Metformin Also Helps Pancreatic Cancer Patients

April 12th, 2012
by Michael O'Leary

Dr. Donghui Li, of MD Anderson Cancer
Center

A new study shows that people with diabetes and pancreatic cancer may live longer if they take metformin. In fact, those prescribed metformin had a 32 percent lower risk for death compared to those who didn’t take metformin.

Whether taking metformin might prevent people with diabetes from developing pancreatic cancer, however, is unknown.
This is mostly because the relationship between diabetes and pancreatic cancer is unclear. While about 80 percent of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer also have diabetes, researchers have been unable to determine if the diabetes causes the cancer, or whether the cancer causes the diabetes.

A 2003 review of multiple studies of the link between the two found that there is no simple answer to which is the cause and which is the result, and that neither theory excludes the possibility that pancreatic cancer is both caused by diabetes and causes diabetes. (Published site)

Tradjenta and Metformin Sing a Duet

March 16th, 2012

written by Michael O’Leary
If you are taking metformin and Tradjenta to control your type 2 diabetes, Eli Lilly and Company has a new combination drug for you.

With a name that sounds more like a drug you’d buy at a cantina in Tijuana, Jentadueto was launched for U.S. sales with a Lilly press release Mar. 7. Developed in conjunction with its German partner Boehringer Ingelheim, Jentadueto combines the DPP-4 inhibitor in Lilly’s Tradjenta with metformin in a twice-daily pill. (Published site)

American College of Physicians Now Recommends Metformin For Initial Type 2 Diabetes Treatment

February 21st, 2012

Several years ago the American Diabetes Association recommended diet and exercise as the initial treatment for type 2 diabetes. As well as that might work for most people, it is very difficult to stick with diet and exercise to maintain your blood sugar levels. The ADA acknowledged that reality some time ago and added to their guidelines starting newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes with metformin. (Published site)

Another week, another drug approved for type 2 diabetes

February 8th, 2012 

written by Michael O’Leary
If it seems there is another new drug given FDA approval for treatment of type 2 diabetes every week, you are not imaging things. Last week, once-a-week injection formula BYDUREON was approved.

This week the FDA approved another once-daily pill to help people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar levels. The new drug is a combination of sitagliptin and metformin and MERCK is marketing it under the brand name Janumet XR^®, the XR is for extended release. (Published site)

January 3rd, 2012 

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

written by Michael O’Leary

People with type 2 diabetes who control their blood glucose with metformin are more likely to be deficient in vitamin B12 than those who don’t use metformin.

That’s the finding of a survey of more than 8,000 adults, 6,867 of whom have type 2 diabetes conducted by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The survey results appear online Dec. 16 in the journalDiabetes Care.

The survey involved U.S. adults 50 years or older, and included 1,621 people without diabetes and 6,867 people with type 2 diabetes. Participants had to have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after age 30 and had not started insulin therapy within a year of being diagnosed. Vitamin B12 deficiency was defined as concentrations of the vitamin in the blood below 148 pmol/L, and borderline deficiency was between 148 and 221 pmol/L. (Published site)

GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!! Interim Results Promising for Lixisenatide

December 7, 2011

written by Michael O’Leary

More people with type 2 diabetes using insulin and metformin who have trouble keeping their blood glucose below 8 percent are able to reach their goal if they take lixisenatide with insulin and metformin.

That’s the interim result of the GetGoal Duo 1 study announced today in a press release by Sanofi Aventis, which has the marketing rights to the drug made by Zealand Pharma. (Link to published site)

What’s the Best Drug for Type 2 Diabetes? The Answer Isn’t Simple

September 1st, 2011 by Ryan Luce No Comments

Written by Michael O'Leary

With all the new FDA-approved drugs for type 2 diabetes lately, the question arises, is your current prescription the best for you? With names like Onglyza, Januvia, Byetta, Prandin, Tradjenta, metformin, Amaryl, it can be confusing even to know what to ask your doctor.

In a “best evidence review” published Aug. 30 in MedScape News, Dr. Charles Vega, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, compares the effectiveness and safety of all the medications for type 2 including the newest ones being marketed. At least that’s what he wanted to do. (Link to published site)

Does Exercise Interfere With Metformin?

August 25th, 2011 by Ryan Luce No Comments

written by Michael O’Leary

Sometimes research surprises, especially when the results seem counter-intuitive. Canadian researchers had just such a surprise when their study looking at the impact that drug therapy and exercise have  on people with type 2 diabetes showed that exercise seems to interfere with the glucose-lowering effects of metformin.

Research has shown that metformin reduces blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, and exercise improves insulin sensitivity, so intuitively, one would think doing both would reduce glucose levels even more. But in their small study of 10 people the researchers were surprised to see the opposite occurred. (Link to published site)