A new study suggests that a drug designed to treat diabetes may reduce one's risk of stroke and heart attack.

According to a news release, pioglitazone, a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes, may prevent recurrent stroke and heart attacks among people with insulin resistance but without diabetes.

The results of the Insulin Resistance Intervention after Stroke (IRS) trial suggests a potential new method to keep high-risk patients who had already one stroke or transient ischemic attack from suffering stroke and heart attack again.

Pioglitazone Prevents Recurrent Vascular Events

The new study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, was the first one to discover that a drug designed to target cell metabolism can potentially prevent secondary strokes and heart attack even before one develops diabetes. Insulin regulates metabolism and keeps the blood sugar from getting too high. Insulin resistance is a condition where the body produces insulin but does not use it effectively.

"For the first time, a therapy directed at insulin resistance has been shown to prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events for these patients," said lead author Walter N. Kernan, MD, professor of medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. in a press conference.

"This study represents a novel approach to prevent recurrent vascular events by reversing a specific metabolic abnormality thought to increase the risk for future heart attack or stroke," he added.

Kernan added that the trial supports the value of more research to test the vascular benefits of other interventions like exercise, diet and medication, which reportedly gave similar effects on one's metabolism as that of pioglitazone.

The said study involved 3,000 patients from seven countries who experienced ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack in the previous six months. They were randomly provided with pioglitazone or placebo for up to five years in addition to the standard care they received.

During the study, only 9 percent of the participants taking pioglitazone experienced stroke or heart attack while there was 11.8 percent of a patient on placebo. The results suggested that 28 strokes or heart attack cases might be prevented for every 1000 patients who take pioglitazone for up to five years.

Previous studies suggested that insulin resistance increases one's risk for stroke. The IRIS trial is the first one to treat it with a therapy that reduces the risk of recurrent stroke and heart attack.

Pioglitazone Lowers the Risk of Diabetes

The new study also suggests that pioglitazone reduces the risk of diabetes by 52 percent.

Unfortunately, at the time, pioglitazone is not FDA-approved for the uses studied in the IRIS trial.

"More research is needed to determine the mechanisms by which pioglitazone decreases risk for stroke and heart attack and increases bone fracture risk, with the hope of developing strategies that maximize benefit and minimize serious side effects in our patients," Kernan concluded.