FIFTY years old and diabetic? A new study reveals that adults between 51 and 70 with diabetes develop age-related ailments ‒ cognitive impairment, incontinence, falls, dizziness, vision impairment and pain ‒at a faster rate than those without diabetes. In fact, the odds of developing new geriatric conditions were nearly double those of their counterparts who didn’t have diabetes.
These findings find an echo in another study published in the journal Diabetes last year which showed that getting diabetes before the age of 65 corresponds to a 125 percent increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease. This risk of Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia was significant for mid-life diabetics — as opposed to those who develop diabetes after 65 — even when controlling for family factors. Indeed, the chances of a diabetic developing Alzheimer’s disease may be even greater in real life than in the study, the researchers said.
In a separate study, researchers from Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus say that dementia in some diabetics appears to be caused often by vascular disease in the brain, and the dementia that develops in people without diabetes is more likely associated with deposition of the plaque seen in people with Alzheimer’s disease. More importantly, patients with dementia and diabetes appear to display a different pattern of injuries in their brains than patients with dementia but without diabetes, another independent study reveals.
All these findings suggest that adults with diabetes should be monitored for the development of these conditions beginning at a younger age than previously thought. If doctors start looking for these conditions earlier, they can manage and treat them more effectively.