Diabetes Doubles the Risk of Dementia

If you have diabetes or prediabetes, there's urgent breaking news that should spur you to get your blood sugar under control: Diabetes doubles the risk of dementia. A Japanese study published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found that the risk is also significantly increased in those with impaired glucose tolerance or prediabetes.

Researchers gave a total of 1,017 people who were at least 60 years old a glucose tolerance test after an overnight fast to determine if they had diabetes. They were then monitored for a total of 11 years and then tested for dementia.

The study found that people with diabetes were twice as likely to develop dementia as those with normal blood sugar levels. The level of risk remained the same even after other factors, such as high blood pressure, smoking, and high cholesterol were taken into account. Those people who had prediabetes also had a higher risk of dementia as well as people whose blood sugar remained high two hours after a meal.

People with diabetes are more likely to develop Alzheimer's and other types of dementia because of the damage done to blood vessels that eventually deprives the brain of oxygen.

In addition to curbing high sugar levels, diabetics also need to keep their blood sugar from getting too low. An earlier study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that when sugar levels drop, memory and alertness are affected. If they drop long enough and low enough, the brain can suffer long-term damage.

"Our findings emphasize the need to consider diabetes as a potential risk factor for dementia," said Yutaka Kiyohara, M.D., Ph.D., the author of the Japanese study. "Diabetes is a common disorder, and the number of people with it has been growing in recent years all over the world. Controlling diabetes is now more important than ever."

Diabetes is epidemic in the United States. According to the American Diabetes Association, almost 26 million Americans have been diagnosed, and about 7 million are unaware they have the disease. Another 79 million have prediabetes. The following symptoms could be tip-offs that you're in the legion of the undiagnosed:

• Thirst. If you're drinking more water than usual, especially if you're also going to the bathroom more frequently, sugar may be building up in your blood, says the Mayo Clinic. Water pulled from your tissues and the extra glucose is being shunted to your urine.

• Losing weight with no effort. If your body isn't producing as much insulin, your cells aren't getting enough glucose. In response, your body begins to break down muscle tissue and fat for energy. Although more dramatic in people with Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetics can also lose weight as insulin resistance increases.

• Fatigue. If your body isn't getting the energy it needs because of a lack of energy to turn glucose into energy, you'll feel listless and tired.

• Blurred vision. The same high blood sugar that pulls fluid from tissues and makes you urinate more frequently also causes fluid to be pulled from your eyes and affects your ability to focus, says the Mayo Clinic.