Diabetes can age the brain by up to four years, but lifestyle changes may slow neurological aging, a new study shows, using brain scans.
The report was published on Wednesday Diabetes Care.
“If a person’s brain looks older than their actual age, it could be a sign that the aging process has deviated from the normal aging process, which could be an early warning sign of dementia,” Abigail Dove, a graduate student in neurobiology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and lead author of the study, said in a statement.
“On the positive side, it appears that people with diabetes can influence their brain health by leading a healthy lifestyle,” Dove added.
The researchers evaluated MRI scans of more than 31,000 adults without dementia between the ages of 40 and 70. The data came from the UK Biobank, a British database.
The research team used artificial intelligence to measure each person’s “brain age” over an 11-year period, during which each subject was scanned up to twice. To infer brain age, the researchers used detailed information about each person’s blood sugar status, medical history and medication use, as well as data on cardiometabolic risk factors such as obesity and hypertension, and lifestyle behaviors such as smoking and physical exercise.
Those with prediabetes (43.3 percent of participants) had brains that were, on average, six months older than their actual age, while those with diabetes had brains that were, on average, 2.3 years older. Those with poorly controlled diabetes had brains that were, on average, four years older.
Data shows that people who are physically active, do not smoke or drink alcohol, are less likely to have brain aging.
“The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the population is high and growing,” Dove said. “We hope our research will help prevent cognitive impairment and dementia in people with diabetes and prediabetes.”