Older Diabetes Drugs Tied to Lower Dementia Risk
People with type 2 diabetes who use drugs known as glitazones to control their blood sugar levels may get another benefit — a lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.A study published October 11 in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care examined data on about 559,000 adults age 60 and older with type 2 diabetes who used at least one of three different types of drugs to manage blood sugar: glitazones, sulfonylureas, or metformin.After an average follow-up period of almost seven years, patients who took glitazones for at least one year were 22 percent less likely to develop any form of dementia than people who took metformin. By contrast, sulfonylureas were associated with a 12 percent higher dementia risk than metformin.“Our findings provide additional information to aid clinicians' selection of…