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For all those diabetics out there, do the names Avandia or Altace ring a bell? A recent study has shown that both drugs may well help by giving additional prevention for those that are “pre-diabetics”,- which accounts for almost 40 million of our population. As many as half of the people who are “pre-diabetics” will develop diabetes within a three year time span.
This has been the largest study on diabetes prevention ever, the study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as well as other companies that make pharmaceuticals, like GlaxoSmithKline PLC which makes Avandia and Sanofi-Aventis SA and King Pharmaceuticals which makes Altace. Avandia, also know as Rosiglitazon, was shown to cut the risk of Type 2 diabetes development by more than half. Avandia also controlled blood-sugar to keep it at a normal level. Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common form of diabetes in the U.S today, for 18 million sufferers, this information could well be a major development.
Another part of the study looked at Altace, or Ramipril which functions as a blood pressure medication but can also help control blood sugar – yet it does not reduce any risk. The aim of the study was to prevent Type 2 diabetes which is most linked to obesity and sometimes kidney failure, amputations and death. Type 2 diabetes happens when the body naturally does not produce enough insulin or cannot effectively use what the body does produce.
So here are the ups and downs of the study. Both Altace and Avandia were used on the volunteers and some of them did not use any form of medication. The study showed that less people died on Avandia than those who did not take it. But of those volunteers on Avandia given, fourteen of them developed heart failure and only two developed heart failure from those not taking medication.
Experts are somewhat skeptical about the study results because the volunteers were also regularly counseled about healthy diets and lifestyles. Meaning the results could well be very different had the volunteers not been participating in any form of medical assistance. However many doctors say that working out and maintaining a healthy diet is still the best possible way to prevent diabetes in the long term. “We know that lifestyle changes alone can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by up to 58 percent,” said Dr. Martin Abrahamson, Medical Director of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Dr. Abrahamson is not associated with the study.
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