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Influence of Glucose on Metabolism and Clinical Symptoms of Patients With Parkinson's Disease

Influence of Glucose on Metabolism and Clinical Symptoms of Patients With Parkinson's Disease

Status
Recruiting
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Observational
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05998772
Acronym
PaGlu
Enrollment
50
Registered
2023-08-21
Start date
2023-09-01
Completion date
2025-12-31
Last updated
2025-09-22

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases, Parkinson Disease, Sugar Intake

Brief summary

Many patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) report an increased consumption of fast-acting sugars. This tendency to consume sweet, high-sugar foods occurs in some patients even before the onset of cardinal motor symptoms. Some recent studies have demonstrated that PD patients have an increased consumption of fast-acting carbohydrates compared to healthy controls. However, the reason for this change in eating behavior has not yet been adequately explained. It is discussed that the increased sugar intake leads to an increased dopamine release in the brain via an increase in insulin and thus to an improvement in clinical symptoms. This study investigates the influence of fast-acting carbohydrates on insulin and glucose blood levels as well as motor and non-motor symptoms in patients with PD using an oral glucose tolerance test and a placebo oral glucose tolerance test in a crossover design.

Interventions

DIAGNOSTIC_TESTOral Glucose Tolerance Test

Application of 82,5 g of glucose monohydrate solved in 300ml water

OTHERPlacebo Oral Glucose Tolerance Test

Application of 125mg sucralose solved in 300ml water

Sponsors

University of Kiel
CollaboratorOTHER
University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Observational model
CASE_CROSSOVER
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
50 Years to 80 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease, stage Hoehn & Yahr 1.5-3 * Ability to pause antiparkinsonian medication in the morning without relevant impairment * Capacity to give consent (determined in doubt by two independent neurologists, MOCA ≥18) and written informed consent. * Patients are between 50 and 80 years of age, with exceptions for a maximum of 5 additional patients enrolled per group * For stratification into patients with and without sweet craving, a 3-day dietary protocol should be completed once by the patients * Group I: increased hunger for sweets. * Group II: no increased hunger for sweets. For the stratification into patients with and without increased hunger for sweets, participants are asked to answer the following questions: 1. Do you have sudden attacks of cravings for sweets? 2. Would you say that your consumption of sweet food has increased in recent years? 3. Would you describe your consumption of sugary food as increased or excessive? If one of the questions is answered with yes, participants will be assigned to group I, if all questions are answered with no, participants will be assigned to group II.

Exclusion criteria

* Other significant neurological diseases primarily affecting the central nervous system (e.g., multiple sclerosis) * Diagnosis of diabetes mellitus or prediabetes * Use of medications that affect glucose metabolism, such as antidiabetics, glucocorticoids, ciclosporin, tacrolimus, sirolimus, beta-blockers, thiazide diuretics, beta-2 adrenoreceptor agonists, theophylline, Clozapine, olanzapine, paliperidone, quetiapine, risperidone, tricyclic antidepressants, mirtazapine, mianserin, carbamazepine, gabapentin, pregabalin, valproic acid, lithium, antiretroviral drugs, statins * cardiac or brain pacemakers

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Concentration of Insulin in µU/mLimmediately before Application of oral glucose tolerance test and placebo as well as 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after applicationBlood value
Motor functionimmediately before Application of oral glucose tolerance test and placebo as well as 30, 60 and 120 minutes after applicationassessed by Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale Part III, 0-132 points, higher points indicate worse motor function
Concentration of Blood Glucose in mg/dLimmediately before Application of oral glucose tolerance test and placebo as well as 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after applicationBlood value

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Cognitive functionimmediately before Application of oral glucose tolerance test and placebo as well as 60 minutes after applicationassessed by Montreal-Cognitive-Assessment-Test (MoCa), 0-30 points, higher points indicate better cognitive function

Countries

Germany

Contacts

Primary ContactEva Schäffer, MD
eva.schaeffer@uksh.de004943150023983
Backup ContactJulienne Haas, MD
julienne.haas@uksh.de

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026