Low blood sugar a dementia risk for diabetics
Severe low blood sugar episodes affect brain health; balanced approach to diabetes control best
Older diabetics whose blood sugar drops to dangerously low levels have a higher risk of developing dementia, U.S. researchers said. The study by researchers at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, suggests that aggressive blood sugar control resulting in blood sugar so low it requires a trip to the hospital may increase dementia risks in older adults with type 2 diabetes. Several studies have found that diabetics have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease — the most common form of dementia — than do the general population. And others have shown that diabetics who take insulin and pills to help control their disease have a lower Alzheimer's risk. "The very current issue here is balance of blood sugar control," Rachel Whitmer, a Kaiser research scientist whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association said. She said a number of things such as a missed meal can cause severe low blood sugar in diabetics, but the chief cause is too much insulin, which can happen in people who take insulin injections or with oral diabetes drugs such as sulfanylureas or glimepiride that cause the body to make more insulin.
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