High Blood Sugar Linked with Dementia Risk

High level of blood sugar, even without diabetes, can raise the risk of dementia, a new study reported.

The study was conducted by researchers at Group Health Research Institute and University of Washington. It based on a group of 2,000 people. All the participants were over 65 years of age and were part of the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study.

Researchers found that people who had an average glucose reading of 105 to 120 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) had about 10-20 percent higher risk of developing dementia than people without diabetes.

Dementia isn't a specific disease but is a generic term that describes loss of brain function that can occur due to many reasons.

It generally occurs after 60 years of age and is characterized by loss of memory, language, thinking and behavioral changes. About 24 million people in the world are affected by this condition and it is one of the world's fastest growing diseases.

"The most interesting finding was that every incrementally higher glucose level was associated with a higher risk of dementia in people who did not have diabetes," said Paul K. Crane, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and first author of the study in a news release.  "There was no threshold value for lower glucose values where risk leveled off."

Researchers added that people needn't worry too much if their blood sugar levels are high.

"The magnitude of risk for any individual is low. I don't want anyone to read this and get alarmed. It just shows that what we had thought was normal for blood sugar is appropriate for the heart and the kidney, but the brain seems to have a different idea. There is no threshold where you're safe from dementia," Crane told Reuters Health.

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.