Diabetes can damage a number
of organs, from the eyes to the kidneys and the heart. Now there’s fresh
evidence that unchecked blood sugar can affect the brain as well, which may
lead to drops in cognitive functions
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| How Diabetes Harms the Brain? |
When blood sugar levels start
to climb in diabetes, a number of body systems are harmed—and that list
includes the brain, since studies have linked diabetes with a higher risk of
stroke and dementia. Now, a new study published in the journal Neurology reports that changes in
blood vessel activity in the brains of diabetics may lead to drops in cognitive
functions and their ability to perform daily activities.
Dr. Vera Novak, associate
professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center, and her colleagues followed a group of 65 older people. About
half had type 2 diabetes, and half did not. After two years, the diabetic patients
had lower scores on cognitive tests compared to when they began, while people
without diabetes showed little change on the tests.
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What drove the decline, says
Novak, were changes in the brains of the diabetic patients. Diabetes can cause
blood vessels to be less responsive to the ebb and flow of demand in different
parts of the brain. Normally, flexible vessels will swell slightly to increase
blood flow and oxygen to areas that are more intensely active, such as regions
involved in memory or higher reasoning during intellectual tasks. But unchecked
blood sugar can make these vessels less malleable and therefore less responsive.
“When doing any task, from
cognition to moving your fingers, you need to increase blood flow to that
specific area of the brain,” says Novak. “With diabetes, however, that
vasodilation ability is reduced, so you have fewer resources to perform any
task.”
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In the study, Novak measured
the changes in the flexibility of the blood vessels and found that among the
diabetic patients, their flexibility declined, while it remained essentially
the same for those without the condition. When blood sugar levels fluctuate as
they do among people with diabetes, it can damage cells and nerves and trigger
inflammation. What’s concerning, says Novak, is that these changes occurred
even among people who were taking medication and had their diabetes under
relatively good control. “Blood sugar control alone cannot treat [cognitive
declines] associated with diabetes,” Novak says. “We need a new medication to
improve [blood vessel] reactivity, cognition and brain function in diabetics.”
Her group is continuing to
study ways that brain function can be improved by addressing the health of
blood vessels; one method they are investigating involves using insulin inhaled
through the nose or blood pressure medications to get brain vessel activity
back to normal.
Figuring out whether such
therapies can improve the brain function among people with diabetes is
critical, since more people are diagnosed with the disease earlier in life,
including in childhood. In previous studies, Novak and her colleagues showed
that people with diabetes have brains that look five years older than those of
similar-aged controls; for children with the disease, that could take a drastic
toll on their cognitive skills as they age. “We really don’t have any treatment
for cognitive decline in diabetes,” she says, “because the brain is not listed
as an organ of risk for this disease. So
we need more research and evidence like this.”
Source: time.com
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