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Diabetic seniors who eat a high-fat meal experience memory loss immediately after, but this can be offset by taking supplements of vitamins C and E, new research says.

The study, by researchers at Toronto's Baycrest health centre, found that seniors with type 2 diabetes had higher memory test scores when they ate a high-fat meal with vitamin supplements compared to when they had the meal alone.

When subjects had the meal without the vitamins, they experienced a 25 per cent drop in memory function. They forgot more words and information both in the moment and over the course of a 90-minute test period.

That is akin to a 50-year-old suddenly developing the memory of a 75-year-old, said senior study author Dr. Carol Greenwood.

"So you would be taking a young, middle-aged person and have them function as an older person effectively, in terms of their memory, simply by eating a meal," Greenwood, a senior scientist at Baycrest, told Â鶹ӰÊÓ.

The findings are published in the July issue of Nutrition Research.

Previous research has proven that type 2 diabetes leaves patients particularly vulnerable to memory loss after eating unhealthy meals, and has linked the disease to cognitive problems such as memory loss.

Type 2 diabetes is also linked with chronic oxidative stress, which can be exacerbated by a diet of unhealthy foods. When the body is under oxidative stress, free radicals damage body tissue, including brain tissue.

The researchers of this study believe that a regular cycle of memory loss could have cumulative effects on the brain and could even influence the development of dementia.

For the study, 16 people with type 2 diabetes over the age of 50 ate three different test meals: a high-fat meal of pastry, cheddar cheese and yogurt with whipped cream; a meal that consisted of only drinking water; and a repeat of the high-fat meal while at the same time taking 1,000 mg of vitamin C and 800 International Units (IU) of vitamin E.

Starting 15 minutes after beginning their meal and lasting for 90 minutes, subjects completed tests that measured their ability to remember words and information they had read about.

Greenwood cautioned that supplement use should not be a substitute for eating healthy foods.

"You would be encouraging people to eat fruits and vegetables at every meal," Greenwood said. "So they would get natural vitamins with their meal to help protect against other things."

That's a message not lost on 88-year-old diabetic Rosa Barns. She sticks to a low-fat diet that's almost completely sugar free. Though she finds it difficult, she knows what the consequences will be if she falls off the wagon.

"It's boring, but it's a choice of eating well and being well," Barns told Â鶹ӰÊÓ. "Or not eating well and diabetes hits you badly. It's a very serious thing."

Researchers will next have to study whether antioxidants improve memory by reducing oxidative stress on the body or if they have an impact on parts of the brain related to memory.

Based on a report by CTV medical correspondent Avis Favaro and senior producer Elizabeth St. Philip.

Abstract:

Antioxidant vitamins reduce acute meal-induced memory deficits in adults with type 2 diabetes

Michael Herman Chui, Carol E. Greenwood

Memory impairment is observed in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), with further acute deficits after meal ingestion. This study explored whether postprandial oxidative stress was a contributor to these meal-induced memory deficits. Sixteen adults with T2DM (mean age, 63.5 � 2.1 years) who were not regularly taking high-dose antioxidant supplements were fed a high-fat meal, the same test meal with vitamins C (1000 mg) and E (800 IU) tablets, or water on 3 separate occasions. After meal ingestion, a battery of cognitive tests were administered, which included measures of delayed verbal memory, assessed at 60 and 105 minutes after meal ingestion. Relative to water consumption, the high-fat meal resulted in poorer performance at 105 minutes postingestion on measures of delayed verbal recall (word list and paragraph recall) and working memory (Digit-Span Forward). Coconsumption of antioxidant vitamins and high-fat meal prevented this meal-induced deficit such that performance on these tasks was indistinguishable from that after water intake. At the same time point, a small but significant improvement on the word-naming and color-naming components of Stroop was observed after meal ingestion, relative to water, irrespective of whether antioxidants were consumed, demonstrating the specificity of meal-induced impairments to memory function. Executive function, assessed by Trails Parts A and B, was not influenced by meal or antioxidant ingestion. In adults with T2DM, coconsumption of antioxidant vitamins minimizes meal-induced memory impairment, implicating oxidative stress as a potential contributor to these decrements.