Diabetes and dementia might seem unrelated, but they have some key similarities, especially type 2 diabetes and dementia.
Researchers have been curious about whether drugs for diabetes could also help fight or prevent dementia.
A recent study involving the University of Arizona found something intriguing: an older class of diabetes drugs, often referred to as TZDs or glitazones, could reduce the risk of dementia by 22%.
How the Study Was Conducted
Researchers wanted to find out how different diabetes drugs affected dementia risk. They looked at health records of over half a million people aged 60 or older who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
These records were collected from the national Veteran Affairs (VA) Health System and spanned nearly two decades.
The study compared people who were treated with one of three types of diabetes medications: a drug class called sulfonylureas, TZDs, or the well-known drug metformin.
The researchers then tracked these patients’ health for nearly eight years on average.
What They Found
The study found that people who used TZDs had a 22% lower risk of developing any form of dementia compared to those on metformin alone.
That’s not all—using TZDs also led to an 11% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and a whopping 57% lower risk of vascular dementia.
Interestingly, people under 75 and those who were overweight seemed to benefit the most from TZDs. This suggests that using these drugs earlier could be an important step in preventing dementia.
On the flip side, using sulfonylureas alone actually increased dementia risk by 12%. However, the study suggests that adding metformin or a TZD to a sulfonylurea could help to balance out this risk.
What Comes Next?
The research team believes that future studies focused on using diabetes drugs to prevent dementia should think about focusing on TZDs.
Given their promising findings, TZDs might become an important tool in dementia prevention.
If you’re interested in keeping your brain healthy as you age, you might also want to look into other studies about the benefits of the Mediterranean diet or Vitamin B supplements for brain health.
Other research suggests that cranberries could boost memory, and that your choice of drinks like alcohol, coffee, and tea could influence cognitive decline.
In summary, this study is a big step in understanding how we could repurpose existing drugs to fight off dementia.
If you or someone you know is struggling with type 2 diabetes and concerned about dementia, these findings could be a ray of hope.
This study, led by Xin Tang and his colleagues, was published in the medical journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.
If you care about dementia, please read studies about how the Mediterranean diet could protect your brain health, and Vitamin B supplements could help reduce dementia risk.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies that high-fiber diet could help lower the dementia risk, and these antioxidants could help reduce dementia risk.
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