Insulin Resistance Predicts Cognitive Decline: An 11-Year Follow-up of a Nationally Representative Adult Population Sample

Abstract

Our results show that higher serum fasting insulin and insulin resistance predict poorer verbal fluency and a steeper decline in verbal fluency during 11 years in a representative sample of an adult population. Prevention and treatment of insulin resistance might help reduce cognitive decline later in life.

Interaction between alcohol consumption and metabolic syndrome in predicting severe liver disease in the general population

“…Serum triglycerides, total cholesterol, high‐density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, apolipoprotein B, glucose, insulin, glycated hemoglobin, and C‐reactive protein were all directly measured in an at least 4 hours (50% > 8 hours) fasting state. The biochemical methods are described in detail elsewhere …”

“…The biochemical methods are described in detail elsewhere. (24) Follow-up data for hospitalizations were obtained from the National Hospital Discharge Register, which covers all hospitalizations in Finland beginning in 1969. Data for cancers were obtained from the Finnish Cancer Registry, and vital status and cause of death data were obtained from Statistics Finland, which systematically collects data about the deaths of all Finnish citizens.…”

The chicken or the egg? Does glycaemic control predict cognitive function or the other way around?

“…Additionally, characteristics related to type 2 diabetes, including higher blood glucose levels, higher serum fasting insulin and insulin resistance [12][13][14], have been linked to cognitive dysfunction, accelerated cognitive decline and dementia in elderly individuals, even in those without diabetes [14,15]. Moreover, in addition to blood glucose and HbA 1c levels, poor long-term HbA 1c trajectories [16] and glucose peaks [17] have been shown to be associated with cognitive function.…”

Comment on Ekblad et al. Insulin Resistance Predicts Cognitive Decline: An 11-Year Follow-up of a Nationally Representative Adult Population Sample. Diabetes Care 2017;40:751–758

“…The estimated parameters for the association of studied predictors and the outcomes in the study conducted by Ekblad et al (1) have been degraded by collinearity among the predictors. As expected, HOMA-IR, glucose, and insulin are highly correlated, so including all of them in the same model resulted in inflation of standard error of the regression coefficients and imprecisely estimated the association of HOMA-IR, glucose, and insulin with cognitive decline.…”

“…We have read with great interest the article by Ekblad et al (1). The authors showed that in multivariable analysis insulin resistance (IR) and higher levels of insulin can be independent predictors of poorer verbal fluency performance and of a greater decline in verbal fluency during 11 years after adjusting for age, sex, and education (1).…”