It has been a well known fact for quite some time that type 2 diabetes and an unhealthy lifestyle both increase the risk of dementia. Driving the point home, new research states that people with type 2 diabetes could lower chance of developing dementia if they lead a healthy lifestyle. The research of hundreds of thousands of people in the UK presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Stockholm, Sweden shows that people with type 2 diabetes had a lower chance of developing dementia as long as they lead a healthy lifestyle.
As per the study, those with type 2 diabetes who lead poor lifestyles are considerably more likely to experience dementia than those who lead very good lifestyles and don’t have the condition. Interestingly, the impact of lifestyle appears to be significant as it said that living a healthy lifestyle could cut the risk of dementia in half for those with type 2 diabetes.
Impact of unhealthy lifestyle on type 2 diabetes:
It is well known 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.
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. All were free of dementia at the start of this period. 25,535 people (24,735) said they had T2D at the beginning of the study.
Participants responded to a questionnaire that inquired about their habits with regard to watching television, getting enough sleep, exercising, drinking alcohol, smoking, and eating processed and red meat, fruits, vegetables, and oily fish. They were divided into three categories based on their responses: the most healthy, the fairly healthy, and the least healthy.
Dementia risk increased in tandem 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. The participants with the least healthy lifestyles were 65% more likely to develop dementia than those with the healthiest lifestyle.
A healthy lifestyle appears to lower the risk of dementia in people with T2D, according to further studies. 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, following current food, exercise, and sleep recommendations is essential for optimal health and may help reduce the incidence of dementia among diabetics. We’ve demonstrated that adhering to these healthy lifestyle recommendations also dramatically lowers the increased risk of dementia that people with diabetes face. Since dementia has no known cure as of yet, Ms. Boonpor continues, prevention is crucial.
(With inputs from ANI)
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