DIABETES AS A CAUSE OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE

Parkinson's disease is the second most common degenerative disease of the human nervous system after Alzheimer's disease. Scientists fully believe that Parkinson's disease is a progressive disease of the nervous system that is caused by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease characterized by high levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar), which over time leads to serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves. PD should be considered a systemic disease and not simply a neurodegenerative disorder, as non-neurological processes such as DM may determine the development and exacerbate the severity of the neurodegenerative process. The purpose of this work is that, based on our research, we can prove whether diabetes really contributes to the development of Parkinson's disease. This is a retrospective paper, where retrospectively collected data were used, from the database in the Department of Neurology in Skopje, for a period of 10 years, from January 2014 to February 2024, for hospitalized patients. Based on the descriptive results of the crosstabulation of patients with Parkinson's and diabetes, it turns out that there is a weak relationship between these two diseases. previous studies exploring the link between diabetes and the risk of Parkinson's disease produced inconsistent results, with the methodology of these studies varying significantly. Furthermore, most of these studies were quite small in size with case cohorts of ~200–500 patients. In this time that we live, with such a rapid spread and development of diseases, we must emphasize that we must expand our fight against the factors that cause the disease, not only in the central nervous system, but also aim at every preventive measure that can slow down neurodegeneration.