United States: Recent Korean study postulates that those with the type 2 diabetes taking a specific class of medicine could be up to 30% less likely to develop dementia.
The researcher has matched the health of more than 110,000 diabetic patient aged between 40-69 who had been taking SGLT-2 inhibitors against the another 110,000 patient with DPP-4 inhibitors. The investigators observed them for an average of 670 days.
The researchers also noticed that, on supposedly controlling for confounding factors, people who had taken SGLT-2 inhibitor were 35% less likely to have dementia. There is literature evidence showing that diabetes is one of the precursors for dementia development.
It is therefore not very shocking that managing diabetes could lower the risk of dementia. But why will one drug reduce the risk to an extent more than the other does? So how does diabetes have anything to do with dementia then?
It is a hormone which is almost secreted by the pancreas which helps regulate variety of metabolic process in the body. Its function is to transport glucose or sugar from our blood into the inside of the cells or cellular where this can be used for energy. Diabetes type 2 occurs when our pancreas are unable to secrete adequate amounts of insulin or when the cells of the body actually become insensitive to insulin.
Dementia is due to a lot of the changes in the brain and refers to a collection of diseases that can impair memory, reasoning skills and emotions as well as functional abilities. Diabetes has for long been associated with Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia being the two most common types of dementia. Both are featured by dementia as a result of the disease of the significant blood vessels in the brain.
It is not clearly known why diabetes and dementia are associated as stated above, but there is a few possibilities.
For Example, diabetes put an individual at a very much higher risk of developing heart disease and stroke which affect the heart as well as blood vessels. In case the blood vessels in the brain are damaged then this may result to cases of cognitive impairment.