23/02/2017 Points West

A breakthrough in researching Alzheimer's.

Scientists in Bath find a crucial link between sugar

The mother of Christopher Halliwell's last victim fears

he may have killed others, as police say they need more time

Scientists at Bath University may have found a link between

Now it's well-known that high blood sugar can lead to diabetes,

but what hasn't been clear is why diabetes patients have an increased

risk of developing Alzheimer's until now.

This dementia activity club run by the Bristol charity Alive

That's because more and more people are being diagnosed with brain

can double a person's risk of developing dementia

but we still don't really understand how the two conditions are linked.

But these researchers have found a vital clue.

They've identified a specic effect of high blood glucose

on an enzyme in the brains of people with Alzheimers.

Scientists compared samples taken from people who have died

They've developed a test using flourescent light to look

for abnormal proteins in the brain that have been damaged by glucose,

An important function of the protein is insulin, showing there is a clear

link between the immune system, glucose regulation and Alzheimer's.

are now going to investigate if they can detect these

telltale signs in blood for an early diagnosis.

We think it could have power in identifying those at risk with what

we call a mod fable risk factor. High glucose, we could do something

about that, so if we can use this as a simple blood test to identify

those at risk, we could then use to it validate potential interventions

to reduce high glucose, such as dietary changes, lifestyle changes.

The search for answers prevent alzheimemrs

In the last 10 years, the number of adults in the world

living with the disease has jumped from almost 26 million to more

But this latest scientific advance shows another

possible reason to avoid too much sugar.

Earlier I spoke to Dr Tim Shakespeare from

the Alzheimer's Society, and asked him what he made

We knew there was a link between dementia and diabetes but we didn't

know why. This study is helpful, it gives us a clue as to what the link

might be, telling us about the biological mechanisms that might

cause that link and that means we might be able to find ways to have

an effect on it. We might be able to help people with diabetes manage

their risk of dementia better in future. How significant is this

breakthrough? It's a really important finding because it means

that we can now start to look at exactly what that link is and how we

can have effects on it in the future. That might mean that people

with diabetes don't have such an increased risk with dementia in the

future which is valuable to those living with diabetes at the moment.

You mentioned the word future a few times so it's not immediately

translatable to people who do have Alzheimer's at the moment? This

study isn't something that we can immediately translate to benefit

people with diabetes right now. But it's really important because it

does lay the ground work for some future research that will help us to

understand these links and might have benefits for people as time

goes on. Where are we now in terms of tackling Alzheimer's? The state

of Alzheimer's research at the moment is better than ever. We have

made a lot of progress in previous years in understanding the causes of

the disease but we still don't know precisely what the causes are. We

have had treatments recently that have tried to prevent the symptoms

from getting worse but they haven't been successful. We need a lot more

progress and tests of different kinds of treatments in order the

make the breakthrough treatments that people with dementia really

need. Thank you very much. Police in Swindon are tonight

investigating the death of a woman who was involved in a collision

with a road sweeper. It happened outside

Arkells Brewery on Beechcroft Road Officers say she was 32,

from North Swindon and on going She died at the scene and her next

of kin have been informed. The Secretary of State

for Local Government came West today The mother of Christopher

Halliwell's final victim thinks it's almost inevitable there are more yet

to be discovered. She was speaking as the police

announced they'll need more time to continue their forensic search

of his former home in Swindon. Halliwell is already serving a whole

life sentence for the murders of Becky Godden and Sian

O'Callaghan. The police search at the back

of these Swindon houses. The former home of double murderer

Christopher Halliwell. Forensic teams taking away wheelie

bins full of the soil Elaine Pickford's daughter Sian

was halliwells second victim. The question now -

are there others lying The pathological liar sub. He would

have slipped from every day life and then whatever his trigger was, he'd

then be capable to go out and do what he's done to, not only Sian,

but Becky and possibly others. Becky Godden was Halliwell's first

victim, killed in 2003. But did Halliwell offend

in the years before Today police said the search

here would now go on into next week. Initially this was expected to last

five days. Work at the site will pause for the weekend on Friday and

we'll reconvene to commence searching once again on Monday next

week. Halliwell is currently serving

a whole life sentnece. Sian's mother has studied the killer

and believes it's likely Given his nature and history and his

unnatural urges, sexually, I think he wouldn't have been able to have

contained those for eight years. Halliwell appeared to try to make

a plea bargain during interviews If I confess he said,

will that stop everything else? Police say they are digging

here in intelligence they've received but so far haven't said

what, if anything, they've found. An education trust in south

Gloucestershire is considering shortening the school day because it

says it's reached crisis The Olympus Trust which runs

seven schools including Abbeywood and Bradley Stoke,

has written to parents Next year the two secondaries

will have to make savings There were long delays on the M4

in Wiltshire earlier after it closed The driver wasn't injured but both

sides of the motorway were shut near Chippenham because of heat

and thick smoke. And in Bristol there were more

delays near the M32 after storm Doris caused a man to be hit

by a lump concrete. Eyewitnesses say it

fell from a building. Today in the west we saw

winds of over 60mph. This our reporter Scott Ellis

there being battered And in nearby Clevedon,

planks were pulled off parts The view across the Cheddar

reservoir looked more This is where I leave

you and hand you over to Ian Thank you very much. Good evening.

67mph was the top gusts recorded by Met Office observation stations at

least across the West Country. That was in Somerset. Let me take you

through the forecast for tomorrow. We won't reach wind speeds anything

like that, you will be glad to hear. A different day, chalk and cheese

compared with today with notably lighter winds and a good deal of

fine and dry weather after what will be a noticeably chilly start.

Already the temperatures are dropping away to give a marked wind

chill while we still retain a windy picture.

Despite being fairly cold in the morning, it will be dry and sunny

later. Towards the afternoon, more cloud

starting to develop but still a bright, pleasant enough afternoon as

we head further into the evening, with the cloud thickening up, giving

sprinkles of rain in some areas. Up until the evening period, a good

chance everywhere will have seen a dry day. Temperatures down on today.

For Saturday, it will turn into another windy day, somewhat milder,

Good evening. It was quite a day for some of us. We get these sort of

storms every couple of years also. Difficult to give an exact number,

but it