Scientists in the United States have shown that although treatments that strictly reduce levels of blood sugar in older people with type 2 diabetes can help to preserve some brain volumen, it did not manage to slow down the rate of memory loss.
The large type 2 diabetes study, ACCORD, which was published in the journal Lancet Neurology, found that treating people who have had diabetes for many years in an aggressive manner in order to reach normal blood sugar levels provides little in the way of other benefits.
Its focus on the impact of aggressive management of diabetes on memory on type 2 diabetics between the ages of 55 and 80 with high blood glucose levels and a high risk of heart disease also found that those over 70 had double the risk of memory problems compared to people of the same age but without these health issues.
Researcher Jeff Williamson commented “We know that people with type 2 diabetes have a much higher risk of keyworddementia and memory loss than people without diabetes.”
He added “What we didn’t know was, if you intensively control blood sugar levels in people who have had a history of trouble controlling them, does the added cost and effort to control blood sugar result in a slowed rate of memory loss?”
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