A new study adds to growing evidence that the complications of
diabetes may extend to the brain, causing declines in memory,
attention and other cognitive skills. The new research showed
that over the course of about a decade, elderly men and women
with diabetes — primarily Type 2, the form of the disease
related to obesity and inactivity — had greater drops in
cognitive test scores than other people of a similar age. The
more poorly managed their disease, the greater the deterioration
in mental function. And the declines were seen not just in those
with advanced diabetes. The researchers found that people who
did not have diabetes at the start of the study but developed it
later on also deteriorated to a greater extent than those
without the disease. “What we’ve shown is a clear association
with diabetes and cognitive aging in terms of the slope and the
rate of decline on these cognitive tests,” said Dr. Kristine
Yaffe, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University
of California, San Francisco. “