It has been seen that 8.4 million people have type 1 diabetes globally. Researchers say that this number is going to increase by 50000 every year. This type of diabetes affects the pancreas which disables its ability to produce enough insulin which is a hormone that regulates blood sugar.
According to a study published by npj Digital Medicine some researchers believe that naturally occurring glucose level fluctuations in Type 1 diabetes patients might impact brain functioning. People with Type 1 diabetes might be at an increased risk for cognitive impairment since brain functioning is directly related to it.
Cognitive variability is extremely important for a long term healthy brain functioning. Glucose levels impact cognitive variability in terms of clinical risk factors since microvascular complications support the development of new tools to evaluate and monitor brain health in type 1 diabetes. Hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic events also increase the chances of dementia among adults with type 1 diabetes.
In this recent study , doctors recruited 200 people with type 1 diabetes who had reportedly used digital glucose sensors and smartphone based cognitive tests to collect glucose level and cognition data three times a day for 15 days. Type 1 diabetes can be recognised by increasing glucose variability.
Previous studies conducted in labs have shown that extreme glucose levels do impair cognition. However, due to some limitations it has been difficult to study the impact of glucose outside a lab test. Researchers are looking at ways to test their hypothesis in everyday life and whether the impact of glucose on cognition varies from person to person.
When analyzing some data, it was found that cognitive function for how quickly the brain responds to information or receives and processes is slightly impaired when a person’s glucose levels are extremely high or low. However, higher glucose does not affect one’s ability to focus on a specific task for a longer period of time.
Facts are important to know for patients suffering from any kind of disease . In case someone is working hard to lower their blood glucose levels, they might experience slower thinking. Doctors also say that these might be short term and their mind functioning can return to normal as their body adjusts to low glucose.
It can be concluded that the same glucose levels might be associated with slower brain functioning and this effect varies person to person since no two individuals are the same in how glucose impacts their cognition.
Another conclusion derived from this study says that if people with type 1 diabetes were about to engage in high stakes testing and their glucose levels are high, they should not worry about it since the results of the test are linked to cognitive functioning overall.
Reference Link – Hawks, Z. W., Beck, E. D., Jung, L., Fonseca, L. M., Sliwinski, M. J., Weinstock, R. S., … Germine, L. T. (2024). Dynamic associations between glucose and ecological momentary cognition in Type 1 Diabetes. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-024-01036-5
