Millions of adults at high risk of diabetes could ward off the disease by taking a drug commonly used to treat it, according to the largest diabetes prevention study yet conducted.
The drug, rosiglitazone, or Avandia, taken for three years, reduced the risk of getting diabetes by 62 percent, according to a report published yesterday. The results, which come as the rate of diabetes soars worldwide, match those achieved by a moderate program of exercise and diet that doctors have had trouble getting their patients to comply with.
"Regrettably, people aren't leaping off the couch" despite the evidence that exercise can prevent diabetes, said Dr. Larry C. Deeb, president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association. "Now we know that drug interventions work. We don't want to fix everything with a pill, but the ravages of this epidemic suggest that anything and everything is fair game."
In the United States, more than 21 million people have diabetes, a disease in which the body cannot process the sugar produced by digesting food. The government predicts that the number will grow to 48 million by 2050 unless there are extensive prevention efforts.
As many as 54 million Americans have a condition called prediabetes, with slightly elevated blood sugar levels, and about 10 percent of them are likely to develop diabetes each year. Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to blindness, amputations, kidney failure, heart disease and early death. The study looked at preventing the most common form of the disease, Type 2, which most often develops in adulthood.
The drug is the third found to help prevent diabetes, but by far the most effective. A major U.S. study in 2002 found that metformin, the inexpensive, generic drug most widely prescribed to treat diabetes, reduced the risk of developing the disease by 31 percent and another study found that the little-used drug acarbose cut the risk by 32 percent. Because both drugs showed only about half the risk reduction of a moderate program of diet and exercise, most doctors have been reluctant to recommend that patients who aren't sick take a drug every day. In fact, the American Diabetes Association recommended earlier this year that doctors refrain from prescribing drugs to prevent diabetes.Deeb, who was not involved with the new study, said the association is likely to rethink that recommendation because of the rosiglitazone results.Use of the drug also could get a boost if its manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, decides to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market Avandia for diabetes prevention. Without FDA approval, doctors could prescribe the drug for prevention, but the company could not advertise it for that purpose. The company helped pay for the study, but had no role in the collection or analysis of the data, according to the academic researchers at McMaster University in Ontario who led the study.A Glaxo official said yesterday that the company will review the results and consider requesting FDA approval next year. Next: Risks in taking rosiglitazone >
Source: Health & Wellness
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