Diabetes 'rewires' the brain in surprising way, study finds

Diabetes is known to cause many medical issues, from heart disease to vision problems — and now a new study suggests it could also impact memory and other cognitive functions.

After observing brain activity and behavior in rodent models, researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) determined that type 2 diabetes can "rewire" the brain in ways similar to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

"Diabetes may be altering the brain similarly to early stages of Alzheimer’s disease," said lead researcher and UNLV psychology professor James Hyman in the release. 

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"Further research is needed, but these findings have the potential to help researchers unlock clues to improved diagnostic or treatment strategies for the disease."

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Previous studies have shown that people with type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of developing neurodegenerative disorders.

The reason, the researchers hypothesized, is that high blood sugar levels may impact the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a part of the brain that is involved in cognitive and emotional functions, according to a UNLV press release.

The ACC is linked to key cognitive processes like motivation, decision-making, goal-tracking, pleasure-seeking, reward processing and regulation of emotions, according to the researchers.

In people with diabetes, high blood sugar impairs reward signals from the hippocampus (the part of the brain that controls memory and learning) to the ACC.

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"Rewards, or achieving goals, are important to helping us make future decisions, so if our brains are responding differently, it's likely our future decisions will be different," Hyman told Fox News Digital.

"This has big implications for those managing their type 2 diabetes, since compliance with testing and lifestyle changes are key aspects."

This could also explain why it is so hard for many people to stick with new diets and exercise regimens, Hyman noted, because their brains don't respond to normally rewarding events due to the disease. 

"This knowledge can help people persevere and remain diligent, since their failures are not due to personal weakness, but altered brain physiology," he said.

Dr. Adam Scioli, chief medical officer at Caron Treatment Centers in Pennsylvania, said it is known that the reward system of the brain helps to imprint memory. 

"It makes sense that any substance – like sugar – that impacts and overwhelms that reward system can have lasting impacts on cognitive and working memory," Scioli, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.

The concept of reward and memory in type 2 diabetes has some similarities to addiction, according to the expert.

"Both conditions also involve altered hippocampus-ACC connectivity, which affects goal-oriented behavior and memory processing," he said.

"This kind of research opens new avenues not just for Alzheimer's patients, but also for other diseases that impact the brain," Scioli added. 

"It also provides an avenue where we might be able to intervene earlier in these diseases and prevent or mitigate cognitive decline."

There were some limitations to the study, the researchers acknowledged.

"This was a study in rodents, so the translation to human conditions is challenging," Hyman told Fox News Digital.

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"Additionally, we only modeled one aspect of type 2 diabetes — chronic hyperglycemia — and in humans there are more symptoms than that. It's possible those other aspects may have different, either compounding or allaying, impacts." 

Hyman’s team plans to conduct further research into the connection between diabetes and brain function.

"Alzheimer’s disease goes undetected for decades because our brains are good at finding ways to compensate," he said. 

"Before diagnosis, people behave normally despite having changes in information processing. We even observed that in this study."

Based on these findings, Hyman hopes that people will be more likely to monitor their own blood glucose levels. 

"If diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, be sure to follow doctors’ orders closely and keep blood glucose levels stable," he advised. "We think it's the spikes of extremely low and high blood glucose that make people more vulnerable to Alzheimer's."

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For those having trouble with lifestyle changes, Hyman urged them to "not be so hard on yourself."

"Be patient and understand that the disease has rewired your brain."