Dementia risk tied to blood sugar level, even with no diabetes
"The most interesting finding was that every incrementally higher glucose level was associated with a higher risk of dementia in people who did not have diabetes," said first author , MPH, an Associate Professor of Medicine at the UW School of Medicine, Adjunct Associate Professor of Health Services at the UW School of Public Health, and Affiliate Investigator at Group Health Research Institute. "There was no threshold value for lower glucose values where risk leveled off."No, actually the really interesting part is this:
So should people try to eat less sugar—or foods with a lower "glycemic index"? Not necessarily, Dr. Crane said: "Your body turns your food into glucose, so your blood sugar levels depend not only on what you eat but also on your individual metabolism: how your body handles your food." But he does suggest that taking walks couldn't hurt: The ACT study has previously linked physical activity to later onset and reduced risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.I am going to go stain the deck and inhale the fumes. Better for my brain.
Furthermore, Dr. Crane emphasized that these results come from an observational study: "What we found was that people with higher levels of glucose had a higher risk of dementia, on average, than did people with lower levels of glucose," he said. "While that is interesting and important, we have no data to suggest that people who make changes to lower their glucose improve their dementia risk. Those data would have to come from future studies with different study designs."
