A study was done at Michigan Medicine to understand how having type 2 diabetes for a long time affects the brain.
The researchers looked at data from 51 middle-aged Pima American Indians with this health condition.
They used tests to see how their memory and language were, and also took pictures of their brains using MRI. The results they found are important for everyone to know.
What the MRI Showed
People with type 2 diabetes for a long time had some changes in their brain.
Their brain’s outer layer was thinner, they had less of a certain type of brain tissue called gray matter, and they had more white spots that shouldn’t be there.
This suggests that having diabetes for many years can be harmful to the brain. The goal should be to prevent or delay the start of type 2 diabetes to keep the brain healthy.
Interestingly, even though the brain had changes, people with diabetes did just as well on memory and language tests as those without diabetes.
Why This Matters
Evan Reynolds, who played a big role in this study, said that the changes in the brain were a new finding. While the memory and language tests didn’t show problems, the MRI pictures showed that the brain had changed.
This means that it’s important to check for any thinking or memory problems in people with type 2 diabetes.
They also found out that other health problems that can happen with diabetes, like issues with kidneys or nerves in the heart, were connected to changes in the brain.
If someone had these health problems along with diabetes, they were more likely to have brain changes too.
Another interesting point was that nerve damage, which many people with diabetes have, wasn’t linked to how well they did on the memory and language tests.
Eva Feldman, a senior person in the study, stressed the need to keep the brain healthy in people with type 2 diabetes. She believes it’s crucial to tell everyone about the risks diabetes can have on the brain.
People Involved and Support
Many experts from Michigan Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Monash University, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases were part of this study.
Some of them got support for their work from various places like Novo Nordisk, the American Academy of Neurology, and others.
The research got financial help from many sources including the National Institute on Aging, Mayo Clinic, the University of Michigan, and others.
In the end, the authors of this article said that what they wrote was their own views and not necessarily the views of places like the National Institutes of Health.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about new way to detect diabetes-related blindness early, and eggs for breakfast may benefit people with diabetes.
For more information about diabetes, please see recent studies about the cause of largest increase in type 2 diabetes risk, and results showing this eating habit may reduce diabetes-related high blood pressure.
The study was published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.
Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
Copyright © 2023 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
