Type 2 Diabetes – Stable Blood Sugar Levels Helps to Optimize Fine Motor Skills

According to a study reported in June 2018 in the medical journal Research in Psychiatry and Neuroimaging, keeping blood sugar within a healthy range is one way to protect a person’s fine motor skills. Scientists from the Australian National University in Canberra and the University of New South Wales in Sydney found that people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes had poorer fine motor skills than people who had normal blood sugar levels and healthy, due to changes that had taken place in their brains. .

Their study included 271 people with normal brain function. Their average age was 63 at the time of enrollment…

• a total of 173 had normal fasting blood glucose,

• 57 had slightly elevated levels, and

• 41 had type 2 diabetes.

Participants with type 2 diabetes had lower scores on a fine motor test and smaller brain areas called putamen than people with lower blood sugar.

The researchers concluded that high blood sugar levels damage brain structure and function.

The putamen is involved in planning and executing movements. People diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease have damaged putamen, causing tremors and difficulty with voluntary movement. Anyone who has a stroke affecting the right side of the brain, where the putamen is located, may have problems with motor skills, often moving slowly on the left side of their body.

The Purdue pegboard was used to assess motor skills. It was developed to control the skills necessary for assembly work. It measures the dexterity of the arms, hands and fingers and involves handling pins, cups and washers according to instructions.

For some time it has been known that high blood sugar levels also affect the thinking part of the brain. Too much sugar damages blood vessels throughout the body, including the brain’s white matter where thoughts are transmitted. A condition called vascular cognitive impairment or dementia can result, causing problems with thinking. Alzheimer’s disease is more common in people who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes than in healthy people with healthy blood sugar levels.

In 1983 in Diabetic Treatments, the journal of the American Diabetes Association, a study was reported on where fine motor skills and thinking were impaired during abnormal blood glucose readings, including high and low levels. And in 1998, the Archives of Disease in Childhood, Fetal and Neonatal Edition, reported another study showing lower scores on motor activity, attention and hyperactivity tests in children of diabetic mothers.