Alzheimer’s patients who suffer from diabetes or hypertension might die sooner than their counterparts who do not suffer from these two diseases.

 According to a report published in the 4 Nov issue of Neurology, diabetic Alzheimer’s patients were twice likely to die sooner than the ones who did not suffer from diabetes. Hypertensive Alzheimer’s patients were two and a half times more likely to die sooner than the Alzheimer’s patients who did not suffer from hypertension. 

The author of the study, Yaakov Stern, director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Division of Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, said in an American Academy of Neurology news release,"Studies show that the average life span of a person diagnosed with Alzheimer's can be anywhere from three to nine years. For that person and their caregiver, every minute counts. Here we have two cont rollable factors that may drastically affect how long that person can survive." 

The study also investigated the effect of races the life of Alzheimer’s patients. It was discovered that Hispanic people lived for eight years after diagnosis of the disease.

Non-Hispanic white people lived four years less than the Hispanic ones. African-Americans lived an average of five years, longer than non-Hispanic whites but not as long as Hispanic people.