Low Blood Sugar May Raise Dementia Risk in Diabetics: Study

Low blood sugar in older adults with type 2 diabetes may increase their risk of dementia, a new study suggests. While it's important for diabetics to control blood sugar levels, that control "shouldn't be so aggressive that you get hypoglycemia," said study author Dr. Kristine Yaffe, a professor of psychiatry, neurology and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. The study of nearly 800 people, published online June 10 in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that people with episodes of significant hypoglycemia -- low blood sugar -- had twice the chance of developing dementia, Yaffe said. Conversely, "if you had dementia you were also at a greater risk of getting hypoglycemic, compared with people with diabetes who didn't have dementia," she said. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_137671.html