High Blood Sugar Levels Put You at 18% Higher Risk for Dementia

General Posted by anthony Date September 6, 2013

High Blood Sugar Signs

A New England Journal of Medicine study shows that seniors with higher than average blood sugar levels have an 18% increased risk for dementia.

In people without diabetes, an average glucose level of 115 milligrams per deciliter led to an increased risk when compared to an average of 100 mg/dl. In people with diabetes, the dementia risk was 40% higher for people with an average glucose level of 190 mg/dl, when compared to an average of 160 mg/dl, the study found.

Researchers from various universities, including the University of Washington and Harvard University, tested more than 2,000 seniors’ glucose levels. After about seven years, they retested the older adults and found that slightly more than 500 had developed dementia. Almost all had higher average glucose levels, which correlated with an increased risk for dementia.

The report notes that ditching vending machine snacks and sugary treats might not help in warding off high blood sugar levels.åÊ

“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,Û said first author Paul K. Crane, M.D., M.P.H., 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.

Of course this also comes on the heels of something we just published related to diabetes, depression and its impact on dementia.

Depression in patients with type 2 diabetes was associated with greater cognitive decline in a study of almost 3,000 individuals who participated in a clinical trial, according to a report published by JAMA Psychiatry.

Depression and diabetes are among the most common illnesses in older populations. Up to 20 percent of adult patients with type 2 diabetes meet the criteria for major depression.åÊ

Both depression and diabetes appear to be associated with an increased risk for dementia, Mark D. Sullivan, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues write.

Of course as I often write, preventing diabetes is pretty much in our own control.

Can’t Identify Famous Faces? Do You have Early Dementia? (VIDEO)

General Posted by anthony Date September 5, 2013

[embed_youtube”420″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/pzm3M2zwPMQ”]

Can’t Identify Famous Faces? Do You have Early Dementia?

General Posted by anthony Date September 4, 2013

Who am I?

A new study shows that individuals who suffer from primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a dementia that commonly affects adults between the ages of 40 and 65, have trouble identifying the faces of widely famous cultural icons. åÊ

Researchers devised a basic test using photographs of famous people that may be able to identify early dementia in people 40 to 65 years old. “People with this type of dementia consistently forget names of famous people they once knew — it’s more than forgetting a name or two of a famous person,” senior author Emily Rogalski, an assistant research professor at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, told USA Today.

The first group tested included 30 individuals who had previously been diagnosed with PPA, while the second contained 27 healthy individuals to act as a control group. The average age of the participants was 62.

Participants were shown 20 black and white images of famous faces, ranging from leaders such as John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Pope John Paul II to entertainers like Lucille Ball, Sammy Davis Jr. and Elvis Presley. They were asked to give the researchers the full name of the person in each picture. Partial credit was given for recalling the first or last name. If no part of the name could be recalled, participants were instead asked to offer a detailed description about the famous subject.

The researchers found that the healthy control group performed at a much higher rate than those with PPA. 97 percent of the healthy group was able to recognize or describe the famous figures, compared to 79 percent of the early-onset dementia group. When it came to actually naming those in the photographs, 93 percent of the healthy individuals completed this task correctly, while only 46 percent of the participants with PPA were able to do so.

Each participant was also administered a MRI brain scan to map brain irregularities linked to primary progressive aphasia. The brain scans revealed that those who had difficulty with name recall were more likely to have experienced brain-tissue loss in the left temporal lobe region of their brains, while those with difficulties in face recognition had suffered brain loss on both sides of the same region.

“In addition to its practical value in helping us identify people with early dementia, this test also may help us understand how the brain works to remember and retrieve its knowledge of words and objects,” åÊsaid study author Tamar Gefen, MS, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “These tests also differentiate between recognizing a face and actually naming it, which can help identify the specific type of cognitive impairment a person has.”

Catherine Roe, an instructor in neurology at the Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, was cautious when speaking of the findings to HealthDay.

“To help us know how to use this test as a screening tool,” Roe said, “more research needs to be done to figure out whether this test distinguishes all people with dementia from people without dementia or whether it distinguishes only people with one particular type of early-onset dementia from people without dementia.”

Sources: CBS News Interactive and ALFA

Depression in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Associated With Cognitive Decline

General Posted by anthony Date August 28, 2013

Depression and diabetes are among the most common illnesses in older populations. Up to 20 percent of adult patients with type 2 diabetes meet the criteria for major depression.åÊ

Both depression and diabetes appear to be associated with an increased risk for dementia, Mark D. Sullivan, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues write.

ÛÏDepression has been identified as a risk factor for dementia among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus but the cognitive domains and patient groups most affected have not been identified,Û the study notes.

The study included 2,977 patients with type 2 diabetes at high risk for cardiovascular disease who were participants in the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes-Memory in Diabetes (ACCORD-MIND) trial. Researchers used tests to gauge cognition and a questionnaire to assess depression.

According to the results, patients with scores indicative of depression showed greater cognitive decline during the 40-month follow-up on all tests.åÊ

The effect of depression on risk of cognitive decline did not differ according to previous cardiovascular disease; baseline cognition or age; or intensive vs. standard glucose-lowering treatment, blood pressure treatment, lipid treatment or insulin treatment, the results also indicate.

My guess is that while depression is the main culprit, these chronic conditions probably cause the stress that leads to depression. And many of these are in our control. Researchers might agree…

ÛÏThis suggests that a potentially reversible factor (depression) may be promoting general cognitive decline in the broad population of patients with type 2 diabetes. Since dementia is one of the fastest growing and most dreaded complications of diabetes, our findings may be important for public health,Û the study concludes.

I do think they have to realize that the underlying cause of depression are these disease states so treating them is as important in just treating depression as an isolated cause.