Middle-aged and elderly people who frequently use paracetamol (acetaminophen) instead of ibuprofen should be alert to the risk of developing type 2 diabetes

Ibuprofen and paracetamol are antipyretic and analgesic drugs widely used in daily life. Recent in vitro studies have found that long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may affect insulin sensitivity, leading to insulin resistance, and thus increasing the risk of diabetes, but there has been no large-sample population study to conduct a detailed assessment of the association between ibuprofen, paracetamol and diabetes risk. In response to this issue, Zhou Chun and his team from the National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Diseases of Southern Hospital recently published a research paper in the biomedical journal Diabetes & Metabolism , finding that the risk of type 2 diabetes is significantly increased in middle-aged and elderly people who frequently use paracetamol, but this phenomenon was not found in people who frequently use ibuprofen.

The study included more than 370,000 middle-aged and elderly British participants from the UK Biobank study who had no history of diabetes at baseline. Their average age was 56.3 years and 54.8% were women. Among them, 15.2% reported regular use of ibuprofen and 22.2% reported regular use of paracetamol.

After approximately 12.1 years of follow-up, 11,527 (3.1%) participants developed type 2 diabetes. The study found that participants who frequently used paracetamol had a significantly increased risk of type 2 diabetes by 25% compared with those who did not frequently use paracetamol; however, frequent use of ibuprofen was not significantly associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes. At the same time, the risk of type 2 diabetes was also increased by 25% in those who frequently used paracetamol compared with those who only frequently used ibuprofen. The difference between paracetamol and ibuprofen is that ibuprofen has both analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects.

In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that regular use of paracetamol, but not ibuprofen, is significantly associated with the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in middle-aged and older adults . The current findings highlight the need for more consideration when choosing between paracetamol or ibuprofen, but more research is needed to further confirm our findings.

References:

Zhou C, Wu Q, Ye Z, Zhang Y, Zhang Y, Yang S, Liu M, He P, Qin

Editor: Zhou Chunxianghao

Reviewer: Qin Xianhui