Diabetes Dementia

Good glucose control is key to preventing many type 2 complications and risks, including mental decline.

- Catherine Knepper

We know that people with type 2 diabetes face a greater risk of heart disease and stroke, but emerging research also reveals a strong connection between diabetes and dementia.A recent study of more than 2.3 million people—about 102,000 of them with dementia—found that those with type 2 diabetes had a 60 per cent greater risk of developing dementia than people who didn’t have the disease.

The news is even more alarming for women with type 2: They have a 19 per cent greater risk than men of developing vascular dementia, which results from damage to blood vessels.

Researchers are still digging into why women are at greater risk than men, but they do know that diabetes-associated dementia develops through a set of factors including inflammation, insulin resistance, the regulation of blood glucose in the brain, and vascular damage.

“High levels of blood glucose can cause damage to blood vessels, whether the vessels surround the heart or the brain,” says lead study author Rachel Huxley, Ph.D., head of the School of Public Health at Curtin University in Australia.

Uncontrolled diabetes may increase dementia risk because the brain requires an intact blood flow to function well. Though more research is needed, there’s also evidence that diabetes may have a role in the development of amyloid plaques (sticky buildup that accumulates outside neurons) associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Translation: Uncontrolled blood sugars can affect your heart—and brain.

A study published in JAMA Neurology adds another puzzle piece: the effect of insulin resistance on cognitive function.