Spring Break
UConn Study: Two Common Drugs Reduce Diabetes Risk
Corey Scheer
Issue date: 9/20/05 Section: News
Two commonly prescribed classes of drugs have been shown to reduce patients' risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes in a new study conducted by three UConn researchers.
Pharmacy Professors Craig Coleman, C. Michael White and Effie Gillespie did the study, a meta-analysis involving 11 trials and 66,608 patients, found that the use of any ACE inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) will reduce a patient's risk of diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of the disease and is commonly found in people who have poor diet and exercise, according to www.diabeteshealthonline.com.
A meta-analysis is a type of study that combines all of the previous studies on one given topic, in order to reach a clearer outcome.
"We take as many trials as we can find and combine their results, that way it increases the patient population," said Gillespie. Instead of doing a randomized perspective trial, we just did a meta-analysis. That way we could look at 66,000 patients."
The study resulted in a breakthrough in diabetes prevention, a disease that reports 1.3 million new cases in ages 20 and above each year according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA). The results of this study will provide new hope to those who come from a family conducive to the onset of diabetes.
"We were ultimately able to demonstrate that ACE inhibitors and ARBs reduce the risk of diabetes by about 22 percent," said Coleman.
Until now, these two drug classes were primarily used to lower patients' blood pressure, according to a press release. Now they have a new role, preventing the onset of diabetes. Diabetes prevention up until this point has been simply maintaining a relatively healthy lifestyle.
"At this time, for diabetes there are no preventative drugs available," Gillespie said. "Prevention is mainly health like exercise, diet. Those are the things primarily doctors will prescribe for preventing diabetes."
With this in mind, the outcome of this study, showing that there are drugs that can have an effect on preventing type 2 Diabetes, has been long awaited.
According to the ADA, Diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death in the United States in the year 2000 and about 90 percent to 95 percent of all cases of diabetes are Type 2, the type that can sometimes be prevented, this study shows, by use of ACE inhibitors and ARBs.
Diabetes Care, a journal created by the American Diabetes Association says "Given the elevated risk of morbidity and mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes, prevention of type 2 diabetes is a worthwhile goal."
To many, this study shows the first real preventative measure against the onset of type 2 Diabetes. For people who come from a family of diabetics, these results may provide new hope for prevention of the disease.
Pharmacy Professors Craig Coleman, C. Michael White and Effie Gillespie did the study, a meta-analysis involving 11 trials and 66,608 patients, found that the use of any ACE inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) will reduce a patient's risk of diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of the disease and is commonly found in people who have poor diet and exercise, according to www.diabeteshealthonline.com.
A meta-analysis is a type of study that combines all of the previous studies on one given topic, in order to reach a clearer outcome.
"We take as many trials as we can find and combine their results, that way it increases the patient population," said Gillespie. Instead of doing a randomized perspective trial, we just did a meta-analysis. That way we could look at 66,000 patients."
The study resulted in a breakthrough in diabetes prevention, a disease that reports 1.3 million new cases in ages 20 and above each year according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA). The results of this study will provide new hope to those who come from a family conducive to the onset of diabetes.
"We were ultimately able to demonstrate that ACE inhibitors and ARBs reduce the risk of diabetes by about 22 percent," said Coleman.
Until now, these two drug classes were primarily used to lower patients' blood pressure, according to a press release. Now they have a new role, preventing the onset of diabetes. Diabetes prevention up until this point has been simply maintaining a relatively healthy lifestyle.
"At this time, for diabetes there are no preventative drugs available," Gillespie said. "Prevention is mainly health like exercise, diet. Those are the things primarily doctors will prescribe for preventing diabetes."
With this in mind, the outcome of this study, showing that there are drugs that can have an effect on preventing type 2 Diabetes, has been long awaited.
According to the ADA, Diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death in the United States in the year 2000 and about 90 percent to 95 percent of all cases of diabetes are Type 2, the type that can sometimes be prevented, this study shows, by use of ACE inhibitors and ARBs.
Diabetes Care, a journal created by the American Diabetes Association says "Given the elevated risk of morbidity and mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes, prevention of type 2 diabetes is a worthwhile goal."
To many, this study shows the first real preventative measure against the onset of type 2 Diabetes. For people who come from a family of diabetics, these results may provide new hope for prevention of the disease.