Sulfonylurea Drugs Increase The Risk Of Heart Disease

Sulfonylurea Drugs Increase The Risk Of Heart Disease.
New experiment with shows that older kith and kin with type 2 diabetes who take drugs known as sulfonylureas to humiliate their blood sugar levels may face a higher risk for heart problems than their counterparts who memorandum of metformin. Of the more than 8500 people aged 65 or older with epitome 2 diabetes who were enrolled in the trial, 12,4 percent of those given a sulfonylurea drug experienced a essence attack or other cardiovascular event, compared with 10,4 percent of those who were started on metformin incoming. In addition, these middle problems occurred earlier in the course of treatment among those people taking the sulfonylurea drugs, the investigation showed.

The head-to-head comparison trial is slated to be presented Saturday at the American Diabetes Association annual converging in San Diego. Because the findings are being reported at a medical meeting, they should be considered beginning until published in a peer-reviewed journal proextenderusa.men. With type 2 diabetes, the body either does not forth enough of the hormone insulin or doesn't use the insulin it does produce properly.

In either case, the insulin can't do its job, which is to utter glucose (blood sugar) to the body's cells. As a result, glucose builds up in the blood and can bring havoc on the body. Metformin and sulfonylurea drugs - the latter a savoir faire of diabetes drugs including glyburide, glipizide, chlorpropamide, tolbutamide and tolazamide - are often among the first medications prescribed to lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

The findings are important, the researchers noted, partly because sulfonylurea drugs are commonly prescribed centre of the along in years to lower blood glucose levels. In addition, cardiovascular infection is the leading cause of death among people with type 2 diabetes. For several reasons, however, the supplementary study on these medications is far from the final word on the issue.

For one, people who are started on the sulfonylureas as an alternative of metformin are often sicker to begin with, said Dr Spyros G Mezitis, an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Metformin cannot be prescribed to hoi polloi with sure kidney and heart problems. Both medications lower blood glucose levels, but go about it in clearly different ways.

And "The sulfonylureas lower blood sugar by making the body produce more insulin, and this may cause inferior blood sugar or hypoglycemia". In contrast, metformin enhances the activity of the insulin that the body produces. Previous scrutinization has shown that metformin is not linked with as high a risk of low blood sugar as the sulfonylureas.

Hypoglycemia robs the muscles - including those in the stomach - of the glucose they need for energy, so they don't charge as well. This is why these drugs may confer a higher risk for heart attack. The green study, however, is based only on observations and does not prove any cause-and-effect relationship between these drugs and sincerity problems.

Dr Jerome V Tolbert, medical director of the outreach team at the Friedman Diabetes Institute in New York City, urged alertness in reacting to the new findings. "I wouldn't lay on this study and say, 'Everyone stop taking sulfonylureas,'" he said. But, "we are using less and less of these drugs because there are now newer and better drugs out there".

Some of the newer drugs are more costly. "If you are upset about your risks, a talk to your doctor for reassurance," he said, adding that people should never stop taking any prescribed medication without initial talking to their doctor.

Dr Joel Zonszein, director of Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, agreed that the modern development findings are far from definitive. But, "we are using sulfonylureas less and less now testosterone. And we are only using them in very limited patients and often for short periods of times to premium high blood sugar, and then we switch to another drug".