Recent studies have found that people with diabetes or prediabetes are at higher risk for accelerated brain aging. But there's a silver lining: Adopting a healthy lifestyle can counteract these effects. Researchers say that staying physically active, avoiding smoking, and limiting alcohol intake can significantly reduce the impact on the brain.
Diabetes is known to increase the risk of dementia, but its exact effect on brain aging is unknown. A new study published in the journal Diabetes Care investigated how prediabetes and diabetes affect brain aging in people without dementia. The study noted that aging was particularly accelerated among men and those with poor cardiometabolic health.
The researchers used machine learning to estimate brain age using MRI scans (magnetic resonance imaging) of 31,000 participants from the UK Biobank, aged between 40 and 70. All participants were dementia-free and had up to two brain scans over 11 years of follow-up.
The analysis found that prediabetes was associated with an increase in brain age of 0.5 years, while diabetes was associated with an increase of 2.3 years. The brains of people with uncontrolled diabetes appeared to be more than four years older than their chronological age.
“The association between (pre)diabetes and higher BAG (brain age minus chronological age) was more pronounced in men and in people with two or more cardiometabolic risk factors. In joint exposure analyses, a healthy lifestyle (i.e., no smoking, no excessive alcohol consumption, and being physically active) significantly attenuated the association between diabetes and BAG,” the researchers wrote.
“An older looking brain compared to chronological age indicates a deviation from the normal aging process and may be an early warning sign of dementia,” lead study author Abigail Dove of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden said in a news release.
But Dove said the study also shows a positive side, suggesting that people with diabetes may be able to improve their brain health through healthy living.
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder that affects approximately 1 in 10 people worldwide, a number that is expected to increase to 643 million by 2030. As of 2021, an estimated 720 million people have prediabetes, a number that is projected to increase by 11% by 2045.
“The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the population is high and increasing. We hope that our study will help prevent cognitive impairment and dementia in people with diabetes and pre-diabetes,” Dove added.
