The brain undergoes changes with age, but the pace of these changes varies from person to person. Scientists have discovered that blood glucose levels may play a significant role in determining the rate of these changes.
4 simple habits that delay brain aging by eight years
4 simple habits that delay brain aging by eight years
According to the journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers from Jilin University and China Medical University, in a study aimed at understanding the reasons for accelerated brain aging in some people compared to others, and the effect of metabolic processes on age-related changes, found a link between high blood glucose levels and accelerated brain aging.
The researchers used data from the UK Biobank, a massive database containing medical, genetic, and diagnostic information on the UK population. After analyzing brain images of participants to identify tissue characteristics and structural changes, they trained machine learning algorithms to estimate the brain's biological age. The model based on the LASSO method performed best, with an average margin of error of 3.26 years.
Lead researcher Zhijun Li from Jilin University said: “We collected multimodal neuroimaging data, including MRI, along with plasma metabolism data and genomic data from the UK Biobank, to identify metabolic markers of brain aging and assess their causal relationships. Using 1079 phenotypic markers derived from neuroimaging data of 4333 healthy participants, we trained and tested machine learning models to predict brain age, and the LASSO regression model performed best.”
Analysis of blood samples revealed nine molecules associated with the degree of brain aging, with glucose being the most prominent, as higher glucose levels were linked to more pronounced indicators of brain aging. Genetic data also showed hundreds of genetic variants associated with age-related brain decline, while Mendelian randomization analyses suggested a possible causal role for glucose in accelerating the aging process.
Clinical data also showed that high glucose levels are associated with an increased risk of seven brain diseases, including dementia, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, and depression, as well as a decrease in the volume of 80 brain regions.
The researchers concluded that monitoring glucose metabolism could become a key element in early intervention strategies for maintaining cognitive health, noting that the study's findings could pave the way for developing new methods to monitor brain health.
