Diabetes Health in The News Podcast: Older Adults with Diabetes Have an Increased Risk of Memory Decline
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A new study has found that adults with poorly controlled diabetes could struggle with episodic memory. This condition involves difficulty with recalling specific events – both recent and those experienced long ago.
Researchers used the results of four memory tests completed from 2006-2012 to draw this conclusion. The participants included 950 older adults with diabetes and nearly 3,500 people without diabetes.
Participants with diabetes and elevated blood sugar levels performed the worst at the beginning of the memory testing, and they also experienced the greatest decline in memory function by the time the study was complete. While the reason for this effect is not well-known, some researchers believe that high blood sugar levels can damage brain cells responsible for message transmission in the hippocampus.
These findings were published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health on July 20, 2016.
