3 Ways Diabetes Affects Your Brain

Diabetes affects your whole body. Why? Because it affects blood vessels and nerves.  And of course that includes your brain. Now, there have been recent studies that have linked type 2 diabetes with decreased mental functioning. And actually, because of the vascular damage, the damage to the blood vessels to the brain, they're causing things called vascular cognitive impairment or vascular dementia.

So if you needed one more reason to make sure that you do everything you can to keep your blood sugar and your diabetes under control, here's one more!

So how does it work? Well, high blood sugar, as I just said, does damage to the blood vessels and also the nerves. And it just causes a lot of inflammation. And inflammation sets off a whole cascade of other processes to manage it, but then create their own damage. Damage to the nerves is a problem because eventually they stop communicating with each other. And now you have problems thinking, problems in your executive function, problems, making decisions that sort of thing.

In diabetes, you tend to be more metabolically unfit, meaning you have high blood pressure and your cholesterol is off balance. In other words, your good cholesterol is low. Your bad cholesterol is high, and you tend to have high triglycerides, which are, which is fat in the blood. And you tend to be overweight. And all of these things create inflammation, which further damages blood vessels and the nerves. Now, one of the consequences of nerves not talking to each other is something called brain fog.

A lot of us have probably have probably experienced some brain fog over time, but this is a very clear poor concentration, mood swings, irritability, memory problems, confusion, and more. So what do you do?

Well, the first thing is to get your blood sugar under control. Let's get it into the numbers that we want as close to good control as possible.

Second, once you get it there, you want your blood sugar to be fairly steady. I mean, it should go up and down a little bit. When you eat your blood sugar is going to go up and then it should come back down. But big high blood sugar and then low blood sugar and then high blood sugar, no, it's not good. So you want to keep it as consistent and steady as possible.

Three, talk to your doctor about what you're experiencing. If you're on medication and/or insulin, you may need to make some changes there and your doctor will guide you in that. So that is very important.

Next, if you're experiencing this, keep a journal and you're going to write down the food that you're eating, the activity that you're doing and how you are feeling. Because that will give you a better idea of where you need to make some changes and take some better control.

And finally, in a situation like this, where you're not remembering things and it's causing all kinds of problems, write things down. Don't rely on your memory. Now, just work to get your blood sugar under control and a lot of that stuff will reverse and, and hopefully your brain will get back to a healthier state.

I have a free 30 day guide that I would love for you to download. It goes through several things, several lifestyle changes that you can make. It talks a little bit about numbers and how to use them. And you can just download that on the link below.

Thank you so much for listening.

Dr. Elaine

Download my free 30 Day Guide to Manage or Reverse Type 2 Diabetes 

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This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.

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