Controlling blood sugar levels may help maintain cognitive health as we age, according to a new study.
Dr Scott Small, of Columbia University, New York, USA, and colleagues say the area of the brain essential for memory and learning, the hippocampus, is damaged in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
But it is also vulnerable to normal ageing, and this may be due to increased blood sugar levels. In the Annals of Neurology, they suggest that exercising may be an effective way to keep rising levels in check.
Using high-resolution brain imaging, they found that activity in the "dentate gyrus" area of the hippocampus dropped with increasing levels of blood glucose. The team went on to confirm their finding in animal studies on aging rhesus monkeys and mice.
Dr Small said: "Showing for the first time that blood glucose selectively targets the dentate gyrus is not only our most conclusive finding, but it is the most important for ‘normal’ ageing – that is hippocampal dysfunction that occurs in the absence of any disease states.
"There have been many proposed reasons for age-related hippocampal decline; this new study suggests that we may now know one of them.
"Our findings suggest that maintaining blood sugar levels, even in the absence of diabetes, could help maintain aspects of cognitive health. More specifically, our findings predict that any intervention that causes a decrease in blood glucose should increase dentate gyrus function and would therefore be cognitively beneficial," Dr Small concluded.
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