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation and advanced glycation end products formation. As a result of many studies there is evidence that shows that type 2 diabetes significantly increases the risk of cognitive decline and dementia, particularly AD. Some authors have proposed the term "diabetes type 3" or "diabetes of the brain" for AD because of the similarities found between type 2 diabetes and AD mentioned above. Very important is the presence of brain insulin resistance in AD. For this reason, new approaches to improve glycemic control and restore cerebral insulin function are being investigated that could be of therapeutic benefit to adults with type 2 diabetes and different types of dementia. Besides drugs the use of foods that are rich in polyphenols has been shown to be a promising alternative in the fight against these diseases. It has been shown that dietary polyphenols can reduce blood sugar levels, protein glycation, improve insulin resistance, reduce oxidative stress and inflammation.

Study aim: The study aims to determine whether polyphenols intake can help prevent, improve and slow the progression of diabetes type 2 and therefore AD and other dementias because of the similarities found between these diseases mentioned above.

Methods: To estimate the role of dietary polyphenols, we observed 30 patients (25 women and 5 men) with diabetes mellitus type 2 and different types of dementia including AD who consumed polyphenols-rich foods between 1 December 2023 and 1 December 2024. The patients had poor glycemic control with HbA1c above 8.0%. In addition they had loss of cognitive functioning that included memory loss, reasoning skills, and some of them loss of ability to perform simple tasks.

Results: For one year of dietary polyphenols intake in the observed group we have found out significant reduction of HbA1c to below 7.0%, improvement of glucose variability. Moreover we have found positive effects of polyphenols on improving the cognitive performance in patients.

Conclusions: Phenolic compounds in foods have great therapeutic potential for diabetes management, which is related to their ability to reduce oxidative stress, reduce insulin resistance and AGEs formation. Thus, they can prevent or delay progression of diabetes type 2 and therefore different types of dementia including AD because of the similarities found between these diseases mentioned above.