{"id":82856,"date":"2026-09-07T08:03:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T00:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=82856"},"modified":"2026-09-07T08:03:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T00:03:02","slug":"why-too-much-sugar-early-in-life-even-in-the-womb-could-increase-your-dementia-risk-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=82856","title":{"rendered":"Why too much sugar early in life, even in the womb, could increase your dementia risk later"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\"><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">This is the 97th instalment in<\/em> <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\"><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">a series on dementia<\/em><\/span><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers and stories of hope.<\/em><\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">The seeds of <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">dementia<\/span> may be sown long before our first birthday \u2013 or even before we are born. New research shows that while risks such as <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">high blood pressure<\/span> and <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">cholesterol<\/span> compound over decades, early sugar exposure can harm the brain before we take our first breath.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe were interested in whether nutrition during the first 1,000 days of life could influence brain health decades later,\u201d says Dr Jiazhen Zheng, who was part of the research team at HKUST that examined medical records of almost 65,000 people from the UK Biobank.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-mv7ovk e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dr Jiazhen Zheng was part of the research team at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology that studied the link between early sugar intake and dementia. Photo: HKUST\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/09\/04\/1245fc7a-a67e-4ae9-b9eb-bc5b7044db8f_728dba5b.jpg\" title=\"Dr Jiazhen Zheng was part of the research team at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology that studied the link between early sugar intake and dementia. Photo: HKUST\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">Dr Jiazhen Zheng was part of the research team at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology that studied the link between early sugar intake and dementia. Photo: HKUST<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">They compared data from people conceived and raised during World War II sugar rationing against those born immediately after the restrictions were lifted, when average sugar intake doubled. \u201cThe end of UK sugar rationing provided a rare natural experiment,\u201d Zheng says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3366317\/why-too-much-sugar-early-life-even-womb-could-increase-your-dementia-risk-later?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the 97th instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers and stories of hope&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4112,1709,1780,402,1567,3873,23892],"class_list":["post-82856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-dementia","tag-early","tag-increase","tag-life","tag-risk","tag-sugar","tag-womb","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}