Once A Week Diabetic Meds Are Effective And Safe

Taking the diabetic medicine in excess is considered harmful as these effect a patient’s other body organs like kidney, heart, etc. hence, it is advisable to take these meds once a week. According to the new review of existing evidence, there's little difference in the performance of five new once-a-week drugs to cure diabetes. 

Earlier studies of the drugs known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists - or GLP-1RAs - have discovered that the medications improve blood sugar control and bring body weight down, but the review said no research had compared the various versions head-to-head.

"The main message is that today several drugs are available for the control of hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes, as never before," said Dr. Francesco Zaccardi, of the Diabetes Research Center at Leicester General Hospital in the U.K., "Therefore, it is even more important to know differences and similarities among drugs."

The body can't properly use or make enough of the hormone insulin to convert blood sugar into energy in type-2 diabetes. The drugs compared in the study stimulate insulin and have other significant effects such as reduced or improper digestion. All are taken once a week.

The American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes recommend GLP-1RAs as an alternate for people with type 2 diabetes who have tried other treatments including lifestyle changes and metformin that is a ancient oral drug used to improve blood sugar control.

Zaccardi and colleagues analyzed data from 34 trials for the new study that included a total of 21,126 contributors taking one of the five GLP-1RAs. They revealed that the drugs performed similarly in reducing blood sugar, as well as heart disease risk factors like cholesterol, high blood pressure and inflammation. The risk of dangerous blood sugar troughs known as hypoglycemia was also similar among people taking all the drugs.

However, the medications differed when it came to reducing weight and HbA1c- a measure of average blood sugar levels over three months. Dulaglutide 1.5 milligrams (mg) that is sold as Trulicity by Eli Lilly; once-weekly exenatide, sold as Bydureon by AstraZeneca; and taspoglutide 20 mg, which is in development by Ipsen and Roche, all these meds performed better on those albiglutide that is sold as Tanzeum by GlaxoSmithKline. Semaglutide, are in development by Novo Nordisk was not a part of this analysis.

The differences were yet small. HbA1c is calculated in percentages with normal being below 6 percent and 6.5 percent or above being considered diabetes. Zaccardi told Reuters Health that the greatest differences between the drugs were around 0.4 percent for HbA1c and about three pounds of body weight.

"The weight loss is instructive because a lot of people hear stories of people losing a lot of weight, but the mean weight loss is modest," said Dr. Sethu Reddy, chief of the Adult Diabetes Section at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.

The researchers also found that taspoglutide 20 mg has the greatest threat of nausea. And once-weekly exenatide raised heart rate as compared to albiglutide and dulaglutide by 1.4 to 3.2 beats per minute.

Zaccardi said that few comparisons like this study have been done between similar diabetes drugs that limits their ability to compare the results to other types of treatments. "I believe that the study underlines the necessity to perform direct comparisons among drugs of the same class to better clarify the pros and cons of each drug," he added.

Reddy, who wasn’t a part of the new review also warned that the findings are based on a comparison of existing data from separate studies. "It's not the 'real deal' so to speak in that there are no trials comparing these drugs to one another," he said.

The Reasons Behind The Rise of Diabetes In Cities

Being one of the most deadly diseases, diabetes is greatly afflicting mankind today. A greater problem is that there is not permanent cure for diabetes yet. Besides this, the growing rate of this disease all over the world is a matter to worry. Even in the major cities around the world, the number of diabetics is rising exponentially. Here are some reasons for this growing number.

What Experts Say:

Recently a study conducted by University College London on how the disease is spreading in cities stated that more than two-thirds of people worldwide in the urban areas are affected by diabetes. Thus, you can have a pretty good idea about the severity of the disease. While the researchers examined the reasons for the swift rise of diabetes, they opted for the five major cities from three different continents. The cities nominated were Mexico City, Shanghai, Houston, Copenhagen, and Tianjin. The results are really surprising and it was found that the social and cultural factors play a greater role in increasing the number of diabetics. Earlier to this, some of the mitigating factors like poverty, geography and body type were considered to be the reason behind.

But Is That All?

Well not, there are many other factors which are driving the growth in diabetes worldwide. It is the industrialization and economic growth of the developing countries that the people residing in cities are now less involved and interested in physical activities. They take unhealthy high calorie food items like pizzas, fast food, fried stuff and much more.  And there are many other reasons.  Here are some of the major causes for this rapid increase. Checkout:

Obesity: The two, i.e. diabetes and obesity are often interlinked. And it is definitely a big reason of diabetes as the obese people become diabetic with excessive protein and carbohydrate consumption on daily basis.

Physical Inactivity: As states earlier, the modern lifestyle and hectic schedules have reduced the amount of physical work significantly. If you are having the misconception that it is higher consumption of sugar which causes diabetes, you are absolutely wrong. It is your lack of interest in outdoor activities, which takes you one step closer to this deadly disease. Even the small children in the cities escape going out of their houses to play. Most of the time, they are busy with their school or playing those video games. And even if they move out, it is for visiting their favorite eating places where they consume those junkies like burgers, fried foods and cold drinks. Definitely, these food items are not beneficial.  They cause problems like obesity and diabetes!

Food: You love those easy to make or get fast foods. Just order and it is ready to eat. Earlier people used to visit restaurants to eat those food items. But nowadays, all you need is just a call.  Undoubtedly, the food is really tasty, but it is surely not good your health. It contains excessive sugars, protein, fats, and contains chemical toxins, which lead to diabetes.

Infections: You get infected with several kinds of viruses or bacteria. Though it is not completely in your control, yet do you know that it causes diabetes? Yes, so from now onwards you need to keep your surroundings clean and disinfected.

Alcohol: Although the consumption of alcohol is not of any use to your body, yet when it comes to increasing number of diabetics in cities, it proves to be one of the major reasons. In the urban culture, alcohol consumption is certainly increasing all over the world and also increases cases of diabetes.

Hence, in order to prevent diabetes you need to improve both your diet and lifestyle. Start taking a balanced, light and healthy diet. Along with the greater number of fruits, vegetables and food without saturated fat, you need to do some sort of physical exercises daily to keep diabetes at bay.