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Diabetes Drug Avandia -- Side Effect Reports Triple
In the month after the health risks of Avandia were exposed in the New England Journal of Medicine, the reports of side effects to federal regulators tripled.

Avandia, also sold under the name Avandamet, was found to increase the risk of heart attacks by 43 percent. It's used to control blood sugar and is prescribed to more than 6 million people, worldwide, suffering from Type 2 diabetes.

Since diabetics are already in the elevated-risk category for suffering heart attacks, the idea of a diabetes medication increasing that risk to such an extent was disturbing news.

In the the 35 days prior to the release of the study, five heart attacks had been reported, compared with 90 cases in the same period afterward. Heart related hospitalizations went from 11 to 126 and deaths attributed to the medication rose from 11 to 38.

It is believed that the spike in post-market side effect reports are due to a lack of knowledge about the potential side effects by doctors. They simply did not correlate their patients heart problems with the medication.

It also highlights the ineffectiveness and inadequacy of the current reporting system, which is the only thing the FDA relies on to measure a drug's safety once it's on the market. Reporting suspected side effects of a drug is voluntary and completely unenforced, which leads to a rather haphazard, incomplete and incorrect evaluation of the real damage being inflicted.

Avandia has been on the market for eight years, even though GlaxoSmithKline's own analysis indicated heightened cardiac risks at least a year before the New England Journal study was published. All the way back in 2000, there were also published reports about Avandia's role in causing liver failure. Yet the FDA stood idly by, allowing an untold number of individuals to put their lives at risk. No doubt thousands have already lost their lives unnecessarily.

Not only is type 2 diabetes completely preventable, but it is virtually curable for anyone who is willing to put in the hard time and work and recovering their insulin and leptin sensitivity. There's no need to put your life on the line by taking drugs that will hasten your departure.

Taking control of your own health can virtually eliminate your risk of developing diabetes, and if you already have it, please review How to Finally Make Diabetes Disappear. In fact, you may want to bookmark it for future reading, as it's quite voluminous.

Yahoo News July 13, 2007




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Article's Comment     ( 20 Comments )
 
 
 +9 Points           
 
Author of the Article
BY Mattrock 60   
  
[ Joined on 06/06 ]
[ Posted on July 17, 2007 ]
Post Reply
About 4 years ago I was diagnosed as diabetic, type 2.  My doctor placed me on Avandia and Glucotrol combined and I began monitoring my fasting blood sugar daily.  I found that by taking these drugs, I could continue to drink my Dr. Pepper and eat my hotcakes with maple syrup and still log my morning glucose level below 125.  My A1C reading came down from 92 to 58 in less than 6 months.  My doctor was pleased with everything except my weight.  In a year and a half, I had gained more than 100 pounds.  I also had to take a daily does of furosimide (lasics) to prevent fluid build up.  I tried dieting and did lose about 30 pounds and then slid back to my old pattern.  I needed the caffeine fix every morning from Dr. Pepper. (I do not dirink coffee or tea.) 

I finally started researching my disease and discovered that insulin was indeed increased by these drugs, about 4X and was able to handle the large amounts of High Fructose Corn Syrup I was consuming.

Then I finally realized that the drugs were only helping me to continue my destructive lifestyle.

I stopped seeing my doctor since she obviously was educated by the pharma industry.  I began a regimen of no sugar, no HFCS, and reduced my refined carbs consumption. 

The weight began shedding at the rate of about 2 to 3 pounds per week.  My fasting blood glucose level has consistantly been below 115 and sometimes below 100.  So far I am down about 60 pounds and have now added excercise to my regimen.  In November I will take another A1C test to see how I am doing.

These drugs are designed to keep you forever in the disease plus designed to require more and more drugs to counter the side effects.

One of the insidious aspects of drug therapy is that it enables one to continue in the same destructive lifestyle.  Change doctors if you have one like my ex-doctor.
 

 -2 Points           
 
Author of the Article
BY neroli moonstone   
  
[ Joined on 06/07 ]
Author of the Article [ Posted on July 18, 2007 ]
 
Have you tried the herbs goats rue, bilberry leaf which help the uptake on insulin into the blood stream?. Also the herb gynemma helps stop sugar cravings. These herbs can help bring your fasting levels of insulin down naturally. Just talk with your naturopath and ask them , I'm sure they will be happy to help. Also research has shown that chromium picolinate can help with diabetes. Love Dom ox

 
 +6 Points           
 
Author of the Article
BY annapavlova42   
  
[ Joined on 02/07 ]
[ Posted on July 14, 2007 ]
Post Reply
As I was reading this article, I began to realize that I had stopped  feeling stressed when reading these sad stories.  Our horrific fight with all these agencies, doctors , our government, and  the people of the world, is begining to come to a head.  Either people begin to get it or they won't.  

I am going to continue to help fight for health freedom as long as it is possible,  hopefully my personal opinion will  still count.

Ron Paul is a very important entity and we need him to be in office, for the sake of our survival. 

 
 +5 Points           
 
Author of the Article
BY Dr. David Spitz   
  
[ Joined on 12/06 ]
[ Posted on July 14, 2007 ]
Post Reply
Another reason the doctors should be teaching lifestyle changes, including the reduction of high fructose corn syrup, sugar, increasing exercise and incorporating more natural modalities such as GTF chromium and Cinnamon Bark.

Dr Dave
 

 +1 Points           
 
Author of the Article
BY neroli moonstone   
  
[ Joined on 06/07 ]
Author of the Article [ Posted on July 17, 2007 ]
 
I agree , preventative medicine is certainly the answer. The cases of oxidative stress leading to cardio vascular disease and diabetes type two are associated and I think that its obvious that if you have one of these illnesses you are at higher risk for the other as the incidence of oxidative stress related illness rises , so does the incidence of all related illness.


 
 +3 Points           
 
Author of the Article
BY