Lower Your Blood Sugar and Raise Your Intellect

Most of us, as we get older, worry about developing Alzheimer’s. The figures are quite frightening, and we all seem to have memory lapses that so easily suggest the start of something bad. Fortunately, that’s very rarely the case. But for older women with diabetes, there is an increased risk of impaired mental functioning, or ‘cognitive impairment’, as it’s called.

A study has now shown that there’s a link between prolonged raised blood sugar levels and mild cognitive impairment or dementia, especially in older women. The long-term measure of blood sugar is the hemoglobin A1c, or HbA1c, which should be kept below 7%, according to the American Diabetes Association. (Some specialists go further, and recommend that it’s kept below 6.5%.)

In a group of women aged about 65 or older, whose average HbA1c was 5.8%, for every 1% increase of HbA1c the risk of cognitive impairment was increased 1½ times. And for those with an HbA1c over 7% at baseline, the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment or dementia was increased three-fold for every 1% rise in HbA1c.

These findings emphasize the need for diabetics to keep a good degree of control over their blood sugar levels if they want to keep their wits about them. And it wouldn’t harm the rest of us, either.