New Delhi, Sep 14: Long-term use of artificial sweeteners or low- and no-calorie sweeteners, used mainly by people with diabetes, can lead to cognitive decline, claimed a study.

The results, published in the Neurology journal, found that people who consumed the highest amounts had the greatest declines – 62 per cent -- in thinking and memory, as compared to those who consumed less.

The declines amounted to 1.6 years of additional brain ageing.

“We know sugar and sugar substitutes raise the risk of diabetes and malignancies. They are also linked to brain vascular cell dysfunction,” Dr. Manjari Tripathi, head of the neurology department at AIIMS, told IANS. She advised restricting its use.

The study revealed that the people who used the artificial sweeteners moderately had a 35 per cent faster rate of memory and thinking decline, and a 110 per cent faster rate of verbal fluency decline.

For those in the high consumption group, the rate of memory and thinking decline was 62 per cent faster, and their verbal fluency decline was 173 per cent faster.

Dr. Anshu Rohatgi, Vice-Chairperson, Neurology, from a city-based hospital, added that the effect, seen most commonly among diabetics, is a matter of concern as the incidence of diabetes is increasing.

Rohatgi explained that chronic exposure to these sugar alternatives may be making the brain more vulnerable.

A 2024 study led by the Chennai-based Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) showed that replacing table sugar (sucrose) with a small quantity of natural and artificial non-nutritive sweeteners (NNSs) such as sucralose in daily beverages like coffee and tea may have no adverse effect on glycemic markers like glucose or HbA1c levels.

The study, published in the journal Diabetes Therapy, revealed that people who used sucralose in pellet, liquid, or powder form also had a slight improvement in body weight (BW), waist circumference (WC), and body mass index (BMI).

Love to binge on cheeseburgers and fries? Beware, just four days of these fatty foods can rewire the brain's memory hub -- leading to risk of cognitive dysfunction, according to a study.

The research led by the University of North Carolina (UNC) in the US suggests that fatty junk foods can affect the brain almost immediately, well before the onset of weight gain or diabetes.

The results open the door to early interventions that can prevent even long-term memory loss associated with obesity, which is mainly driven by Western-style junk food rich in saturated fat.

The findings, published in the journal Neuron, showed that a special group of brain cells in the hippocampus -- called CCK interneurons -- become overly active after eating a high-fat diet (HFD), due to an impaired ability of the brain to receive glucose (sugar).

This overactivity disrupts how the hippocampus processes memory, even after just a few days of a high-fat diet, said Juan Song, Principal Investigator and professor of pharmacology at UNC School of Medicine.

The discovery also showed that a protein called PKM2, which controls how brain cells use energy, plays a key role in this problem.

"We knew that diet and metabolism could affect brain health, but we didn't expect to find such a specific and vulnerable group of brain cells, CCK interneurons in the hippocampus, that were directly disrupted by short-term high-fat diet exposure," Song said, who is a member of the UNC Neuroscience Center.

"What surprised us most was how quickly these cells changed their activity in response to reduced glucose availability, and how this shift alone was enough to impair memory," added Song.

For the study, the team placed mouse models on a high-fat diet resembling fatty junk food before starting behavioral testing.

Within four days of eating a high-fat diet, results showed CCK interneurons in the brain's memory hub became abnormally active.

The research also shows that restoring brain glucose levels actually calmed down overactive neurons and fixed memory problems in mice.

Notably, researchers discovered that dietary interventions like intermittent fasting periods following a high-fat diet were sufficient to normalize CCK interneurons and improve memory function.

(NG/VK)