Health
Type 2 diabetes linked to cognitive decline in older age
People with type 2 diabetes aged 50 to 80 performed worse on cognitive tests and experienced a faster rate of brain shrinkage than those without the condition
Health
31 May 2022
A stock image of a person testing their blood sugar level
sirtravelalot/Shutterstock
People with type 2 diabetes may experience worse mental deterioration as they get older, perhaps because parts of their brain shrink faster than those without the condition.
The finding comes from a large UK study of people with and without diabetes, based on cognitive tests and brain scans.
Type 2 diabetes involves blood sugar rising too high after meals, often because the body’s cells do not respond properly to the hormone insulin. Insulin should cause cells to take …