A new study from McGill University has found that two types of drugs often used to treat type 2 diabetes may also help protect the brain from dementia.
These medications, known as incretin-based therapies, are already used by many people to control blood sugar. Now, it seems they may offer additional benefits for brain health.
The study, published in the journal Drug Safety, looked at health records from over 450,000 patients. It focused on two groups of drugs: GLP-1 receptor agonists (like Ozempic) and DPP-4 inhibitors.
The results showed that both types of medication were linked to a lower risk of developing dementia.
Dr. Christel Renoux, a professor at McGill and senior researcher at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, said the findings are exciting. “These are very promising results,” she said. “Our study took into account health factors that other studies may have missed, making our findings more reliable.”
People with type 2 diabetes are known to have a 60% higher chance of developing dementia. Yet, there are very few ways to reduce this risk. That makes these findings especially important. In Canada alone, the number of people living with dementia is expected to reach one million by 2030.
The study followed people aged 50 or older for about three years. Some were using incretin-based therapies, and others were using a different diabetes drug called sulfonylureas. These sulfonylureas were used as a comparison group because they are not known to protect against dementia.
Among the findings, people taking DPP-4 inhibitors had a 23% lower risk of developing dementia compared to those using sulfonylureas.
The longer patients used the DPP-4 inhibitors—and the higher the dose—the more protection they seemed to get. GLP-1 receptor agonists also showed similar results, but the data was less certain because fewer people were using these newer medications.
“While many people are focused on the newer GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, this research shows that DPP-4 inhibitors may also be very helpful for brain health,” said Dr. Renoux.
Previous studies had hinted that these drugs might be good for the brain, but they didn’t include enough detailed health information. This made it hard to know if the drugs were truly helping, or if other health factors were influencing the results.
This new study used detailed clinical data from the U.K.’s Clinical Practice Research Datalink, allowing the researchers to adjust for key issues like the severity of a person’s diabetes.
Dr. Renoux said this stronger data gives more confidence in the findings. “These results give us solid evidence for something scientists have suspected for some time,” she said. “These drugs may have benefits beyond blood sugar control that we’re just beginning to understand.”
Still, more research is needed. Especially as GLP-1 drugs are now being used not only for diabetes but also for weight loss, it will be important to understand how they affect brain health over time.
In summary, this large study suggests that incretin-based therapies, especially DPP-4 inhibitors, may help lower the risk of dementia in people with type 2 diabetes. If future studies confirm these findings, doctors may one day use these drugs to protect both body and brain.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about the cooking connection between potatoes and diabetes, and low calorie diets may help reverse type 2 diabetes.
For more health information, please see recent studies about protein power: a new ally in diabetes management, and pineapple and diabetes: A sweet surprise.
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