Heart ailments, diabetes lead to diseased brain

A recent study has shown that people suffering from type 2 diabetes and heart disease are at an increased risk of dementia and other cognitive diseases.

Lead author Christina E. Hugenschmidt, PhD, an instructor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest Baptist, said the results from the Diabetes Heart Study-Mind (DHS-Mind) suggest that cardiovascular disease (CVD) plays an important role in the development of cognition problems, and these may take time before becoming clinically apparent. A report of the study appeared in Science Daily.

The research results, which appeared online, will also be followed by a print version in Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications.

“There has been a lot of research looking at the links between type 2 diabetes and increased risk for dementia, but this is the first study to look specifically at subclinical CVD and the role it plays,” Hugenschmidt said. “Our research shows that CVD risk caused by diabetes even before it’s at a clinically treatable level might be bad for your brain.”

“The results imply that additional CVD factors, especially calcified plaque and vascular status, and not diabetes status alone, are major contributors to type 2 diabetes-related cognitive decline,” Hugenschmidt said.