A new study suggests that high blood sugar may lead to poor memory. It further supports the belief that low blood sugar content is good for human cognitive skills.
Agnes Flöel, lead author of the study from the Charité University Medicine in Berlin, Germany, and her colleagues recruited 141 people with an average age of 63 to test the relationship of high blood sugar levels to memory performance. They were asked to take memory assessments and blood sugar tests. They also underwent brain scans in order to check the size of their hippocampus, the part of the brain which aids in a person’s memory.
The participants did not have any signs of poor memory, pre-diabetes or diabetes type 2.
The researchers measured the amount of words the participants were able to remember during the memory exams and compared them to the levels of their blood sugar.
Those who remembered little of the words in the test were also found with higher blood sugar levels. Flöel wrote in the report, "We also found that people with higher blood-sugar levels had smaller volumes in the size of their hippocampus.”
Those who had normal blood sugar levels could also benefit by maintaining low levels of blood sugar to avoid symptoms of memory problems in the future.
Flöel however stresses that their study is not enough to prove that low levels of glucose will prevent neurodegenerative diseases like dementia. Their study does not cover much and would not be able to prove that the cause of poor memory is high blood sugar. They will need further research with a bigger number of participants to fully establish the cause and effect.
Meanwhile, other health experts consider the study significant as it was able to show an “association” between high blood sugar and poor memory. Robert Ratner, a medical officer from the American Diabetes Association, told USA Today, "it's not surprising that glucose levels can potentially have these kinds of negative impacts. The risk of dementia is higher in people with diabetes.”
The study was published in the Oct. 23 issue of the medical journal Neurology.
