Blood sugar control may be key to preserving cognitive function as people age. A study published in «Molecular Psychiatry,» a peer-reviewed scientific journal, found that excess glucose may accelerate brain aging and contribute to serious neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease.
How the study worked
To investigate the biological processes behind brain aging, researchers analyzed data from the UK Biobank, a long-term research project in the United Kingdom containing de-identified biological samples and health data from about half a million participants.
The researchers trained AI algorithms to analyze blood test results and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to better understand the biological processes associated with accelerated brain aging.
Specifically, they used brain scans from thousands of UK Biobank participants to train the AI model on what healthy brains typically look like at different ages, including 40, 50 and 70.
The program then evaluated each participant’s brain and assigned it a «brain age.» If a person’s brain age was higher than their chronological age, it indicated accelerated brain aging. If it was lower, the brain appeared healthier than expected for that age.
Blood sugar’s role
The researchers then analyzed blood samples from the same participants and found that higher blood glucose levels were associated with brains that appeared older than their actual age.
«In addition, two-sample Mendelian randomization provided evidence supporting a potential causal role for glucose in accelerating brain aging,» the study said.
What conditions are associated with higher blood sugar?
The researchers also found that elevated blood glucose levels were associated with a greater risk of developing several neurological and mental health conditions.
«In clinical practice, elevated blood glucose levels were positively correlated with seven brain diseases, including dementia of any etiology, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, depression and anxiety,» the authors wrote.
