A study shows that type 2 diabetics who take blood sugar lowering drugs have an increased risk of multiple sclerosis. Women are particularly at risk. However, this does not seem to affect every age group.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune neurological disease that central nervous system impaired and leads to severe physical and cognitive impairment. It is estimated that more than 2.8 million people are affected worldwide. There is growing evidence that there is a connection between a Typ-2-Diabetes and MS, which is due to increased autoimmunity. This raises the question of the impact of anti-hyperglycaemic drugs – including insulin – on the onset of MS.
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“Previous research has one neuroprotektive Effect of blood sugar-lowering drugs in the Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias,” explains Dr. Kathleen Rodgers. “In MS, we wanted to further explore the age and gender differences – particularly in men and women under 45 with type 2 diabetes.”
Data from millions of patients
Rodgers and her team searched a US insurance claims database of 151 million members. They identified more than 5 million type 2 diabetics with MS. The researchers sorted the data by age—whether the diabetes was diagnosed before or after age 45—and sex to determine the factors influencing MS risk in each group.
Risk by age and gender
The results showed that men older than 45 who were taking diabetes medication had a slightly higher risk of MS. In women over 45 years of age, the incidence of MS increased significantly after taking anti-glycemic drugs. In addition to the age differences, risk analysis by drug class showed that a insulin treatment was associated with a higher risk in patients older than 45 years compared to other forms of treatment. In contrast, in patients younger than 45 years of age, taking blood-sugar-lowering drugs reduced the risk of MS. Research Director Dr. Rodgers says, “Our findings underscore the need for a precision medicine approach to preventing MS in these vulnerable populations.”
This text is based on a press release from the University of Arizona Health Sciences. You can find the original publication here.
Image source: Sylvain Mauroux, unsplash.