Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes and Dangerous Medications

 

When you are first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes doctors will recommend you begin exercising and eating healthier foods. That’s the first prescription the medical community turns to before medication.

 

Why does being overweight contribute to type 2 diabetes? More than 85 percent of people who have type 2 are obese. There is definitely a connection, but scientists are still uncertain as to what it is. One theory is that having excess weight makes your cells more resistant to insulin. If cells don't absorb insulin, blood sugar levels will rise, causing diabetes.

 

Another study puts forward the theory that fat buildup might essentially be blocking the pancreas from putting out insulin. Fat could also be keeping the liver from absorbing insulin. That study found that as people lose weight, the liver's ability to filter sugar improves and the pancreas produces more insulin.

 

People with type 1 diabetes do not produce insulin. They are mostly limited to insulin in the treatment of their condition. People with type 2 diabetes are in a unique position. They developed the disease later in life, possibly because of obesity. They still produce some insulin, and medication can help to manage their disease.

 

People with type 2 diabetes also make up the majority of diabetes cases — an estimated 95 percent. This makes people with type 2 diabetes a very attractive target for pharmaceutical companies that want to sell diabetes drugs.

 

One of the best-selling medications for type 2 diabetes is Actos, which works by making cells more sensitive to insulin. When cells are more insulin-sensitive, they filter more sugar from the blood. That lowers blood sugar levels.

 

Actos is manufactured by Takeda Pharmaceuticals. The drug has made the company more than $16 billion in the United States alone since 2007. All of this money may have helped to hide dangerous Actos side effects.

Actos has carried a black-box warning since 2007. The Food and Drug Administration only uses this warning on drugs that can cause serious injury or death. Actos got its warning for increasing the risk of congestive heart failure by 30 percent.

 

The drug also drastically increases the risk of Actos bladder cancer. A U.S. study says Actos increases the risk by 40 percent when the pill is taken for more than 12 months. Another study, published in the British Medical Journal, says Actos can actually increase bladder cancer risk by 83 percent.

 

Other type 2 diabetes drugs like metformin and sulfonylureas can have side effects on the kidneys, liver and heart.

 

Patients and doctors should discuss each medication option and then decide together which one is best.

  

 

William Richards researches and writes about prescription drugs and medical devices for Drugwatch.com.

Diabetes drugs, Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone), are causing widespread heart failure.

Scientists link diabetes drugs to heart failure - Guardian

Extract:

"Two of the most commonly used drugs for diabetes, which were taken by hundreds of thousands of mostly overweight people in the UK last year, are causing widespread heart failure, scientists warn today.

Use of the drugs, prescribed by doctors for type II diabetes, has doubled in the past three years as a consequence of a growing obesity problem. Last year 1.8m prescriptions were written across the UK, which scientists say equates to several hundred thousand patients taking the drugs which are recommended for use across the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

But researchers today call on Nice to think again, revealing that as many as one in every 50 patients taking the drugs Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone) over a period of 26 months will have to be hospitalised for heart failure.

The class of drugs, they say in the journal Diabetes Care, doubles the risk of heart failure, and even those with no history of heart problems are affected.

"This means that the diabetes drugs could have caused thousands of additional cases of heart failure, creating a substantial burden on hard-pressed NHS services," said Dr Yoon Loke, a clinical pharmacologist at the University of East Anglia who carried out the research with Wake Forest University in the US. "I think Nice should re-evaluate their decision to recommend these diabetes drugs."

Concerns about the safety of the drug were triggered in May when a leading US cardiologist published evidence of a link to heart attacks and death. The manufacturers strongly contested his study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

But today's evidence will add urgency to a special meeting of the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which was already scheduled for Monday to discuss the safety of the drugs which are taken by 7 million people in the US.

Global sales of Avandia, made by the British company GlaxoSmithKline, have dropped by 22% in the US since the heart attack data was published in May, but are still worth £349m.
However, in Europe sales have continued to grow by 20% to £63m. Avandia is the company's second best-selling drug."

Most prescription drugs are harmful so only take them if it is really necessary, and always check what side-effects are listed for them. - But bear in mind that not all side-effects are listed...)o:

There is no need at all for overweight people ever to take 'slimming' drugs and dieting is ALWAYS harmful. - Obesity is caused by fluid retention not by overeating, and fluid retention can easily be reduced by eating less salt/sodium, so avoid eating salt and food containing salt.

You can lower your risk of heart attack and stroke, as well as many other illnesses, and lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

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