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High Blood Sugar Levels Linked to Memory Loss
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Many people now associate elevated blood sugar levels with diabetes or even pre-diabetes, but new research has highlighted a little-known adverse effect of higher blood sugar levels that can impair your brain – even if your levels are technically still within a ‘normal’ range.
The study – an extremely important one considering the epidemic of people with out-of-control blood sugar metabolism – showed that lower blood sugar levels are associated with better brain function and may even help you avoid age-related declines in memory.
Higher ‘Normal’ Blood Sugar Levels Linked to Memory Loss
It’s already known that people with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of developing cognitive impairment, including dementia. However, the new study involved people (with an average age of 63) who were free from diabetes and pre-diabetes (or impaired glucose intolerance).
Still, even among this group, those with higher blood sugar levels scored lower on memory tests.
For each 7-mmol/mol increase in HbA1c (a measure of damage caused by elevated blood glucose), participants recalled two fewer words on memory tests.1 Those with higher blood sugar levels also had lower volume of the hippocampus, a brain region essential for the faculty of memory. As one of the study’s authors said:
“Clinically, even if your blood sugar levels are ‘normal,’ lower blood sugar levels are better for your brain in the long run with regard to memory functions as well as memory-relevant brain structures like the hippocampus.
Scientifically, we were able to shed further light on the mechanisms mediating these effects. DTI-based (diffusion tensor imaging) measurements demonstrated that not only volume of the hippocampus, but also microstructural integrity is lower if blood sugar levels are higher.”
They concluded that even if you don’t have type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, higher blood sugar levels appear to have a negative influence on cognition. Most likely, this effect has to do with disrupted insulin and leptin levels and signaling in the brain …
Source: http://truthisscary.com/2014/12/high-blood-sugar-levels-linked-to-memory-loss/
