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Study suggests Alzheimer’s Disease and Type 2 diabetes might both be the price of a longer lifespan, with altered insulin function the common cause.

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A review led by Professor Simon Lovestone, an old age psychiatrist from Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, found that humans were almost unique in having Alzheimer’s Disease. This is the first study to find unambiguous signs of the disease in a wild animal.

'It is very rare to find signs of full-blown Alzheimer’s Disease in non-human brains,' said Professor Lovestone, who is also researcher within the Oxford University Department of Psychiatry and the dementia theme lead for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). ‘This is the first time anyone has found such clear evidence of the protein plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer’s Disease in the brain of a wild animal.’

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