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.

Acetaminophen (Paracetamol) use in adolescents linked to doubled risk of asthma

New evidence linking the use of acetaminophen to development of asthma and eczema suggests that even monthly use of the drug in adolescents may more than double risk of asthma in adolescents compared to those who used none at all; yearly use was associated with a 50 percent increase in the risk of asthma.
Read article at physorg.com

Comment by Dr Rath Foundation: Based upon research involving more than 300,000 13- and 14 year old children in 113 centers throughout 50 countries, the results of this study follow hot on the heels of independent research that links acetaminophen (Paracetamol) not only to asthma but also to hearing loss and adverse vision events. As such, as the leading cause of liver failure in the United States and carrying a much increased risk of stroke and heart attack, it is becoming increasingly clear that the dangers of acetaminophen are far higher, and more numerous, than the business with disease and its friends in the drug regulatory agencies would have you believe.

Teenager with liver failure warns of the harm done by binge drinking

Binge drinking caused teen's liver failure at 14

Extract from the Telegraph:

"A teenager has told how her binge drinking caused her liver to fail at the age of 14.

Natasha Farnham, who is now 18, is believed to be the youngest person in Britain to be diagnosed with alcohol-related liver failure, claims the charity British Liver Failure.

She started drinking at 12 and within a year was consuming up to six bottles of wine a day.

Two years later she was taken to hospital after drinking 16 bottles of wine, cider and spirits in three days.

Doctors diagnosed liver failure - usually suffered by middle-aged alcoholics - and told her to stop drinking. But she ignored the warning and has gone into rehabilitation at the age of 18.

Doctors tell her that she will die if she drinks again.

Miss Farnham now has memory loss problems."