Healthy lifestyle may offset brain aging accelerated by diabetes

 

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• Both prediabetes and type 2 diabetes are associated with an increased risk for brain-related health issues.
• Using brain imaging, researchers from the Karolinska Institutet confirm that both diabetes and prediabetes are correlated to accelerated brain aging.
• Scientists found making healthy lifestyle choices like not smoking may help counteract negative diabetes-related impacts on the brain.
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Researchers estimate that about 540 million people around the world have diabetes, with about 98% of those diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. And another 720 million peopleTrusted Source around the world have prediabetes.

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Past studies have linked both prediabetes and type 2 diabetes to an increased risk for certain brain-related health issues. For example, a study published in February 2021 linked prediabetes to an increased riskTrusted Source for Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive decline,Trusted Source and vascular dementia.

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“Diabetes is a well-established risk factor for dementia, but the role of diabetes — and its preclinical manifestation, prediabetes — in the early stages of brain agingTrusted Source is unclear,” Abigail Dove, a PhD student in the Aging Research Centre (ARC) in the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden told Medical News Today. “These are important questions from a public health perspective because we need to understand how to protect the brain health of people with diabetes as they grow older.”

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Dove is the lead author of a new study recently published in the journal Diabetes Care.

The study reports that while people with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes may be at risk for accelerated brain aging, making healthy lifestyle choices such as not smoking may help them improve their brain health.

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