A new study has found that a class of drugs used to treat diabetes may be linked to a lower risk of dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
The study looked at sodium/glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, also known as gliflozin, which lower blood sugar by causing the kidneys to remove sugar from the body through urine.
“We know that these neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and Parkinson’s disease are common, and the number of cases increases as people age, and people with diabetes are at increased risk of cognitive impairment,” said study author Dr. Min Young Lee, Ph.D., of Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea. “So it’s encouraging to see that this class of drugs may offer some protection against dementia and Parkinson’s disease.”
The study, published in the journal Neurology on September 18, 2024, looked at people with type 2 diabetes who started taking diabetes medications between 2014 and 2019 in South Korea.
People taking gliflozinate were compared with people taking other oral diabetes medications, with both groups being of similar ages, having similar health conditions and complications from diabetes.
The researchers then followed the participants to see if they developed dementia or Parkinson’s disease. People taking gliflozin were followed for an average of two years, while those taking other medications were followed for an average of four years.
Of the 358,862 participants with an average age of 58, 6,837 developed dementia or Parkinson’s disease during the study period.
Alzheimer’s rate decreases
The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease for people taking gliflozin was about 39.7 cases per 10,000 person-years, compared with 63.7 cases for those taking other diabetes medications.
Vascular dementia – dementia caused by blood vessel disease – occurred at a rate of about 10.6 cases per 10,000 people taking gliflozin, compared with 18.7 for those taking other drugs.
For Parkinson’s disease, the incidence rate for those taking gliflozin was about 9.3 cases per 10,000 compared to 13.7 for those taking other drugs.
After adjusting for other factors that might affect the risk of dementia or Parkinson’s disease, such as diabetes complications and medications, the researchers found that gliflozin use was associated with a 20% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and a 20% lower risk of Parkinson’s disease.
“The results are generally consistent even after adjusting for factors such as blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol and kidney function,” Dr. Min-Young Lee said, according to EurekAlert.
“More research is needed to validate these findings in the long term,” he added.
He noted that since the participants were followed for less than 5 years at most, it is possible that some participants may develop dementia or Parkinson’s disease later on.