• April 19, 2024

People with diabetes Type 2 could lose more brain volume than expected as they get older, that is, diabetes shrinks your brain, indicates new research.

Surprisingly, shrinkage does not seem to be related to the detrimental effect of diabetes on the small blood vessels of the brain, but, rather, to how it handles the brain excess sugar, the researchers said.

"We have long known that diabetes is not good for the brain ", commented the principal investigator, Dr. R. Nick Bryan, professor of radiology of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Diabetes is associated with dementia!

The diabetes It is associated with an increased risk of stroke and dementia, he said. Until now, doctors have thought that these risks were probably related to damage to the blood vessels related to diabetes.

But our study suggests that there is additional brain damage that could be more like a brain disorder, like Alzheimer's, "said Bryan." So diabetes could affect the brain in two ways: damage to blood vessels and degeneration of neurons. "

The brain shrinkage observed in this study could be related to the way the brain uses sugar, Bryan said.

It is important for patients to understand the adverse effects of their disease on their brain and to cooperate with their doctor, who is trying to treat diabetes and avoid the effects of it on the brain and other organs, "he said.

Bryan cautioned, however, that from this study it is not known whether to treat the diabetes will prevent or slow down the shrinkage of the brain.

According to American Diabetes Association (American Diabetes Association), 26 million people have diabetes in the United States.

In type 2 diabetes, the body often does not use insulin efficiently, which leads to an excess of both insulin and blood sugar, according to the association.

To conduct the study, Bryan and his colleagues used scanners to observe the brains of 614 people with type 2 diabetes. The volunteers had had diabetes for an average of about 10 years.

They discovered that the longer a patient had the disease, the greater the brain volume loss occurred, especially in the gray matter. The gray matter includes areas of the brain that are involved in muscle control, sight and hearing, memory, emotions, speech, decision making and self-control.

In fact, for every 10 years a person had had diabetes, it appeared that the brain was about two years older than the brain of someone without diabetes, according to Bryan.

It is important to note that this study, published in the journal Radiology, only found an association between type 2 diabetes and a greater and faster brain volume loss, but could not demonstrate that type 2 diabetes was the cause of cerebral shrinkage.

The doctor Souhel Najjar, director of neuroscience and stroke at the University Hospital of Staten Island in New York City, said that "given the increase in the public health problem of type 2 diabetes, the findings of this research are very important , to the extent that they link diabetes directly to brain atrophy, which underscores the importance of primary prevention and early management of diabetes to reduce the problem of dementia, especially in the elderly population. "

This brain loss could lead to an early onset of dementia, another expert pointed out.

The doctor Sam Gandy, director of the Cognitive Health Center at Mount Sinai Hospital, in New York City, he said that "this is a very timely study, there is a lot of interest and much confusion about the mental disability that accompanies type 2 diabetes."

This study suggests that having chronic high levels of insulin and sugar could be toxic directly to neurons, he said. "This would undoubtedly be a possible cause of dementia."

The doctor Spyros Mezitis, endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, He said that brain shrinkage could also be due to a low blood sugar level, a common problem for people with diabetes and that can be as harmful as hyperglycemia.

"Diabetes, as time passes, also affects the brain, and can lead to thinking and memory problems such as Alzheimer's. diabetes as soon as possible, so that patients do not suffer from brain problems, "Mezitis added.
 

Video Medicine: Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia, explained by Frank Longo, MD, PhD, at Stanford Hospital (April 2024).