Every single participant was then given a memory test to complete, where they were told 15 unrelated words that they had to remember and then repeat after different lengths of time.
The results from Flöel’s study demonstrated that the people with the higher blood sugar readings performed worse on the memory test when compared to the participants with lower blood sugar.
A similar test was conducted by Convit of the New York State Office of Mental Health’s Nathan Kline Research Institute where the results of this particular test showed a part of the brain called the hippocampus, that is responsible for memory, tended to be smaller in the test participants with higher blood sugar. The size of the hippocampus in Flöel’s research study also demonstrated the same pattern as in Convit’s study.
Diabetes is a serious disease that kills 3.4 million people every single year. So as a nutritionist I can’t stress the importance of keeping blood sugar within the normal healthy ranges.
Even when your blood sugar is in the normal range, but towards the high end, it proves useful to keep testing your blood sugar regularly and to monitor even the smallest of changes to your health as no matter how small the changes, they could be stopping you functioning on all cylinders – as is proven by the two studies discussed today.