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

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.

NCT Number	NCT05998772
Lead Sponsor	University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein Collaborators: University of Kiel
Conditions	Parkinson Disease, Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases, Sugar Intake
Enrollment	50 participants
Start Date	2023-09-01
Primary Completion	2025-12 (estimated)
Study Completion	2025-12 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2025-09-22