This blog tracks updates to the Blood Sugar 101 Web site.


Thursday, February 18, 2010

Another Large Study Links TZDs and Broken Bones

Page changed: Actos and Avandia: Dangerous Diabetes Drugs

Added this new study.

Thiazolidinedione Use and the Longitudinal Risk of Fractures in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Zeina A. Habib et al. JClinEndo&Metab Vol. 95, No. 2 592-600 doi:10.1210/jc.2009-1385

In this study, as summarized in the newsletter, Endocrine Today, which gives more information than the abstract, researchers,
... studied 19,070 patients at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit between January 2000 and May 2007. The study group included 9,620 women and 9,450 men. During the study period, 4,511 patients had at least one prescription filled for a TZD. The investigators used electronically maintained medical claims data to identify nontraumatic bone fractures.

TZD use was associated with an increased risk for fracture in the overall cohort (adjusted HR=1.35; 95% CI, 1.05-1.71) and in women (HR=1.57; 95% CI, 1.16-2.14). Men, regardless of age, were not at an increased risk for fractures (HR=1.05; 95% CI, 0.70-1.58). Women aged 65 years and older appeared to be at the greatest risk for fracture (HR=1.72; 95% CI, 1.17-2.52). They found that the increased risk for fracture in women appeared after approximately one year of TZD use.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

More Proof Metformin Is Protective Against Cancer

Page Changed: Metformin

Added this text with link to full text of a new study that found evidence that metformin protects people with diabetes against cancer.

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More evidence that metformin is protective against cancer emerged in a second study of 1,353 people with diabetes that lasted almost ten years. It was conducted in the Netherlands as part of the ZODIAC study and published in Februrary 2010. This study found that the cancer risk of people with diabetes taking metformin was identical to that of the population at large which was not the case with those who were not taking metformin. This is significant because people with diabetes have long been known to have a higher risk of cancer.

Metformin Associated With Lower Cancer Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes: ZODIAC-16 Gijs W.D. Landman et al.Diabetes Care Diabetes Care February 2010 vol. 33 no. 2 322-326. doi: 10.2337/dc09-1380