|
 Researchers examined results from a series of four memory tests done
from 2006 to 2012 for 950 older adults with diabetes and 3,469
elderly people without the disease.
The participants who had diabetes and elevated blood sugar performed
worse on the first round of memory tests at the start of the study
and also experienced a bigger decline in memory function by the end
of the study.
“We believe that the combination of diabetes and high blood sugar
increases the chances of a number of health problems,” said lead
study author Colleen Pappas, an Aging researcher at the University
of South Florida in Tampa.
“Our study brings attention to the possibility that worsening memory
may be one of them,” Pappas added by email.
While the study doesn’t explore why this might happen, it’s possible
that elevated blood sugar damages brain cells that transmit messages
in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory, Pappas
said.
At the start of the study, when participants were about 73 years old
on average, they all got blood tests that measure average blood
sugar levels. This so-called hemoglobin A1c test measures the
percentage of hemoglobin – the protein in red blood cells that
carries oxygen – that is coated with sugar, with readings of 6.5
percent or above signaling diabetes.
The people without diabetes had average A1c levels of 5.6,
considered a normal or healthy range. But the diabetics had average
A1c levels of 6.7, putting them at increased risk of complications
from the disease.
Researchers also did memory tests using immediate and delayed word
recall to assess changes in brain function over time.
Higher A1c levels were associated with lower scores on that first
memory test and a steeper decline in scores over time, researchers
report in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Higher A1c levels in the people with diabetes, however, explained
most of that association.
One limitation of the study is that researchers only checked A1c
once, at the start of the study, the authors note. That makes it
hard to say how shifts in blood sugar over time might have
influenced any changes in memory.
[to top of second column] |
Researchers also lacked data on medications people took to control
blood sugar, which makes it difficult to assess whether memory
lapses might be averted in patients who took medications designed to
manage diabetes, the authors also point out.
Even so, the findings suggest that keeping blood sugar levels in a
healthy range may help maintain memory performance over time, said
Dr. Joe Verghese, director of the Montefiore-Einstein Center for the
Aging Brain in New York.
“Patients with diabetes can experience several brain changes that
develop over time such as shrinkage of areas involved in memory and
thinking as well as damage to blood vessels supplying the brain,”
Verghese, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “Higher
blood sugar levels may be detrimental for brain health even in older
adults who do not meet formal criteria for diabetes but are in the
gray zone.”
People with diabetes also need to be aware that even if their blood
sugar is well controlled, they’re still at increased risk for memory
problems and impairments in cognitive function, said Mark Espeland,
a researcher at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina.
The best defense is avoiding diabetes in the first place, Espeland,
who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
“Taking steps to reduce one’s risk for diabetes is important to
maintaining a healthy brain,” Espeland said. “These steps include an
active lifestyle and avoiding obesity.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2bMYdLB Journal of Epidemiology and Community
Health, online July 20, 2016.
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
