Having a blood sugar level that’s even on the “high end” of normal could have damaging effects on the brain, a new study suggests.
Researchers from the Australian National University found that people whose blood sugar was in the high end of a normal range (but not yet in the range for diabetes or prediabetes) were more likely to experience brain shrinkage in the hippocampus and amygdala — an effect that normally occurs when a person ages, or experiences dementia.
“These findings suggest that even for people who do not have diabetes, blood sugar levels could have an impact on brain health,” study researcher Nicolas Cherbuin, Ph.D., said in a statement.
The researchers took into account other possible factors like smoking, drinking alcohol, age and high blood pressure, and found that having a normal-high blood sugar level was responsible for 6 to 10 percent of the loss of brain volume.
“If replicated, this finding may contribute to a reevaluation of the concept of normal blood glucose levels and the definition of diabetes,” the researchers wrote in the study.
The study comes on the heels of newly published research in the journalPediatrics showing a link betweenmetabolic syndrome (which includes insulin resistance seen in prediabetes) and obesity in teens with worsened brain functioning.
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Tags: blood glucose, brain damage, brain function, diabetes, health news, health research, insulin, Pre-diabetes, sugar, women health
