Early-life sugar restriction was associated with lower all-cause dementia hazard.
Association of Sugar Restriction in Utero Through Age 2 Years on Dementia Risk Later in Life.
Jiazhen Zheng … S W Ricky Lee
Neurology · 2026
Background
Excess sugar intake in early life may affect long-term brain health, but evidence for dementia is limited.
Methods
We analyzed UK Biobank participants born around the end of UK sugar rationing.
n = 64,737 participants
HR, 0.77
Results
HR, 0.77
early-life sugar restriction meant a lower risk of developing all types of dementia
n = 64,737 participants
More results
Among 64,737 participants included in the analysis, the mean age at recruitment was 54.6 years, and 56.4% were women; 40,963 were exposed to sugar rationing during fetal and/or early-childhood life, and 23,774 were unexposed.
More results
Early-life sugar rationing was also associated with higher total gray matter volume (β, 3.27; 95% CI 0.46-6.07), lower white matter hyperintensity volume (β, -0.64; 95% CI -0.97 to -0.31), and better performance in processing speed and reasoning.
Incident type 2 diabetes and hypertension jointly mediated 25.5% of the association.
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Conclusion
These results support early-life sugar reduction as a potential strategy for dementia prevention.