Dementia Risk Boosted by High Blood-Sugar Levels in Study

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-07/dementia-risk-boosted-by-high-blood-sugar-levels-in-study.html

High levels of blood sugar raise the risk of dementia, even if a person doesn’t have diabetes, a condition known to be associated with the brain disease, a study found.

The higher the level of blood sugar among patients, the greater the risk of dementia, according to the report published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The finding was also true of diabetes patients.

Previous research has found that diabetes diagnosed later in life conveys a high risk of dementia. Insulin doesn’t work properly in the brains those with Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, leading researchers to explore whether GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s diabetes drug Avandia may benefit those with the ailment. Clinical trials found the drug didn’t help.

“It’s a steadily increasing risk, the higher the blood glucose, the higher the risk, and that’s one of the things that surprised us,” Paul Crane, a study author and associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, said in a telephone interview.