"The results surprised the San Francisco VA Medical Center researchers, who said the findings may be of clinical significance for the treatment of diabetics in hypoglycemic coma. However, the researchers added that these findings in rats do not necessarily apply to humans."

"People in hypoglycemic coma -- caused by extremely low blood glucose levels -- can suffer destruction of neurons in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex, areas of the brain that are essential to memory and cognition."

""This study tells us for the first time that, in rats, the brain damage occurs not during the coma, but after it, when we give them glucose and their blood glucose levels return to normal," principal investigator Dr. Raymond A. Swanson, chief of the neurology and rehabilitation service
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