An El Nino-less summer is coming. Here's what that could mean for Canada
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
People who develop prediabetes when they’re younger are likely to have a higher risk for dementia in later life, a new U.S. study has found.
Prediabetes exists when blood sugar levels are higher than optimal but not yet high enough for the patient to be medically diagnosed with diabetes. Unfortunately, millions of Americans younger than age 60 have prediabetes — and many aren’t even aware.
“Prediabetes is associated with dementia risk, but this risk is explained by the development of diabetes,” said authors Elizabeth Selvin, a professor of epidemiology, and Jiaqi Hu, a doctoral student, in a news statement. They are both at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
The study, published Wednesday in Diabetologia, analyzed data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. It enrolled people between the ages of 45 and 64 in four U.S. counties: Forsyth County, North Carolina; Jackson, Mississippi; suburbs of Minneapolis; and Washington County, Maryland.
People in the study who developed Type 2 diabetes before the age of 60 had three times the risk of dementia later in life compared with those who did not have Type 2 diabetes before age 60, the study found. If prediabetes progressed to Type 2 diabetes between the ages of 60 to 69, the risk dropped, but only by a few points.
“We all have transient spikes in our blood glucose. It goes up, then down,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver. He was not involved with the study.
“But if you look at ‘glucose years’ to determine how high is your glucose and for how long, then you begin to see cumulative damage,” Freeman said. “And the earlier you’re exposed, the greater the level of cumulative damage.”
To that point, the study found that if Type 2 diabetes was not diagnosed until the person was in their 70s the risk of dementia dropped to 23%. And if a person developed Type 2 diabetes in their 80s or 90s, the risk was not greater than those without diabetes.
“There was a strong association of prediabetes with dementia but this association was only present among people who developed diabetes,” Selvin told CNN in an email. “This finding suggests that preventing progression from prediabetes to diabetes could help prevent dementia in older age.”
Alzheimer’s disease researcher Dr. Richard Isaacson, a preventive neurologist at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases of Florida, said the results were not shocking.
“I’ve been screaming this from the rooftops for over a decade,” said Isaacson, who was not involved in the study, via email. “If this study gets people to actually take action when a ‘borderline diabetes’ or prediabetes diagnosis is given, that will certainly improve brain health outcomes.”
More than 1 in 3 American adults have prediabetes, and 80% of them don’t even know it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly a third of those are between the ages of 18 and 44 — quite young to be developing a disorder that places them at extreme risk for type 2 diabetes, significant cardiovascular issues and vascular dementia as they age.
Even worse, nearly 1 in 5 adolescents ages 12 to 18 and 1 in 4 young adults ages 19 to 34 are living with prediabetes, the CDC said.
The CDC estimates that about 5.8 million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. And according to research cited in a 2019 report by the Alzheimer’s Association, the lifetime risk for the most common form of dementia is about 1 in 10 (10%) for men at age 45 and 1 in 5 (20%) for women.
A 2013 meta-analysis found Type 2 diabetes is associated with a 60% increase in risk for all-cause dementia. In addition, people with dementia who have Type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of early death.
While the exact connection between diabetes and dementia is not known, there are several possible pathways, according to research.
“Diabetes raises the risk of heart disease and stroke, which hurt the heart and blood vessels. Damaged blood vessels in the brain may contribute to cognitive decline,” according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
In addition, high blood sugar causes inflammation, which could damage brain cells, the association said. Even people in the early stages of Type 2 diabetes show signs of dysfunction in the brain.
Research has shown that Type 2 diabetes dramatically increases levels of beta-amyloid protein in the brain, a hallmark sign of Alzheimer’s disease, the association said.
This study is not the first one to find a relationship between earlier onset of diabetes and dementia. A 2021 study performed in the United Kingdom found that developing diabetes more than 10 years previously raised the risk of dementia by more than 18%.
Prediabetes is known as a silent predator, developing and progressing without any obvious symptoms. There are risk factors, however.
You are at higher risk for prediabetes if you are overweight, over the age of 44, exercise less than three times a week, have a parent or sibling with Type 2 diabetes, have had diabetes during pregnancy or have given birth to a child over 9 pounds (4 kilograms), according to the CDC.
Some groups are also at higher risk, including people who are Black, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian, Alaska Native, Pacific Islander or Asian American. You can screen your personal risk by taking a test provided by the National Diabetes Prevention Program.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends all adults ages 35 to 70 who are considered medically overweight or obese be screened for prediabetes or diabetes. If blood sugar levels are of concern, reducing weight, exercising, eating a healthy diet and avoiding processed and ultraprocessed foods can reduce risk.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
The federal New Democrats are calling out Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his party for trying to block the bill that could pave the way for millions of Canadians to access birth control and diabetes coverage.
Defence lawyers of Jeremy Skibicki have admitted in court the accused killed four Indigenous women, but argues he is not criminally responsible for the deaths by way of mental disorder – this latest development has triggered a judge-alone trial rather than a jury trial.
A daily spoonful of olive oil could lower your risk of dying from dementia, according to a new study by Harvard scientists.
An Ontario MPP was asked again to leave the Ontario legislature on Monday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that was banned by the Speaker last month due to its political symbolism.
H5N1 or avian flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading among cattle in the United States, sparking concerns about 'pandemic potential' for humans. Now a health expert is urging Canada to scale up surveillance north of the border.
Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc will be tabling legislation on Monday aimed at countering foreign interference in Canada. Federal officials have scheduled a technical briefing on the incoming bill for Monday afternoon.
Polish prosecutors have discontinued an investigation into human skeletons found at a site where German dictator Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders spent time during the Second World War because the advanced state of decay made it impossible to determine the cause of death, a spokesman said Monday.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.