Diabetes Drug May Reduce Dementia Risk, Study Shows – Here’s How the Two Diseases May Be Linked

A recently published Korean study suggests that people with type 2 diabetes who are prescribed a specific class of drugs may be in significantly worse shape lower risk of dementia.

Researchers compared the health outcomes of more than 110,000 people aged 40 to 69 with type 2 diabetes who were prescribed a drug called SGLT-2 inhibitors with those of another 110,000 patients taking a different class of drugs, DPP-4 inhibitors, and followed the participants for an average of 670 days.

The researchers found that after adjusting for potential confounding factors, people taking SGLT-2 inhibitors had a 35% lower risk of developing dementia.

Diabetes is considered to be risk factor for dementia. So it’s not entirely surprising that treating diabetes can reduce the risk of dementia. But why would one drug reduce the risk more than another? And how are diabetes and dementia even related?

Diabetes and dementia

Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas. Its job is to transport glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream into cells, where it serves as an energy source. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the pancreas fails to produce adequate amounts of insulin, otherwise our cells will develop insulin resistance.

Dementia is caused by changes in the brain and includes: several conditions which affect memory, thinking, mood and our ability to perform everyday tasks.

Diabetes has long been recognized as a risk factor for both Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementiatwo most common forms of dementia. Both are characterized by a decline in cognitive function caused by disease of the blood vessels in the brain.

We don’t fully understand why diabetes and dementia are linked in this way, but there are some clues that may explain it. several possible reasons.

For example, diabetes increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, which damage the heart and blood vessels. When blood vessels in the brain are damaged, it can contribute to cognitive decline.

Additionally, high blood sugar levels cause inflammation, which can damage brain cells and contribute to the development of dementia.

Treating diabetes can assist reduce the increased risk

Better blood sugar control in people with diabetes helps protect blood vessels and reduces inflammation in the brain.

Diabetes can initially be controlled with lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise, but treatment may also include medications, such as those taken by the study participants. Korean Studies.

Patients taking both types of drugs had comparable control of their blood glucose levels. But why did one reduce the risk of developing dementia compared with the other?

SGLT-2 (sodium glucose transport protein 2) inhibitors lower blood glucose levels by increasing the removal of glucose by the kidneys. These drugs are known to have positive effects also in other aspects of health, including improving blood pressure, supporting weight loss, and reducing inflammation and oxidative stress (a type of damage to our cells).

Obesity AND high blood pressure themselves are risk factors for vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s dementia, so it may be that these effects of SGLT-2 inhibitors reduce the risk of dementia to a greater extent than would be expected based on better blood glucose control alone.

Prevention vs. Cure

It is critical to emphasize that the benefit of a drug reducing the risk of developing a disease is completely separate from any suggestion that the drug might be useful in treating the disease. The best way to reduce the risk of lung cancer, for example, is to stop smoking. However, once you have lung cancer, quitting smoking is not enough to cure it.

That said, because of the evidence linking diabetes and dementia, some diabetes medications have been previously studied as treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. And they have been shown to provide some degree of benefit for knowledge.

Semaglutide, better known by its trade name Ozempic, belongs to another class of diabetes drugs (called GLP1 receptor agonists). Semaglutide is currently being studied as a treatment for early Alzheimer’s disease in two clinical trials involving over 3500 patients.

These studies were inspired by observations made during clinical trials of semaglutide in people with diabetes, which showed lower rates of dementia in people taking the drug compared to those taking a placebo.

Like SGLT-2 drugs, GLP-1 class drugs are known to reduce encephalitisGLP-1 drugs also appear to reduce chemical reactions that lead to the formation of an abnormal form of a protein called Tau, one of the pathological features of Alzheimer’s disease.

What’s next?

As our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia continues to expand, there will also be advances in treatments.

It is unlikely that a single drug is the answer to Alzheimer’s disease. Cancer treatment has advanced to the point where the exploit of “drug cocktails” or combination of drugsis already routine.

One possible future for these diabetes drugs is that we could see them as part of a range of therapies that combat the ravages of dementia or, even better, assist prevent it, even in people without diabetes. But we need more research before we get to that point.