Your Definitive Guide to Wellness Medicine

Harvard researchers recently conducted a placebo-controlled study examining the effects of insulin and metformin, a popular diabetes drug, on inflammation. Individuals with diabetes tend to have high levels of C-reactive protein and other markers of inflammation, which—in addition to elevations in blood sugar—put them at increased risk of heart disease.

When you think diabetic complications, you probably think of amputations, kidney failure, and blindness. However, cardiovascular disease is the most serious and one of the most common complications—three out of four people with diabetes die of heart attacks or other cardiovascular problems.

The Harvard study tested the presumption that diabetes drugs would lower inflammation and therefore protect against cardiovascular disease. However, when results were published in the September 16, 2009 issue of JAMA, the researcher team was surprised to find that although insulin and metformin lowered blood sugar, they did not reduce inflammation. They stressed that diabetic patients need to adhere to other therapies to reduce risk of cardiovascular events. 

No Surprise

How anyone could be surprised at such an outcome is beyond me. Just last year, the large, government-funded Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) trial found that that study participants taking intensive drug regimens had a dramatically increased cardiovascular death rate. In fact, this arm of the study was terminated 18 months early to prevent aggressive drug use from killing even more people.

But we’ve known about the fatal cardiovascular complications of diabetes drugs since 1969, the year that results of a study called the University Group Diabetes Program were made public. Like ACCORD, this clinical trial had to be stopped two years early because participants who were taking the drugs had a 250 to 300 percent higher death rate than those taking a placebo.

Safe, Effective Options

So what’s the take-home lesson here? There are far better ways to lower blood sugar that also decrease inflammation and protect against cardiovascular disease. I’ve been treating patients who are dealing with diabetes for more than 30 years. If they come to the clinic on oral medication, we stop it on sight. If they’re on insulin and they’re overweight, we stop the insulin as well.

In their place, we institute a program of regular exercise, a therapeutic diet, weight loss, and targeted nutritional supplements. Yes, this is a new concept. Patients are conditioned to trust their doctors, who have convinced them of the absolute necessity of taking prescription meds to lower blood sugar. However, once they hear the truth about diabetes drugs, most of our patients opt to stop their medications and adopt a much healthier treatment approach targeted at lowering blood sugar and reducing risk of heart disease and other complications.

Next week, I’ll give you the particulars of the Whitaker Wellness Institute’s approach to treating diabetes. For more information now, visit www.whitakerwellness.com.