“There is no cure for dementia, to date, which makes its prevention all the more important.”
According to the research of hundreds of thousands of people in the UK to be presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Stockholm, Sweden, people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) had a lower chance of developing dementia when they lead a healthy lifestyle.
The study found that people with T2D and an unhealthy lifestyle were much more likely to get dementia than people without T2D and a very healthy lifestyle.
A healthy lifestyle nearly halves T2D patients’ risk of dementia.
It is well established that T2D and an unhealthy lifestyle both increase the risk of dementia. However, it is unclear if leading a healthy lifestyle can lower the risk of dementia in those with T2D.
Ms. Jirapitcha Boonpor, Dr. Carlos Celis-Morales, of the University of Glasgow, and associates monitored over 450,000 participants in the UK Biobank study for the onset of dementia in an effort to learn more.
The average age of the 445,364 participants (54.6% of whom were women) was 55.6 years, and they were followed up for a median of 9.1 years. At the beginning of this time, none of them had dementia.
25,535 people (24,735) said they had T2D at the beginning of the study.
Participants filled out a questionnaire about how much they watched TV, how long they slept, how active they were, how much alcohol they drank, whether or not they smoked, and how much processed and red meat, fruits and vegetables, and oily fish they ate. They were divided into three categories based on their responses: the most healthy, the moderately healthy, and the least healthy.
Higher rates of dementia were seen in people with both T2D and an unhealthy lifestyle. Dementia was 33% more likely to occur in people with T2D than in people without T2D.
Dementia was significantly more closely linked to an unhealthy lifestyle. In comparison to people who led the healthiest lifestyles, those with the least healthy lifestyles had a 65% higher risk of dementia.
Additional research found that a healthy lifestyle appears to minimise the risk of dementia in T2D patients.
Diabetes patients with the healthiest lifestyles had a 45% lower risk of dementia than diabetes patients with the unhealthiest lifestyles.
The study’s authors come to the conclusion that a healthy lifestyle can lessen the impact of T2D on dementia risk.
According to Dr. Celis-Morales, “Adhering to current dietary, physical activity and sleep recommendations is key to good health and it may contribute to a lower risk of dementia in people with diabetes.
“We’ve shown that following these healthy lifestyle guidelines also significantly reduces the increase in risk of dementia experienced by people with diabetes.”
“There is no cure for dementia, to date, which makes its prevention all the more important.”
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