The BBC reports that drugs for diabetes account for 7% of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service’s prescription drug budget. They would spend less on diabetic drugs if more diabetics adhered to low-carb eating or the Mediterranean diet. Better yet, combine both eating styles as in the Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet. Steve Parker, M.D.
Entries Tagged as ‘Drugs for Diabetes’
July 6, 2010
Diabetes Drug Rosiglitazone About to Be Pulled Off the Market?
It’s over for rosiglitazone. Sold in the U.S. as Avandia, rosiglitazone is a drug used to control type 2 diabetes either alone or in combination with insulin, metformin, or a sulfonylurea. It has only one competitor in its class: pioglitazone (sold as Actos). Both drugs in the thiazolidinedione class (aka TZDs or glitazones) increase the risk [...]
June 9, 2010
Metformin Raises Risk of Vitamin B-12 Deficiency
A recent study out of the Netherlands shows that type 2 diabetics taking insulin and metformin are at risk of clinically significant vitamin B12 deficiency. B12 deficiency may cause anemia, nerve damage (neuropathy), and dementia, among other problems. Metformin is the cornerstone of drug therapy for type 2 diabetes. One reason is that it’s associated [...]
May 27, 2010
Book Review: Diabetes Solution – The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars
Here’s my review of Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars, published in 2007. Per Amazon.com’s rating scale, I give it five stars (I love it). ♦ ♦ ♦ Dr. Richard K. Bernstein gives away thousands of dollars’ worth of medical advice in this masterpiece, Diabetes Solution. It’s a summation [...]
April 4, 2010
New Page Here: Drugs for Diabetes
This is the best time in history to have diabetes. Thanks to the advancement of science, supported by the profit motive and a degree of free market economics, we now have 10 classes of drugs to help us conquer the disease. I recently finished a series of brief reviews on each drug class. Click on the [...]
March 31, 2010
Drug Review: Meglitinides (repaglinide and nateglinide)
Meglitinides—also called glinides—increase the output of insulin by the pancreas beta cells into the bloodstream. In that respect they are similar to sulfonylurea drugs, so the two classes are sometimes lumped together as insulin secretagogues. If the pancreas produces no insulin at all—as in most cases of type 1 diabetes—these drugs won’t work. Two meglitinides [...]
March 26, 2010
Vinegar and Weight Loss: Didn’t Work For Me
Last November I started another self-experiment to see if vinegar consumption would lead to any weight loss in me. I quit after nine weeks instead of sticking it out for the entire 12-week trial. I just got tired of it and hadn’t seen any weight loss. And I ran out of apple cider vinegar. Results? No [...]
March 22, 2010
Vinegar to Treat Diabetes?
Vinegar reduces blood sugar elevations after meals containing complex carbohydrates, according to the Department of Nutrition at Arizona State University. Meals containing carbohydrates (and to a lesser extent, proteins) raise blood sugar after meals in people with or without diabetes. [I've written previously about the normal ranges of blood sugars.] Previous studies established that a [...]
February 19, 2010
Drug Review: Insulin
I was going to do a brief review of insulin therapy here, but I found a good one at About.com. So why re-invent the wheel? If interested, click through to the article by Michael Bihari, M.D.: Insulin for type 2 diabetes: What you need to know. Steve Parker, M.D.
February 17, 2010
Brief Drug Review: Pramlintide
Pramlintide is sold in the U.S. as Symlin. It’s only used in patients already taking meal-time rapid-acting insulin. Pramlintide may have a role in treatment of overweight type 2 diabetics inadequately controlled on insulin, or who experience weight gain refractory to diet and exercise. Remember that drug names vary by country and manufacturer. This is a brief review; consult your physician [...]
