Free Diabetic Supplies

If you have diabetes and you are suffering from obesity or heart problems – especially involving plaque buildup in your arteries – your doctor may have prescribed Avandia to help reduce the amount of plaque. 

Recent studies have revealed some questions regarding Avandia..  Studies included individuals taking Avandia, a newer medication and an older, less expensive drug that comes in generic form called glipizide and sold under the brand name Glucotrol, which is produced by Pfizer.  Avandia is produced by GlaxoSmithKline in Britain.

When compared to one another, both medications did very little to eliminate plaque in the arteries, though Glucotrol and its generic glipizide did better than Avandia.  The problem with Avandia in particular is that are questions regarding whether Avandia puts patients at risk for heart problems, including heart attacks.
The American Diabetes Association has issued warnings stating that people should avoid using Avandia until safety issues are resolved.

Doctors tested individuals from nearly 20 countries.  They also tested the individuals at the beginning of the study regarding weight and plaque and then tested the same individuals 18 months later.  All individuals had type 2 diabetes linked to obesity.  Since this combination of symptoms

Doctors who worked on the research state that Avandia is a good medication and can help with plaque, but should not be used to treat diabetes because safer and more effective medicines are available.  They feel that Avandia should be used with extreme caution.

In addition to the Avandia study, the same research was done with a similar medication from Japan, and Avandia’s main competitor Actos, and the results were much better than Avandia’s results.  Actos had much more success in reducing plaque and has much lower incidents of side effects. Larger studies will be completed within two years.

If you take Avandia, ask your doctor about Actos and glipizide, which are considered more effective and have less side effects than Avandia.