In just two years, people with Type 2 diabetes experienced negative changes in their ability to regulate blood flow in the brain.
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With remarkable speed – over two years during which researchers tracked a group of older adults with diabetes – those changes can sap the brain’s ability to react flexibly to daily mental challenges.
‘People with type two diabetes have impaired blood flow regulation. The latest study shows that having diabetes or high levels of blood sugar causes the body to experience a lingering negative effect on its cognitive and decision-making ability.
The researchers examined 40 people aged 66 on average. As for cognitive and memory function tests, the type 2 diabetics performed below their non-diabetic counterparts.
Unfortunately, there are more than 250 million people all over the world who suffer from type 2 diabetes and this number is very likely to grow, given the expansion and popularity of the Western diet, which has often been associated with obesity and diabetes. They were given memory and cognition tests at the beginning of the study, and the tests were given again a couple years later. They were also given MRI scans to look at blood flow in their brains, and they had blood tests to measure their average blood sugar levels and inflammation. This was mainly because those who recorded the poorest blood flow also performed the lowest in the various tests they all had to take.
At the two-year mark, those with type 2 diabetes had diminished global and regional cerebral vasoreactivity and a decline in multiple cognitive tasks.
In the study, Novak measured the changes in the flexibility of the blood vessels and found that among the diabetic patients, their flexibility declined, while it remained essentially the same for those without the condition.
Type 2 Diabetes: What Is Your Risk And Should You See A GP? The new study aims to shine light on the connections between inflammation, blood flow regulation, and loss of cognition in people suffering from the disease.
On a test of learning and memory, the scores of the people with diabetes decreased by 12 per cent, from 46 points to 41 points, while the scores of those without diabetes stayed the same, at 55 points.
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In other words, he said, it appears the inability of the blood vessels to respond to various demands is what leads to the thinking problem, although inflammation also plays a role in damaging the blood vessels. With a growing amount of evidence shown through research of an association between neuro-degeneration and insulin resistance, some researchers are calling Alzheimer’s Disease the new diabetes.
