HealthDay (2/19, Preidt) reported, "A rise in blood sugar levels causes poorer brain function in people with type 2 diabetes, according to a study" published in the February issue of Diabetes Care "that included nearly 3,000 people aged 55 and older." The subjects, "who were part of a larger study on cardiovascular risk in diabetes, underwent cognitive tests designed to measure several aspects of memory function." Dr. Jeff Williamson, of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and colleagues, "found that a one percent increase in A1C levels (average blood glucose levels over a period of two to three months) was associated with slightly lower scores on tests of psychomotor speed, global cognitive function, memory and multi-tasking."
This brings up the whole "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" line of questioning. In my experience with diabetics, it seems like the people who have the worst complications (which is almost always associated with the higher hemoglobin A1c levels) are the ones who just don't seem to "get" it. They typically are some of my the most "non-compliant" patients--resistant to making necessary lifestyle changes to control the diabetes and even to getting treatment. I would argue some of this resistance could be related to lower cognitive function. But do diabetics with complications as a whole innately have lower cognitive function? If they were tested before the diabetes was out of control, would they still score lower on these tests? Is lower cognitive function possibly part of the reason why these patients have difficulty controlling blood sugar in the first place???
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