Lowering Dementia Risk for Type 2 Diabetes Sufferers: Discover 7 Healthy Habits to Adopt
Diabetes and Dementia: Is a Healthy Lifestyle the Key?
Let's face it, dementia is a tough pill to swallow. It's a brain-related condition that worsens over time and can significantly impact your daily life. Since there's no cure for it yet, it's essential to understand what steps you can take to reduce your risk.
A recent study published in Neurology suggests that for those with type 2 diabetes, practicing a few healthy habits could be the secret recipe to lowering your risk of developing dementia.
What's the Deal with Dementia?
Simply put, dementia is a collective term for disorders that affect memory, thinking, and reasoning. It usually gets worse with time and can seriously interfere with your ability to live independently. Age and family history are risk factors you can't control, but other factors can be modified to reduce risk.
Diabetes, particularly type 2 diabetes, is also a risk factor for dementia. By managing your diabetes effectively, you're already on the right path towards lowering your dementia risk. Research continues to uncover just how much healthy lifestyle choices can impact your condition and your cognitive health.
The Diabetes-Dementia-Lifestyle Connection
Researchers in a recent study examined the impact of seven lifestyle habits on dementia risk. They looked at both people with and without diabetes to see how these habits made a difference. Here's the lowdown:
- Smoke-free lifestyle
- Moderate alcohol consumption
- Regular physical activity
- Healthy diet
- Adequate sleep
- Less sedentary behavior
- Frequent social contact
The study used data from the U.K. Biobank, a detective's dream trove of health information. They focused on participants aged 60 or older who didn't have dementia at the start of the study. The researchers excluded people with type 1 diabetes to focus on type 2 diabetes.
They assigned participants a lifestyle score based on their lifestyle habits. For example, someone was classified as regularly physically active if they had at least 150 minutes/week of moderate activity or 75 minutes/week of vigorous activity or an equivalent combination.
The study included over 160,000 participants, with more than 12,000 of them having diabetes. Researchers followed the participants for an average of 12 years. They found that maintaining a healthy lifestyle was associated with a lower risk of developing dementia – but this reduction was more pronounced among those with diabetes.
Lead study author, Dr. Yingli Lu, Ph.D., had this to say to Medical News Today:
"Our findings highlight that although patients with diabetes are at a higher risk of developing dementia later compared with those without, adherence to an overall healthy lifestyle may greatly reduce this risk."
Non-study author and Alzheimer's researcher, Jeroen Mahieu, Ph.D., echoed similar sentiments:
"The most important finding of this study is that adhering to a healthy lifestyle substantially reduces the risk of developing dementia for diabetes patients; significantly more than when you do not have diabetes. This is important given the greater prevalence of dementia among diabetes patients. Yet, due to the nature of the data and the research design, we should be cautious with interpreting these effects as causal."
Caveats and the Road Ahead
While the study suggests that healthy lifestyle choices may decrease the risk for dementia – particularly among those with diabetes – it's not all sunshine and rainbows.
First, lifestyle information was self-reported, which increases the risk of mistakes. Second, while data was collected on lifestyle factors, no data was collected on lifestyle changes or factors before diabetes diagnosis. Additionally, participants with missing data were more likely to have lower education and socioeconomic status, which might have impacted the results.
Finally, although several factors were accounted for, there could be unknown or unmeasured factors that were left out. The study was also mainly focused on Caucasian participants, meaning more diverse studies are needed in the future.
Despite these limitations, the study adds to a growing body of evidence about how lifestyle choices impact our health. Dr. Lu summed it up nicely when she said:
"Our data may have important implications for doctors, and other medical professionals who treat people with diabetes. [They] should consider recommending lifestyle changes to their patients. Such changes may not only improve overall health but also contribute to the prevention or delayed onset of dementia in people with diabetes. Future research is needed to determine how combined healthy lifestyle behaviors benefit cognitive outcomes in diabetes and the possible mechanisms."
- The collective term for disorders that affect memory, thinking, and reasoning is dementia, a brain-related condition that worsens over time and can significantly impact daily life.
- Since dementia is a tough pill to swallow with no cure yet, understanding steps to reduce the risk is essential.
- A recent study in Neurology indicates that people with type 2 diabetes can lower their dementia risk by adhering to a few healthy habits, such as a smoke-free lifestyle, moderate alcohol consumption, regular physical activity, healthy diet, adequate sleep, less sedentary behavior, and frequent social contact.
- By managing type 2 diabetes effectively, you're already on the right path towards lowering dementia risk, as it's a risk factor for the condition.
- Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, especially among those with type 2 diabetes, may greatly reduce the risk of developing dementia, according to the study's lead author, Dr. Yingli Lu.
- Alzheimer's researcher, Jeroen Mahieu, said that the study shows adhering to a healthy lifestyle substantially reduces the risk of developing dementia for diabetes patients, with this reduction being more pronounced among them.
- However, the study has limitations, such as self-reported lifestyle information, no data collected on lifestyle factors before diabetes diagnosis, and participants with missing data more likely to have lower education and socioeconomic status, which may have impacted the results.
- Despite these limitations, the study adds to a growing body of evidence about how lifestyle choices impact our health, and future research is needed to determine the benefits of combined healthy behaviors on cognitive outcomes in diabetes and the possible mechanisms.
