Blood Sugar Linked to Good Brain Health
Maintaining healthy blood sugar levels may be important not just for people with diabetes. New research suggests that good blood sugar levels are correlated with good brain health as we age. Lapses in memory as we age (sometimes referred to as “senior moments”) are a normal part of aging. The latest study suggests that as blood sugar (medically referred to as glucose) levels rise when we age, it may lead to more memory lapses, compared to people who maintain healthy blood glucose levels.
The study suggests that exercising to improve blood sugar levels could be a way for some people to stave off the normal cognitive decline that comes with age.
“This is news even for people without diabetes since blood glucose levels tend to rise as we grow older. Whether through physical exercise, diet or drugs, our research suggests that improving glucose metabolism could help some of us avert the cognitive slide that occurs in many of us as we age,” reported lead researcher Scott A. Small, M.D., associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center.
Although it is widely known that the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease cause damage to the hippocampus, the area of the brain essential for memory and learning, studies have suggested that it is also vulnerable to normal aging. Until now, the underlying causes of age-related hippocampal dysfunction have remained largely unknown.
Previously, using high-resolution brain imaging, Dr. Small and his colleagues discovered that decreasing brain function in one area of the hippocampus, called the dentate gyrus, is a main contributor of normal decline in memory as we age.
In this new study, funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the American Diabetes Association and the McKnight Brain Research Foundation, the researchers mapped out the specific areas of the hippocampus impacted by late-life diseases like diabetes and stroke.
This new study looked at measures that typically change during aging, like rising blood sugar, body mass index, cholesterol and insulin levels. The research found that decreasing activity in the dentate gyrus only correlated with levels of blood glucose.
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