Common Diabetes Drug Can Protect Against Dementia and Alzheimer’s, Research Shows

Growing research indicates that metformin could help prevent and treat colorectal cancer, which is rapidly on the rise in younger generations. As Best Life previously explained, “Metformin is an oral blood glucose-lowering drug used to treat type 2 diabetes.” And now, researchers say the tablet could also have positive effects on lowering dementia and Alzheimer’s risks in obese adults.

RELATED: Doctors Warn This Common Medication May Be Linked to Dementia Risk.

Some people could lower their dementia risk with metformin treatment.

The common diabetes drug metformin can protect against dementia and Alzheimer’s in overweight and obese adults, according to new research published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. The medication was also linked to “significantly lower risks” of mortality.

To arrive at these findings, the scientists assigned 452,777 individuals to a group based on their body mass index (BMI). These represented an overweight BMI and the four different levels of obesity.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these levels are defined as:

• Overweight: BMI range of 25 to 29.9
• Class I obesity: BMI range of 30 to 34.9
• Class II obesity: BMI range of 35 to 39.9
• Severe obesity: BMI range of 40 and above

Participants were prescribed metformin, though each BMI group also had some individuals who didn’t use metformin and served as the control group.

Over a 10-year follow-up period, the researchers recorded the number of dementia cases and all-cause deaths between metformin and non-metformin users in all four groups. There were 35,784 dementia diagnoses and 76,048 deaths across all cohorts combined.

However, “metformin users exhibited significantly lower risks of both dementia and all-cause death than nonusers,” the authors outlined in a news release.

Moreover, the benefits of metformin were obvious across all BMI groups, not just those categorized as “severe obesity.” The researchers observed an 8 to 12 percent reduced dementia risk and a 26 to 28 percent reduced risk of mortality in metformin users.

Going forward, the authors said additional research is necessary to gather a more comprehensive understanding of metformin’s effects.

“Although our study results are promising for metformin’s effects on dementia and mortality, further research is required to explore the mechanisms involved,” co-author Chiehfeng Chen, PhD, said in the release.

RELATED: Scientists Say This “Dirt Cheap” Treatment Could Reverse Alzheimer’s Disease.

Previous studies support the use of metformin to reduce dementia risk.

Previous research has touted the health benefits of using metformin to lower the incidence of dementia.

A 2023 paper published in JAMA Network Open concluded that stopping metformin treatment is linked to an increased risk of dementia. The study focused on diabetes patients who were already using metformin to help manage insulin levels.

“Terminating metformin treatment was associated with increased dementia incidence, corroborating prior observational research that initiating metformin was associated with reduced risk of dementia,” wrote the authors. “This finding has important implications for the clinical management of diabetes.”

Doctoral candidates at the University College London also set out to explore the effects of metformin on Alzheimer’s disease. In a proposal explaining their thesis for the study, they called out previous research that ruled against metformin’s neurological benefits. They set out to understand the “bad” and “good” effects of the drug.

“Metformin treatment has also been shown to increase the build-up of amyloid protein (a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease) in the brain, which is an unwanted negative effect. Therefore, there is a real need to understand in more detail how Metformin interacts with the Alzheimer’s disease brain,” reads the paper.

A 2018 study suggests that diabetes patients could take metformin to reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s.