About Diabetes Medications

For all diabetics, the first treatments recommended are always lifestyle changes: diet, exercise, and if necessary, weight loss. But these are hard changes to make, and they don’t work for everyone.

Several medicines are available to Type II diabetics who can’t keep their blood sugar down with diet and exercise alone.

Do You Have a Avandia Deaths and Side Effects Lawsuit? »

Most people are familiar with Type I diabetes, in which the body simply can’t produce the insulin it needs to process food. The only treatment choice for Type I diabetics is injected insulin. By contrast, Type II diabetics are people whose bodies make some insulin, but not enough, and whose cells don’t absorb glucose well. Because they still have the tools to make and process insulin, Type II diabetics can use medications that help their bodies respond normally to food, in addition to or instead of insulin. The American Diabetes Association lists five classes of drug available to Type II diabetics.

Sulfonylureas (whose brand names include Glucotrol, Diabenise, Micronase and Amaryl) are some of the oldest and best-tested diabetes pills on the market. They work by stimulating the pancreas to release more insulin. Meglitinides (Prandin, Starlix) also make the pancreas produce more insulin. Both types are taken with meals. Doctors don’t recommend mixing the two types of drugs, because if combined, they could cause very low blood-sugar levels (hypoglycemia). People taking these drugs should also be careful about mixing them with alcohol, which can cause flushing, vomiting or sickness.

Biguanides (Glucophage) decrease the amount of sugars the body produces from food and make cells more likely to absorb those sugars. Some people have diarrhea with biguanides unless they’re taken with food.

Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors (Precose and Glyset) stop the body from breaking down starches and some sugars, which in turn stops these foods from raising your blood-sugar level. They may cause gas and diarrhea. A newer class of medications, DPP-4 inhibitors (Januvia), works similarly by preventing the breakdown of a body chemical that regulates blood sugar.

Thiazolidinediones (Avandia, Actos) are relatively new drugs that increase the body’s efficiency in using insulin, and also decrease the amount of sugars produced from food. The first commercially available drug in this class, Rezulin, had to be removed from the market because it caused toxic liver failure in some patients. Avandia and Actos were approved as replacements, but doctors are still advised to monitor their patients closely for liver problems.

Because thiazolidinediones are good at controlling blood sugar without the weight gain or other side effects of earlier drugs, they were originally welcomed as a breakthrough for diabetics. However, evidence is growing that at least one of these drugs, Avandia, has serious safety problems that may make it inappropriate for many diabetics. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in May 2007 found that users of Avandia raised their risk of heart attacks by 43 percent and their risk of heart-related death by 64 percent. This was especially disturbing because diabetes raises the risk of heart problems significantly. Doctors prescribe diabetes drugs in part to lower their patients’ risk of these types of serious complications.

Contact Our Avandia Diabetes Medication Lawyers Today »

Since the risk of Avandia heart attacks, risk of death from Avandia and other risky Avandia side effects were made public, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has required increasingly stringent black box warnings on the drug’s label, and new prescriptions of the drug have fallen dramatically. The FDA has banned the use of Avandia with insulin or nitrates, and asked patients with known heart problems, or with symptoms of heart problems, to talk to their doctors as soon as possible about changing medications. Faced with this information, many patients are switching back to older drugs with a longer record of safe use. Many others, concerned about the health effects of the medicine they trusted, are thinking about Avandia litigation.

Talk to a Lawyer