A type 2 diabetes drug taken orally and in widespread use for more than a decade has been found to have distinct advantages over nine other, mostly newer medications used to control the chronic disease, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins.
There are no high quality data to assess how well dietary treatments for type 2 diabetes work in people who have just been told they have the disease, but there is evidence that taking on exercise seems to be one way of improving blood sugar levels, according to the findings of a Cochrane Systematic Review.
Little evidence supports using rosiglitazone (Avandia) to improve the quality or length of life among adults with diabetes, according to a systematic review of data by German researchers.
New studies are needed to assess the trade-offs between potential benefits and potential harms when rosiglitazone is used by people with type 2 diabetes.
A review of published literature about benefits and harms of oral drugs for type 2 diabetes mellitus found that older agents, such as second-generation sulfonylureas and metformin, have similar or superior effects on glycemic control, lipids and other intermediate endpoints compared to newer, more expensive drugs, such as thiazolidinediones, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors and meglitinides.
There is currently no evidence available of a superiority of rapid-acting insulin analogues over human insulin in the treatment of adult patients with diabetes mellitus type 1.
It has long been known that type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. The body attacks the islet cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.
Most oral medications prescribed for type 2 diabetes are similarly effective for reducing blood glucose, but the drug metformin is less likely to cause weight gain and may be more likely than other treatments to decrease so-called bad cholesterol, according to a report funded by the Department of Health & Human Services’s (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Newer prescription drugs to treat type 2 diabetes ? including much-promoted Avandia and Actos ? are no more effective or safe than older drugs and cost significantly more, according to the latest report from Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs, a public information project of Consumers U nion.
A diagnosis of type I diabetes means a life sentence of medical follow-up. While treatments have become simpler and less restrictive in recent years, they are still a burden, especially for young patients.