The Effects of Diabetes: Guest Blog

Coping with diabetes is a daily journey for millions of individuals and their families. If you have a family member or friend with type 1 diabetes, you may be familiar with the allergic reactions, irritation and rash that insulin injections can cause.

People with type 2 diabetes face different challenges, as doctors often prescribe them medications to help their cells use insulin more efficiently. Unfortunately, these patients and their families may be forced to deal with some serious side effects from these medications.

The Most Dangerous Diabetes Drug

Actos is the most popular drug prescribed to treat diabetes — and among the most dangerous.

Actos carries a black-box warning from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because it can cause heart attacks. In 2011, Actos was shown to increase the risk of bladder cancer by 40 percent if a patient takes it for longer than a year.

Some other dangerous Actos side effects include macular edema, which is an eye disorder that causes blindness, and an increased risk of broken bones and liver failure. 

Patients have sued the maker of Actos, after suffering complications from taking the drug, creating thousands of Actos Lawsuits.

The Dangers of Metformin

Metformin is usually one of the first drugs doctors give to people with type 2 diabetes because it lowers blood-sugar levels quickly. Sadly, it also can have some serious side effects.

Metformin can cause heart or liver failure, or chronic metabolic acidosis — which occurs when extra amounts of acid fill the body. 

Safer Ways to Treat Diabetes

Diabetes is hard enough for patients and their families. No one needs a diabetes drug that can bring even more visits to the doctor or, in the worst-case scenario, a  terminal illness.

The good news for families and diabetes patients is that there are safer alternatives. Doctors can decide whether any of the following might be a good option:  non-sulfonylurea secretagogues, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors or sulfonylureas. These medications can lower blood sugar and carry less risk.

William Richards is a writer for Drugwatch.com. He uses his journalism background to investigate dangerous drugs and promote consumer awareness to better the community.

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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