Diabetes Trigger Memory Loss in Older Adults

Being healthy in old age is just a boon, because old age comes as both, a bundle of needs and problems. Most often we find them battling with several health related issues, leaving them in state of distress.

A new study that adds to the complication of diabetes is that it not just harms a person's physical health but also deteriorates their memory and other cognitive skills.

A study that was published in the Archives of Neurology, found that over a period of ten years, the older individuals with diabetes had lower cognitive test scores than compared to normal healthy people of the same age. On the other hand people with Type 2 diabetes suffered with obesity and inactivity.

Dr. Kristine Yaffe, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of California, San Francisco and the study's lead author said, "What we've shown is a clear association with diabetes and cognitive aging in terms of the slope and the rate of decline on these cognitive tests. That's very powerful."
the result was garnered after analyzing 3069 subjects who participated in the
Health, Aging, Body Composition project - a study of older adults residing in Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

In order to carry out the study the subjects were asked to go through some cognitive tests and these tests mostly focused on the subject's memory, coordination, dexterity and ability to concentrate. The researchers observed that the subjects who were a victim of diabetes had low performance when compared to the other subjects. After nine years they witnessed a huge difference in the scores of the subjects with and without diabetes.

The researchers then shifted their focus to the effect of poor glucose control. The ones with poor control of blood glucose levels suffered a cognitive decline.

Yaffe further said, "There's this idea that the better your glucose control, the better off you are in terms of trying to prevent complications of diabetes. But in older people it's a slippery slope. The elderly are more sensitive to hypoglycemia, they've got other medications that may interact, and they've got other conditions. When you lower their blood sugar levels too aggressively, you might do more harm than good."