FollowDiabetes, the chronic metabolic disease which can eventually spoil almost all the organs of the body in the long run has been linked to dementia several times. But there was not much considerable evidence supporting the theory of diabetes linked to dementia.
The research was done at University of Washington by Dr Paul Crane and his associates. He is an associate professor of medicine at the same university.
For this study they have observed and studied over 2000 patients mostly suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus. Many subjects were also non-diabetic. All the patients were not having any symptoms of dementia in the beginning.
The researchers kept monitoring the blood glucose levels of the patients for over 7 years. Furthermore the subjects were also made to undergo cognitive assessment every alternate year.
After a detailed study for over 7 years, Dr Crane and his associates have found that over 25% subjects has started showing symptoms of dementia. Many of them were related to problems like memory loss, more commonly Alzheimer’s disease.
It was also found that diabetics with over 190 mg/dl are at 40% more risk of developing the complication of the dementia or memory loss.
Among the diabetics, it was noticed that the subjects with a blood glucose level of 115mg/dl are at 18% more risk of suffering from dementia compared to those who are having 100 mg/dl.
Dr Paul Crane Said,“The most interesting finding was that every incrementally higher glucose level was associated with a higher risk of dementia in people who did not have diabetes’’. He also said ‘’There was no threshold value for lower glucose values where risk leveled off.”
However, it has to be noted that this does not prove that diabetes or a higher blood glucose level is directly linked to dementia. Further studies are needed for confirming the same theory. The researchers also said their study is on and will keep releasing the updates whenever they found something noteworthy.
The researchers also said they are not ready to recommend any change in the treatment regime to the patients suffering from diabetes.
