Breakthrough Alzheimer's Treatment Hinges on Diabetes Drugs

A study published in PLOS One suggests high blood sugar medication may ease the symptoms of Alzheimer's, reports the New York Post . Earlier research found the brains of people with both Alzheimer's and diabetes had fewer lesions compared with non-diabetics, and the new study indicates a likelihood that the diabetes drugs those subjects took, such as metformin, protected them from the lesions. The team analyzed the tissue and brain capillaries of 34 people with Alzheimer's and type 2 diabetes, comparing them with tissue from 30 brains of people with Alzheimer's who lacked diabetes, a control cohort of 19 brains without Alzheimer's or diabetes. Brain tissue from the diabetics had half the markers of Alzheimer's versus non-diabetics, and Mount Sinai's Vahram Haroutunian says researchers think these markers begin forming "years or decades" before symptoms manifest themselves in people with Alzheimer's. He notes the implication is that current diabetics with Alzheimer's should continue taking diabetes medications instead of changing their diet, although he advises against giving diabetes drugs to non-diabetics at this point. "Their blood sugar levels would drop, they might faint, there would be all kinds of nasty effects," Haroutunian warns.