To have a healthy mind at 70, it is important to control blood sugar when you are 50 years old.New research shows that diabetes seems to age the mind approximately five years faster, beyond the normal effects of aging.For example, on average, 60 -year -old person with diabetes experiences a cognitive impairment such as the one that involves the aging of a 65 -year -old healthy person.
The study, conducted by scientists from the Bloomberg Public Health School of the Johns Hopkins University, in the United States, concludes that people diagnosed with diabetes in the middle age are more likely to experience significant problems of memory and cognitive during the following 20years than those with healthy levels of blood sugar.
"The lesson is that to have a healthy brain when you reach 70, you have to eat well and exercise at the age of 50," advises the study director, Elizabeth Selvin, associate professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins."There is an important cognitive impairment associated with diabetes, pre-diabetes and the bad control of glucose in people with diabetes. And we know how to prevent or delay diabetes associated with this decline," he adds.
The decrease in memory, the memory of words and the executive function is strongly associated with the progression to dementia, a loss of mental capacity so severe that they interfere with the daily functioning of a person.The results of the cross -sectional study of adults as they age are published in the edition of this Tuesday of 'Annals of Internal Medicine'.
For the study, Selvin and his team used data from the 'Atherosis Clerosis Risk in Communities Study' (Aric), which in 1987 began to follow a group of 15,792 middle -aged adults in the communities in Maryland, North Carolina, Minnesota and Mississippi.The participants were analyzed in four visits of approximately three years apart between 1987 and 1989, and for the fifth time between 2011 and 2013. Their cognitive function was evaluated in two visits (from 1990 to 1992), four (between 1996 1998) and inThe fifth visit.
prevention, the best tool
The researchers compared the amount of cognitive deterioration associated with aging with the amount of decay found in the Aric participants.Thus, they determined that there were 19 percent more of descent from what was expected in participants with poorly controlled diabetes, as well as smaller decreases in people with controlled diabetes and prediabetes.
Selvin believes that the results underline the importance of using a combination of weight control, exercise and healthy diet to prevent diabetes.Even losing only between 5 and 10 percent of body weight, sentence, you can prevent someone from developing diabetes.This excess blood glucose can damage the tissues and the vascular system through the body, in addition to the diabetes being associated with blindness, damage to the nerves of the limbs and kidney disease.
Although diabetes with medications, exercise and diet changes can often be controlled, the first objective is its prevention."If we can do a better job in diabetes prevention and diabetes control, progression to dementia can be prevented for many people-says Selvin-even delay dementia for a few years could have a greatImpact on population, quality of life, care and health costs. "
Diabetes is one of the most frequent non -contagious diseases in the world.It is the fourth cause of death in most developed countries and there are solid evidence that has epidemic dimensions in many countries ineconomic and recent industrialization.Diabetes is, without a doubt, one of the most demanding health problems of the 21st century.
It is estimated that the global prevalence of diabetes will be 9.9% in 2030 and the number of people with diabetes in that year could reach 552 million.About 50% of the disease remains without diagnosing.