Sulfonylurea Drugs Increase The Risk Of Heart Disease

Sulfonylurea Drugs Increase The Risk Of Heart Disease.
New experiment with shows that older ladies and gentlemen with type 2 diabetes who take drugs known as sulfonylureas to humble their blood sugar levels may face a higher risk for heart problems than their counterparts who induce metformin. Of the more than 8500 people aged 65 or older with breed 2 diabetes who were enrolled in the trial, 12,4 percent of those given a sulfonylurea drug experienced a middle attack or other cardiovascular event, compared with 10,4 percent of those who were started on metformin. In addition, these heartlessness problems occurred earlier in the course of treatment among those people taking the sulfonylurea drugs, the lessons showed.

The head-to-head comparison trial is slated to be presented Saturday at the American Diabetes Association annual tryst in San Diego. Because the findings are being reported at a medical meeting, they should be considered preparation until published in a peer-reviewed journal. With type 2 diabetes, the body either does not spark enough of the hormone insulin or doesn't use the insulin it does produce properly.

In either case, the insulin can't do its job, which is to throw glucose (blood sugar) to the body's cells. As a result, glucose builds up in the blood and can impose havoc on the body. Metformin and sulfonylurea drugs - the latter a stock of diabetes drugs including glyburide, glipizide, chlorpropamide, tolbutamide and tolazamide - are often among the first medications prescribed to lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

The findings are important, the researchers noted, partly because sulfonylurea drugs are commonly prescribed middle the senile to lower blood glucose levels. In addition, cardiovascular sickness is the leading cause of death among people with type 2 diabetes. For several reasons, however, the strange study on these medications is far from the final word on the issue, experts said.

For one, men and women who are started on the sulfonylureas instead of metformin are often sicker to begin with, said Dr Spyros G Mezitis, an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Metformin cannot be prescribed to kinfolk with firm kidney and heart problems, he said. Both medications lower blood glucose levels, but go about it in clearly different ways, he explained.

And "The sulfonylureas lower blood sugar by making the body grow more insulin, and this may cause low blood sugar or hypoglycemia," he said. In contrast, metformin enhances the bustle of the insulin that the body produces. Previous research has shown that metformin is not linked with as high-priced a risk of low blood sugar as the sulfonylureas.

Hypoglycemia robs the muscles - including those in the goodness - of the glucose they need for energy, so they don't work as well. This is why these drugs may deliberate a higher risk for heart attack, Mezitis said. The new study, however, is based only on observations and does not analyse any cause-and-effect relationship between these drugs and heart problems.

Dr Jerome V Tolbert, medical vice-president of the outreach team at the Friedman Diabetes Institute in New York City, urged injunction in reacting to the new findings. "I wouldn't punt on this study and say, 'Everyone stop taking sulfonylureas,'" he said. But, "we are using less and less of these drugs because there are now newer and better drugs out there," he added.

Some of the newer drugs are more costly, he noted. "If you are vexed about your risks, gossip to your doctor for reassurance," he said, adding that people should never stop taking any prescribed medication without sooner talking to their doctor.

Dr Joel Zonszein, director of Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, agreed that the example findings are far from definitive. But, "we are using sulfonylureas less and less now," he said pillarder.com. "And we are only using them in very exact patients and often for short periods of times to criticize high blood sugar, and then we switch to another drug".