Better Glycemic Control Improves Memory in Diabetics

Reductions in fasting plasma glucose levels in diabetic patients who were in relatively good control,” are accompanied by corresponding improvements in cognition. Better metabolic control of type 2 diabetes can lead to improved working memory, according to a new report in the February issue of Diabetes Care.

Dr. Christopher M. Ryan, from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine mentions that, "Many of the patients with type 2 diabetes may have evidence of mild cognitive dysfunction." "Improving metabolic control and reducing fasting plasma glucose levels can lead to an improvement in learning and memory ability."

Dr. Ryan and colleagues investigated whether improvements in metabolic control could ameliorate cognitive dysfunction in 145 older adults with type 2 diabetes and if the improvements are mediated by changes in circulating insulin (with glyburide therapy) or insulin resistance (with rosiglitazone treatment).

Both treatments were associated with significant reductions in fasting plasma glucose after 24 weeks, the authors report. Decreases in fasting insulin and C-peptide levels were seen only in participants treated with rosiglitazone.
Working memory improved significantly in both treatment groups, the results indicate, and there were no differences between the glyburide and rosiglitazone groups.

Reductions in fasting plasma glucose were associated with improvements in working memory regardless of the drug used.
Neither treatment was associated with changes in measures of learning ability or cognitive efficiency, the researchers note.
"Results from this randomized trial demonstrate that treatment-induced reductions in fasting plasma glucose levels are accompanied by corresponding improvements in cognition, which occur within 24 weeks of therapy initiation," the authors conclude. "The effect sizes observed were moderate, and further study will be required to determine the clinical relevance."
"What’s particularly interesting is the fact that we obtained these results in diabetic patients who were in relatively good control," Dr. Ryan said. "We don’t know whether the effects would have been even more pronounced had subjects been in consistently poorer control."

"How long that improvement lasts remains unknown," Dr. Ryan added. "Based on the findings of this study, there was no reason to favor one medication over the other, although there were fewer side effects associated with rosiglitazone."
Diabetes Care 2006;29:345-351.

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FACT:
Children of the 60 & 70’s ‘did twice the exercise’: Children are putting their health at risk by doing half the unplanned exercise that their parents did a generation ago, according to a survey. Researchers found that youngsters aged eight to 16 played a team game or engaged in other activities involving working up a sweat an average of one-and-a-half times a week. Adults who grew up during the 1970s and 1980s questioned about how active they were as children said they did spontaneous exercise an average of 3.2 times per week. Experts believe the increased dependence of the current generation of children on cars, television and computers, and parents being afraid to let children go out on their own are major factors behind young people being less active today.

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