BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Millions of adults
at high risk of diabetes could ward off the disease by taking a drug commonly
used to treat it, according to the largest diabetes prevention study yet
conducted.
The
drug, rosiglitazone or Avandia, taken for three years, reduced the risk of
getting diabetes by 62 percent, according to a report published Friday.
Rosiglitazone is a drug from the thiazolidinediones family and is currently used
to treat diabetes once it is diagnosed.
The study enrolled 5,269 participants aged 30 or
older, recruited from 191 sites in 21 countries. All had "pre-diabetes" or
blood sugar abnormalities that indicated half of them would develop Type 2
diabetes within three years.
Participants took rosiglitazone while taking
lifestyle advice. Over a period of three years, only 12 percent of those taking
rosiglitazone developed diabetes, compared with 26 percent who became diabetic
while taking the placebo. Rosiglitazone was also found to return glucose levels
to normal in 51 percent of participants versus 30 percent of those taking a
placebo.
It was found to benefit all the patients, and
particularly those who weighed the most. However, a small risk of non-fatal and
treatable heart failure was also associated with the drug.
The research team were led by Hertzel Gerstein from
the Population Health Research Institute in Hamilton, Ontario, whose findings
were presented to the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study
of Diabetes in Copenhagen yesterday.
However, scientists said that a more common side
affect of the drug was weight gain. “Although this weight gain might be
associated with a more favourable distribution of fat, it is a
concern,” according to Jaakko Tuomilehto of the University of
Helsinki, Finland, and Nicolas Wareham of the University of Cambridge.
Enditem
(Agencies)
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