Guinea Pigs, Again

One of the drugs I take to help control my diabetes is Actos. Today, this study was released, and the accompanying news article had the title of "Widely Used Diabetes Drug May Not Work."

So, rule number one, when reading such an alarming headline, is to read on. Headlines may be misleading. How big was the study? What measures did they use? One must ask these questions.

So, this researcher's conclusion was that Actos did not, in his review, show that it created a positive difference in "patient-oriented outcomes like mortality, morbidity, adverse effects and health-related quality of life." In other words, they can't show, by the numbers, that taking Actos will ensure that you, the person with diabetes, will live longer.

But, my favorite part of this article was the rebuttal statement towards the bottom. You've got to read this.

" "The kernel from this review is that pioglitazone is effective in glucose-lowering, has some other beneficial and potentially harmful associated features, and just has not been evaluated in the right way to prove that it will help people lead longer and more productive lives," Dr. John Buse, director of the Diabetes Care Center at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill, said in a prepared statement. "This is true for essentially every drug available for the treatment of diabetes," noted Buse, who was not involved in the review."

Did you get that? Let me repeat it: This is true for essentially every drug available for the treatment of diabetes.

In essence, in my interpretation, Dr. Buse is saying that every drug they use to treat diabetes lowers blood sugar, and has side effects (beneficial and potential harmful associated features), and that no drug has been proven to help diabetic people live longer and more productive lives.

So, they know that this drug reduces blood sugar readings, the DCCT showed that reduced blood sugar readings are associated with better outcomes and fewer incidences of complications, and the fans of this or that drug assume that all will be well and that any side effects are just the cost one pays.

This reinforces what Dr. McDougall has said for years: Don't take any oral hypoglycemic agent, because they increase your risk of of dying sooner.

We are guinea pigs. You do know that, don't you? The medical community is trying many different treatments on us, in the hope that the outcome will be good, but they don't know for sure.

Yeah, yeah. And I'm on two oral hypoglycemic agents. And I'm not following the diet Dr. McDougall recommends.

Blech.

Well, we increased my anti-depressant medication today. Perhaps that will help.