Cognitive performance is associated with glucose regulation in healthy elderly persons and can be enhanced with glucose and dietary carbohydrates
Open accessAbstract
Background A glucose drink has been shown to improve memory in persons with poor glucose regulation and poor cognition.Objective The objective of this study was to determine 1) whether an association between cognition and glucose regulation is apparent in healthy seniors and 2) the effects of dietary carbohydrates on cognition.Design After an overnight fast, 10 men and 10 women (aged 60-82 y) consumed 50 g carbohydrate as glucose, potatoes, or barley or a placebo on 4 separate mornings. Cognitive tests were administered 15, 60, and 105 min after ingestion of the carbohydrate. Plasma glucose and serum insulin were measured.Results In a multiple regression analysis, poor baseline (placebo) verbal declarative memory (immediate and 20-min delayed paragraph recall and word list recall) and visuomotor task performance were predicted by poor beta cell function, high incremental area under the glucose curve, low insulin resistance, and low body mass index. The difference in plasma glucose after food consumption [glucose > potatoes > barley > placebo (P: < 0.03)] did not predict performance. Although overall performance did not differ with consumption of the different test foods, baseline score and beta cell function correlated with improvements in immediate and delayed paragraph recall for all 3 carbohydrates (compared with placebo); the poorer the baseline memory or beta cell function, the greater the improvement (correlation between beta cell function and improvement in delayed paragraph recall: r > -0.50, P: < 0.03). Poor beta cell function correlated with improvement for all carbohydrates in visuomotor task performance but not on an attention task.Conclusions Glucose regulation was associated with cognitive performance in elderly subjects with normal glucose tolerance. Dietary carbohydrates (potatoes and barley) enhanced cognition in subjects with poor memories or beta cell function independently of plasma glucose.
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Nondiabetic individuals with mild forms of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) may also have cognitive impairments.
“In addition, nondiabetic individuals with mild forms of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) may also have cognitive impairments (7, 8).”
From Reduced glucose tolerance is associated with poor memory performance and hippocampal atrophy among normal elderly (2003) · cites this paper as [8]
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- Authors
- Kaplan, R. J., Greenwood, C. E., Winocur, G., & Wolever, T. M.
- Affiliations
- St. Michael's Hospital (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Kaplan, Randall J
- Venue
- The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2000-09
- Volume
- 72
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 825-836
- ISSN
- 0002-9165 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1861414381
- Cited by
- 193
- References
- 70
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 4.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Food composition and properties
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diet, Metabolism, and Disease
- Keywords
- cognitive performance, glucose regulation, older adults, dietary carbohydrates, beta-cell function, insulin resistance, verbal declarative memory, visuomotor performance, potato, barley, body mass index
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Attention, Cognition, Dietary Carbohydrates, Eating, Female, Glucose, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Psychomotor Performance, Mental Recall, Reference Values, Cross-Over Studies
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