Can diabetes cause dementia? Diabetes and dementia may seem like two different diseases, but recent studies have found that about 4-5% of diabetic patients have neurological damage, including clinical manifestations of cognitive impairment, commonly known as dementia. Diabetes can cause damage to both peripheral and central nerves. Central neuropathy mainly affects the white matter of the cerebral cortex and manifests as progressive memory loss, temporal-spatial disorientation, forgetting quickly what happened a few days ago, not being able to find the way home, and finally developing into not being able to live at home, and even psychiatric symptoms. The main reason for this is the effect of fluctuations in blood sugar on brain cells. Glucose is the main energy source of the brain, but the amount of sugar stored in brain cells is very limited, so it will depend on the supply of blood sugar at any time, when excessive control of blood sugar causes hypoglycemia, because of repeated episodes of hypoglycemia and over a long period of time, brain tissue can appear edema, hemorrhagic bruises and ischemic dot necrosis, especially the basal ganglia of the cerebral cortex, hippocampus and other most obvious. Nerve cell degeneration and necrosis, brain tissue softening, causing a series of brain signs, including dementia. In diabetic ketoacidosis, sugar utilization is deranged, relying mainly on ketone bodies for energy supply, and brain function is in a suppressed state. In diabetic hyperosmolar coma, the central nervous system is obviously inhibited, and the patient may have sluggish expression, progressive drowsiness, emotional indifference, or even xylophobia. In addition, diabetes mellitus causes cerebral vasculopathy due to impaired glucose metabolism, leading to the occurrence of subcortical atherosclerotic encephalopathy, cerebral white matter degeneration, multiple cerebral infarcts and cerebral atrophy, thus causing vascular dementia. Chronic hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia in the elderly can further exacerbate insulin signaling pathway disorders. In contrast, PET examinations in AD patients demonstrate inadequate blood supply and reduced glucose utilization in the frontotemporal cortex prior to the onset of clinical symptoms, suggesting reduced neural activity in this brain region. Structures associated with cognitive function, such as the hippocampus, internal olfactory area, and cerebral cortex, have a high density of insulin receptors and are capable of insulin secretion. Insulin is not only an important hormone for regulating blood glucose and energy metabolism, but also acts as a neurotrophic factor involved in cell survival and learning memory formation, and inhibits apoptosis, so the presence of impaired insulin signaling inevitably leads to cognitive dysfunction. A recent study showed that diabetes can lead to severe dementia in the middle stages of development. Therefore, it is important for people with diabetes to follow medical advice, pay close attention to this and prevent it in the early stages of the disease. In their research, scientists have found that the chance of developing dementia from diabetes is as high as 30%, and the chance of developing dementia rises to 50% once the disease has been delayed for a longer period of time (15 years or more). In this day and age, when diabetes cases are almost worldwide, we have to be highly alert to such a high rate of diabetes complications. At the same time, researchers say that although diabetes can cause dementia at such a high rate, it does not mean that our science is helpless in the face of the disease. As long as patients can properly follow medical advice, scientific prevention and treatment, diabetes-induced dementia can still be avoided. Scientists have found in their studies that those patients who take glucose-lowering medications scientifically still achieve good outcomes.
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