People who are diagnosed with diabetes in their 50’s are much more likely to suffer from mental decline by the time they reach their 70’s, according to a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which started in 1990.
Scientists looked at both black and white adults, 13, 351 in total, between the ages of 48 to 67. They looked for prediabetes and diabiates based on self-reported diagnoses and glucose control tests. Then they administered widely used tests of memory, reasoning, problem solving and planning.
From the beginning, 13 percent had diabetes, and all of them were followed up with five periodic examinations through a 20-year time period. By the end of the period, 5, 987 were still enrolled.
The reasoning behind the decreased mental function from diabetes can come from impaired blood circulation, so memory loss and decreased thinking abilities can come as a result of damage to small blood cells in the brain.
“People may think cognitive decline with age is inevitable, but it’s not,” said the senior author, Elizabeth Selvin, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Factors like diabetes are potentially modifiable. If we can better control diabetes we can stave off cognitive decline and future dementia.”
