A new brain scan study has shown that people with type 2 diabetes or on the road to developing it have brains that age faster. Living a healthy lifestyle could help protect the brain from these harmful effects. Scientists scanned the brains of over 31,000 adults aged 40-70. Using a computer program, they were able to estimate how old each person’s brain was. The results showed that people with early diabetes had brains that were, on average, half a year older than their actual age. For those with full-blown type 2 diabetes, their brains were 2.3 years older. And for those who didn’t control their diabetes well, their brains were 4 years older. The researchers believe this could be an early sign of dementia. But the good news is that people who exercised and didn’t smoke or drink heavily were less likely to have this problem.
