The research, published in the New England Journal of
Medicine suggests that an average glucose reading of 105 to 120 milligrams per
deciliter (mg/dL) was tied to an increase in dementia risk by 10 percent to 20
percent in non-diabetics. If the reading was below 100, the risk was lower.
A fasting blood glucose of 126 mg/dL and above is used to
diagnose diabetes.
Diabetics also faced a higher risk if their average blood sugar
levels remained high.
The study’s author notes that this isn’t a time to get
alarmed if glucose levels are high but it may suggest 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."
There also is an indication that a parent with Alzheimer's
increases the risk two- to three-fold.
Non-diabetics who had an average glucose reading of 115
mg/dL over the previous five years were 18 percent more likely to develop
dementia than volunteers whose average reading was 100 mg/dL, the researchers
found.
Among people with diabetes, there was a graduated risk as
well. Compared to those whose blood sugar was typically 160 mg/dL, people with
a much higher average of 190 mg/dL were 40 percent more likely to develop
dementia.
In home care givers can remind the elderly to monitor
glucose levels for safety.
Richard E.
Ueberfluss, PT is a physical therapist and owner of Assisting Hands Home
Care. www.assistinghands.com/naperville
