Diabetes Pill Interesting Side Effect – It Treats Alzheimers

People taking popular drug metformin to treat their diabetes might have noticed that they are getting smarter and that their memory is suddenly much better. No surprise there. Scientists from the University of Toronto-affiliated Hospital for Sick Children found that metformin encourages new neurons to grow in the brain.

Old drug in the new role

The leader of the study Freda Miller is known for her work on the aPKC-CBP pathway, which tells neural stem cells to become mature neurons. She found that the same pathway plays role in the way drug metformin works in liver cells. The study shows great promise for the development of therapies to repair the damage to the brain by enticing present cells to work instead of introducing new stem cells.

The study was conducted on mice. Mice taking metformin had increased number of newly born neurons, and were much better at standard tests used for special learning.

No need to wait

There are already some reports of the improvements in Alzheimer’s patients who are taking metformin for their diabetes, but the improvements were thought to be caused by better diabetes control.

This discovery is particularly important because metformin is already available and there is no need for waiting for the approval. It is widely used and found to be completely safe. Researches are planning on testing metformin for possible use in repairing brains damaged by trauma or radiation therapy. It is only a matter of time before someone tries to find out if metformin can be used to make healthy people smarter.

Share

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

User Reviews

Reply

Your email address will not be published

four × 5 =

Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

View all post by HealthStatus Team