DM prevention

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/15/AR2006091501008.\

html

The largest diabetes-prevention study ever done has found that a drug already

used to treat the disease can also help keep " pre-diabetics " from developing it.

But many experts said losing weight and exercising remain a safer, cheaper

approach.

The drug, rosiglitazone, or Avandia, appeared to cut the risk of developing Type

2 diabetes by more than half, doctors reported yesterday. Type 2 is the most

common form of diabetes, afflicting more than 200 million people worldwide.

Avandia also helped restore normal blood-sugar function in many of those who

took it.

A second part of the study found that a blood pressure medication called

ramipril, or Altace, made no difference in the risk of developing diabetes but

helped normalize blood sugar for some.

The research was long-awaited, and the Avandia results at first glance seem

impressive. But experts said it is difficult to determine how much of the

improvement was due to the drug, because participants also were counseled about

healthy diets and lifestyles.

" We know that lifestyle changes alone can reduce the risk of developing diabetes

by up to 58 percent, " said J. Abrahamson, medical director of the Joslin

Diabetes Center in Boston, who had no ties to the study.

Those benefits come without the $90- to $170-a-month cost and side effects of

Avandia, said Alvin C. Powers, director of diabetes research at Vanderbilt

University Medical Center, who also had no role in the research.

" Fluid retention, congestive heart failure and weight gain are known side

effects of Avandia " when it is used to treat diabetes, Powers noted.

The findings were reported yesterday at a meeting in Denmark. The Avandia study

was published online by the British medical journal the Lancet; the Altace

results were posted online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study was paid for by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the

drugs' makers -- GlaxoKline PLC for Avandia and Sanofi-Aventis SA and King

Pharmaceuticals for Altace.

The aim was preventing Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity and can lead

to kidney failure, amputations and death. It occurs when the body does not make

enough insulin or cannot effectively use it.

Doctors at McMaster University in Canada and in 20 other countries assigned

5,000 pre-diabetics to get Avandia or Altace, both drugs, or no drug. In the

Lancet study, 306 of the 2,365 people given Avandia for an average of three

years developed diabetes or died, compared with 686 of the 2,634 who did not get

the drug.

Probstfield, a University of Washington professor who led the U.S.

portion of the study, said he would advise pre-diabetics to try the drug.

" I'm a strict adherent to the lifestyle approach, " but the drug adds one more

tool to avoid a deadly and disabling disease, he said.

Check Nutrition at:

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Ortiz, RD

nrord@...

Overweight is something that just sort of snacks up on you.