Drugs for Type 2 Diabetes

A study just published online in PLoS Medicine, a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science, calls into question how effective metformin, a drug given for Type 2 diabetes that stops the liver from making glucose and increases the body's response to insulin, is in preventing all-cause mortality or cardiovascular mortality. This study was done in response to a particularly large randomized study that was published in 1998 that showed metformin with diet control to recede all-cause mortality in overweight patients with Type 2 diabetes when compared to diet alone. The researchers here reviewed that study, along with 13 other studies and did not find that metformin reduced all-cause or cardiovascular mortality. They also found that the study results were all over the place, making it difficult to draw any sort of conclusion. Clearly more studies need to be done. In the meantime, don't depend on metformin to take care of your sugar problem. Diet and exercise are extremely important whether or not you're taking metformin. In the meantime, if you're taking metformin, be sure to take supplemental vitamin B12, as you may very well be deficient in this vitamin.