Study Ties Higher Blood Sugar To Dementia Risk

New research suggests a possible way to help prevent Alzheimer's disease, by keeping blood sugar at a healthy level. A study found that higher glucose levels, even those well short of diabetes, seemed to raise the risk for dementia.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and doctors have long known that diabetes makes dementia more likely. The new study tracked blood sugar over many years in people with and without diabetes. Researchers found that the higher the blood sugar, the greater the chance that people would develop dementia, regardless of whether they had diabetes.

The work involved more than 2,000 people 65 and older in a Seattle-area health care system. Results are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.