Diabetes may increase risk for developing Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia

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Jun 12 2013

A study of older adults with diabetes mellitus (DM) suggests a bidirectional association between hypoglycemic (low blood glucose) events and dementia, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

There is a growing body of evidence that DM may increase the risk for developing cognitive impairment, including Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia, and there is research interest in whether DM treatment can prevent cognitive decline. When blood glucose declines to low levels, cognitive function is impaired and severe hypoglycemia may cause neuronal damage. Previous research on the potential association between hypoglycemia and cognitive impairment has produced conflicting results, the authors write in the study background.

Kristine Yaffe, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues studied 783 older adults with DM (average age 74 years). During a 12-year follow-up, 61 patients (7.8 percent) had a reported hypoglycemic event and 148 (18.9 percent) developed dementia.

"Hypoglycemia commonly occurs in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and may negatively influence cognitive performance. Cognitive impairment in turn can compromise DM management and lead to hypoglycemia," according to the study.

Patients who experienced a hypoglycemic event had a two-fold increased risk for developing dementia compared with those who did not have a hypoglycemic event (34.4 percent vs. 17.6 percent). Older adults with DM who developed dementia had a greater risk for having a subsequent hypoglycemic event compared with patients who did not develop dementia (14.2 percent vs. 6.3 percent), according to the study results.

"Among older adults with DM who were without evidence of cognitive impairment at study baseline, we found that clinically significant hypoglycemia was associated with a two-fold increased risk for developing dementia … Similarly, participants with dementia were more likely to experience a severe hypoglycemic event," the authors conclude. "The association remained even after adjustment for age, sex, educational level, race/ethnicity, comorbidities and other covariates. These results provide evidence for a reciprocal association between hypoglycemia and dementia among older adults with DM."

Source: University of California

Posted in: Medical Research News | Medical Condition News

Tags: Alzheimer's Disease, Blood, Cognitive Function, Dementia, Diabetes, Diabetes Mellitus, Endocrinology, Glucose, Hypoglycemia, Hypoglycemic, Medicine, Nursing, Research, Type 2 Diabetes, Vascular

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Leslie Mitchell on Diabetes may increase risk for developing Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia

Leslie Mitchell says:

June 14, 2013 at 1:53 AM

We are constantly hearing the comment that the incidence of Diabetes and also various cancers have increased immensely during the past half century. As Paracetamol is marketed globally and is cheap, easily obtained, is by the sales gross figures quoted - taken regularly by millions of people of all countries, and is generally believed to be benign and very safe and pose no threat to human health -- compare other products, for example tobacco, is considered top be the cause of lung cancer and a contributor to other medical illness-- and in view of the well documented numerous adverse effects of long-term therapeutically correct use as well as excessive use of paracetamol, why has there been no study comparing Paracetamol usage with the incidence of diabetes and other endocrine andrelated diseases?

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