BLOOD SUGAR DICTATES WHAT YOU DECIDE

HIGH BP CAN TRIGGER DEMENTIA

If the cardiologist's warning don't scare you, consider this: Controlling blood pressure just might be the

best protection yet known against dementia. in a flurry of new research, scientists scanned people's brains

to show hypertension fuels a kind of scarring linked to later development of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias,. Those scars can start building up in middle age, decades before memory problems will appear. The evidence is strong enough that the National Institutes of Health soon will begin enrolling thousands of hypertension suffers in a major study to see if aggressive treatment-pushing blood pressure lower than currently recommended-better protects not just their hearts but their brains.AP

           A new study in the US says that fluctuating blood glucose levels may affect decision - making.

Scientists XT Wang and Robert Dvorak from the University of South Dakota looked into how blood glucose levels affect our thinking about present and future rewards.

            Participants in the study answered questions on whether they would prefer to receive a certain amount of money tomorrow or a larger amount  of money at a later date. The subjects answered the questions before and after drinking either a regular soda that contained containing sugar or a diet soda.

            It was seen that blood glucose levels might influence people's preferences for current versus later rewards.  The volunteers who drank the regular sodas and thus had higher blood glucose levels were more likely to select receiving more money at a later date, while those who had diet sodas and had lower blood glucose levels were likely to opt for receiving smaller sums of money immediately.

            These findings suggest an adaptive mechanism linking decision-making to metabolic cues, like blood sugar levels.  The results show that when we have more energy available (higher blood glucose levels) we are likely to be more future-oriented.

            On the other hand, having  low energy, that is low blood glucose levels, may make an individual focus more on the present. Artificial sweeteners may alarm the body of  imminent caloric crisis, causing increased impulsivity.

            The authors conclude that if controlling blood glucose levels may influence our decisions for later versus current rewards, then "reducing the fluctuation in blood glucose may offer treatment of impulsive disorders, anorexia,drug addiction, and gambling addiction."ANI