High glucose levels may raise Alzheimer's risk - San Francisco Chronicle

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 has long been known that diabetes makes it more likely. The new study tracked blood sugar over time in people with and without diabetes to see how it affects risk for the mind-robbing disease.

The results challenge current thinking by showing that it's not just the high glucose levels of diabetes that are a concern, said the study's leader, Dr. Paul Crane^[1] of the University of Washington^[2] in Seattle.

"This is part of a larger picture" and adds evidence that exercising and controlling blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol are a viable way to delay or prevent dementia, said Dallas Anderson^[3] , a scientist at the National Institute on Aging^[4] , which paid for the study.

In the United States, about 5 million have Alzheimer's disease. People who have diabetes don't make enough insulin, or their bodies don't use insulin efficiently enough, to turn food into energy. That causes sugar in the blood to rise, which can damage the kidneys and other organs - possibly the brain, researchers say.

The new study, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine^[5] , involved 2,067 people 65 and older in the Group Health Cooperative^[6] , a Seattle-area health care system. At the start, 232 participants had diabetes; the rest did not.

Participants were given standard tests for thinking skills every two years and asked about smoking, exercise and other factors that affect dementia risk.

After nearly seven years of follow-up, 524, or one-quarter of them, had developed dementia - mostly Alzheimer's disease.

Among participants who started out without diabetes, those with higher glucose levels over the previous five years had an 18 percent greater risk of developing dementia than those with lower glucose levels.

Among participants with diabetes at the outset, those with higher blood sugar were 40 percent more likely to develop dementia than diabetics at the lower end of the glucose spectrum.

References

1. ^{^} Paul Crane (www.sfgate.com)


2. ^{^} University of Washington (www.sfgate.com)


3. ^{^} Dallas Anderson (www.sfgate.com)


4. ^{^} National Institute on Aging (www.sfgate.com)


5. ^{^} New England Journal of Medicine (www.sfgate.com)


6. ^{^} Health Cooperative (www.sfgate.com)