New reseach reveals that there is a tendency for adults diagnosed with diabetes to suddenly develop a bit of a mental block.
Scientists at the University of Alberta discovered that adults with type 2 diabetes had more difficulty with fast-thinking, organising, planning and being observant.
This is worrying news in Britain, at a time when more diabetics are being diagnosed every day, resulting in the possibility of millions of people struggling with a brain melt down. the study, which is published in the Neuropsychology journal, revealed that there was no differentiation in mental abilities between younger and older patients, indicating that the affect of the disease was likely to have occurred at an early stage.
The report’s co-author, Roger Dixon, said, “Speed and executive functioning are thought to be among the major components of cognitive health. The good news is that, at this point, the cognitive slowing would not be notable in most older diabetes patients’ everyday life activities. It may be noticed, however, if the patient is involved in technical psychomotor tasks (such as video games) requiring quick and accurate responses or monitoring. The bad news is that this slowing may indicate the ‘leading edge’ of progressive cognitive decline occurring with diabetes, and it will likely get worse without careful disease management.”
Professor Dixon recommends that people falling in the category of serious type 2 diabetics should take action now to test their mental abilities to ensure they are on the right medication as well as to improve symptoms with diet and mental training. He said, “There could be some ways to compensate for these declines, at least early and with proper management.”
As diabetes already poses a risk of developing neurode-generative diseases like Alzheimer’s, scientists are keen to investigate whether these early cognitive interruptions can deteriorate and develop into something more significant at a later stage.
The current main cause of type 2 diabetes is obesity, and with ever increasing numbers of overweight people in the UK, it is for this reason there has been such a rise in the disease. The government has launched a new advertising campaign to try and address the state of Britain’s health, called Change4Life which aims to, “kickstart a lifestyle revolution for every family in order to halt the rising tide of obesity”.
At the moment about 25 per cent of the adult population in England are deemed to be obese, and figures are set to rise with one forecast suggesting nine out of ten adults will be obese or overweight by 2050.
There are many serious health implications that come with diabetes - heart disease, stroke, amputations, kidney failure and blindness to name a few, with one in every ten deaths in the UK having some link to the condition. This cold rise to one in eight next year.
