Drugs used to treat diabetes may also be effective in reducing the incidence of dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
A major study, conducted in South Korea, explored links between sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors (known as gliflozins) and rates of other diseases.
SGLT2 inhibitors lower blood sugar by causing the kidneys to remove sugar from the body through urine.
The study looked at people with type 2 diabetes who started diabetes medication from 2014 to 2019 and followed them to see whether they developed dementia or Parkinson’s disease.
It found those using the drugs had around a 20 percent less chance of developing the conditions.
“Among the 358,862 participants with an average age of 58, a total of 6837 people developed dementia or Parkinson’s disease during the study,” the study report says.
“For Alzheimer’s disease, the incidence rate for people taking SGLT2 inhibitors was 39.7 cases per 10,000 person-years, compared to 63.7 cases for those taking other diabetes drugs.
“For vascular dementia, which is dementia caused by vascular disease, the incidence rate for people taking the SGLT2 drugs was 10.6 cases per 10,000, compared to 18.7 for those taking the other drugs.
“For Parkinson’s disease, the incidence rate for those taking the SGLT2 drugs was 9.3 cases per 10,000, compared to 13.7 for those taking the other drugs.”
The results were published in the September issue of Neurology – the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Study author Minyoung Lee, of Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, said the results were welcome because neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and Parkinson’s disease were common and cases were growing as the population aged.
After researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect the risk of dementia or Parkinson’s disease, such as complications from diabetes and medications, they found that SGLT2 inhibitor use was associated with a 20 percent reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and a 20 percent reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease.
Those taking the drugs had a 30 percent reduced risk of developing vascular dementia.
“The results are generally consistent even after adjusting for factors like blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol and kidney function,” Dr Lee said. “More research is needed to validate the long-term validity of these findings.”
The full report is on the AAN website.
