| Early insulin may help diabetics
avoid it later
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A short course of insulin therapy may
help people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes avoid this therapy
later, Canadian researchers report.
In type 2 diabetes, insulin production continues (unlike the situation
in type 1 diabetes) but the body's response to the hormone is blunted.
Standard drug treatment is aimed at increasing sensitivity to insulin,
but in some cases extra insulin becomes necessary on an ongoing
basis to ensure that glucose is processed properly.
The new findings, which appear in the medical journal Diabetes
Care, are based on a study of 16 patients with newly diagnosed type
2 diabetes who were treated with intensive insulin therapy for 2
to 3 weeks. All of the subjects had high blood sugar levels when
the study began.
This short-term therapy produced a marked improvement in sugar
levels, lead author Dr. Edmond A. Ryan and colleagues, from the
University of Alberta in Edmonton, note. Moreover, this improvement
was still present one year later.
At 1-year follow-up, only one patient required insulin, while the
rest were able to control their sugar levels with diet or pills.
Predictors of good control with diet alone included requiring less
insulin during the initial treatment phase, and having a lower sugar
level at the end of that phase.
"The ease with which (normal sugar levels are) achieved on
insulin may predict those patients who can later succeed in controlling
glucose levels with attention to diet," the researchers conclude.
"However, the numbers in this study were small, and the results
need confirmation with larger studies before being considered as
a routine clinical option."
SOURCE: Diabetes Care, May 2004.
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