Type 2 diabetes has been linked to increased dementia risk. Until now, how diabetes and prediabetes affect brain aging in people without dementia has remained unclear. In the current study, researchers investigated the effects of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes on brain aging.
"Having an older-appearing brain for one's chronological age can indicate deviation from the normal aging process and may constitute an early warning sign for dementia," said lead author of the study, Abigail Dove, a PhD student at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, in a press release.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from 31, 229 adults aged between 40 and 70 years old who did not have dementia from the UK Biobank. Participants underwent up to two brain MRI scans over an 11-year follow-up, and their brain age was predicted using a machine learning model.
At baseline, 43.4% of participants had prediabetes, and 3.7% had diabetes. Ultimately, prediabetes and diabetes were linked to brain ages 0.5 and 2.3 years older than chronological age. The gap between brain age and chronological age also slightly increased over time among participants with diabetes.
The researchers further reported that the link between prediabetes and brain age gap- brain age minus chronological age- was stronger in men and people with two or more cardiometabolic risk factors such as obesity, hypertension and high triglycerides. Having a healthy lifestyle, however- including no smoking or heavy drinking and high physical activity, significantly attenuated the link between diabetes and brain age gap.
"There's a high and growing prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the population," said Dove, "We hope that our research will help prevent cognitive impairment and dementia in people with diabetes and prediabetes."
The researchers are conducting follow-up MRI scans to continue studying the link between diabetes and brain aging over time.
Sources: Science Daily, Diabetes Care