Dr. Margaret Gatz, a professor of psychology, gerontology and preventative medicine at the University of Southern California, conducts research on interventions that may reduce the risk ofAlzheimer’s disease. In a recent study, published in the January 2009 issue of the journal Diabetes, Dr. Gatz and her team tracked rates ofdementia and diabetes in Swedish twins and discovered that developing diabetes before the age of 65 was associated with a 125 percent increased risk of subsequently developing Alzheimer’s disease.
1. How did you become interested in the relationship between diabetes and dementia?
Our research began with the question why some …