Diabetes Patients More prone to Memory Decline: Study

As diabetes patients grow older, they are more prone to memory decline and reduced ability to make decisions, concludes the report

Suffering from Type-2 diabetes can have considerable affects on your brain functioning, shows the research report in New York. The normal pumping of blood flow to the brain does not function properly, thereby, affecting your cognitive abilities, and most prominently leading to partial memory loss, with reduced abilities for decision making, as they age. The impaired blood flow regulation happens in a span of 2 years, after the patient is diagnosed with diabetes.

As exactly reported by IANS,

“ Diabetics have impaired blood flow regulation. Our results suggest that diabetes and high blood sugar impose a chronic negative effect on cognitive and decision-making skills," said study author Vera Novak from Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The study, published in the journal Neurology, involved 40 people with an average age of 66. Of those, 19 had Type 2 diabetes and 21 did not have diabetes.

The participants were tested at the beginning of the study and again two years later.

After two years, the people with diabetes decreased ability to regulate blood flow in the brain. They also had lower scores on several tests of memory and thinking skills.

"Higher levels of inflammation were also associated with greater decreases in blood flow regulation, even if people had good control of their diabetes and blood pressure," Novak said.

"Early detection and monitoring of blood flow regulation may be an important predictor of accelerated changes in cognitive and decision-making skills," she added