More Diabetes Drugs!

It’s taken decades for drug companies to publically acknowledge that insulin and sulfonylurea drugs, both used to treat type 2 diabetes, increase the risk for heart disease. They make that announcement in a recent JAMA study reported on Medscape. Why now, you ask? Because they have a new line of glucose-lowering drugs that they are unveiling. It’s the old refrain “the king is dead, long live the king!”

It all seems so transparently manipulative but modern medicine will not see it that way. Modern medicine, with all the backing of the FDA, will hail these new drugs as a miraculous breakthrough because the new drugs do not cause heart disease. Yet. Those findings and other side effects, I guarantee, will come along as the drugs hit millions of users and post marketing surveillance catches up with reality.

Here’s what’s being offered to people with type 2 diabetes. After Metformin, the first drug of choice, instead of adding insulin or sulfonylureas you will be given a dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitor. This new class of drugs is apparently cardio protective unlike other new type 2 drugs, such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, and thiazolidinediones (TZDs), which are just not associated with cardiovascular harm.

Even as the DPP-4 drugs are being touted as your new best friend, we hear about “Metformin and B12 Deficiency: A Bigger Problem Than We Thought” with one in ten people experiencing B12 deficiency increasing the likelihood of peripheral neuropathy, already a known side effect of diabetes. In fact, 60 – 70% of diabetics have mild to severe damage to sensory, motor, and autonomic nerves causing symptoms of numbness, tingling, or burning feet, one-sided bands or pain, and numbness and weakness on the trunk or pelvis.

So, perhaps the DPP-4s are going to replace Metformin as well. We hear that because Metformin and brand named Glucophage are the oldest diabetes drugs on the market and that they are the safest. And they are being used by 120 million people world wide. However, we don’t often hear about the side effects that force about 25% of users to stop taking them because of excessive flatulence and diarrhea. They are even being given preventively in people with prediabetes.

However the way Metformin works makes me wonder if it is partly responsible for the high incidence of fatty liver because it reduces the amount of sugar released by the liver keeping it out of the clutches of insulin, but it may accumulate in the liver.

When I think medicine has come upon a brick wall with their drugs and they will surely turn to alternative therapies like nutrient building blocks, I’m always very disappointed when they launch yet another class of drugs.

Let’s look at these nutrient building blocks. What do we know about diabetes and magnesium? We know that magnesium deficiency is a risk factor for developing diabetes. What about carbs and diabetes? We know that high carb diets elevate insulin levels and can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes. The best diet for type 2 diabetes is the Keto Diet. The Keto Diet will help you burn off the build up of glycogen sugar stores in the liver and prevent fatty liver. We also know that people who develop flatulence and diarrhea on Metformin may be suffering from yeast overgrowth. Add methylated and food-based B vitamins (including B12) and soil-based probiotics to magnesium and the Keto Diet and you will greatly help your digestion and metabolism.

For insight into all these conditions and treatment protocols download my free eBooks online at DrCarolynDeanLive.

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Carolyn Dean MD ND

The Doctor of the Future®

RESOURCES: Along the borders and in the links of my web site you can find my books, writings, and my call-in radio show. Email your questions to: [email protected].

Author: Dr. Carolyn Dean MD ND