New study links high glucose levels with dementia

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has concluded that individuals with higher glucose levels are at greater risk of suffering from dementia even in the absence of diabetes.

They used 35,264 clinical measurements of glucose levels and 10,208 measurements of glycated hemoglobin levels from 2067 participants without dementia to examine the relationship between glucose levels and the risk of dementia.

"We fit Cox regression models, stratified according to diabetes status and adjusted for age, sex, study cohort, educational level, level of exercise, blood pressure, and status with respect to coronary and cerebrovascular diseases, atrial fibrillation, smoking, and treatment for hypertension," stated the researchers.

They found out that among participants with diabetes, higher average glucose levels were also related to an increased risk of dementia; with a glucose level of 190 mg per deciliter (10.5 mmol per liter) as compared with 160 mg per deciliter (8.9 mmol per liter), the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.40.

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