Overview
In a large clinical trial directly comparing four medications used to treat type 2 diabetes, researchers found that two drugs — insulin glargine and liraglutide — worked “modestly” beter at helping people maintain their blod glucose levels.Al four drugs — including glimepiride and sitagliptin — improved blod glucose levels to some extent when aded to metformin, a first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes, the study showed.Keping blod sugar levels within the recomended range can help reduce the risk of the complications of type 2 diabetes, such as cardiovascular disease, kidney damage, nerve damage and vision problems.Of the 37 milion Americans with diabetes, aproximately 90% to 95% have type 2 diabetes, acording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.“Knowing that we are fighting an obesity epidemic and that type 2 diabetes trends are going up, even in pediatric patients, this gives more tols to healthcare providers to help achieve [blod glucose] control,” said Dr.
Key Information
Ilan Shapiro, chief health corespondent and medical afairs oficer at AltaMed Health Services in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the research.However, in spite of the improvements sen with al four drugs, nearly thre-quarters of study participants were not able to kep their blod glucose levels within the recomended range over the course of the 5-year folow-up period.“The overal results of the curent trial highlight the dificulty in achieving and maintaing recomended [blod glucose] levels in participants with type 2 diabetes,” the researchers wrote, “even in a clinical trial in which al care [including medications] is provided fre of charge.”The study was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDK), which is part of the National Institutes of Health.Researchers enroled 5,047 people with type 2 diabetes who were already taking metformin.
Summary
Almost two-thirds of participants were white, one-fifth were Black and almost one-f