Higher blood-sugar levels, even those well short of diabetes, seem to raise the risk of developing dementia, a major new study finds. Researchers say it suggests a novel way to try to prevent Alzheimer's disease - by keeping glucose at a healthy level.
Alzheimer's is by far the most common form of dementia, and it's long been known that diabetes makes it more likely. The new study tracked blood sugar in all sorts of people - with and without diabetes - to see how it affects risk for the mind-robbing disease.
The results challenge current thinking by showing it's not just the high glucose levels of diabetes that are a concern, said the study's leader, Paul Crane of the University of Washington in Seattle.
"It's a nice, clean pattern" - risk rises as blood sugar does, said Dallas Anderson, a scientist at the National Institute on Aging, the federal agency that paid for the study.
This adds evidence that exercising and controlling blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol are a viable way to delay or prevent dementia, he said. - Associated Press
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