Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411030085
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Medium
The medicine, called troglitazone, is being developed as a treatment for people who already have diabetes, but the new study raises the possibility it might also be useful for those who are at high risk of the disease.
Currently, the only known way to prevent adult diabetes is by losing weight and exercising more.
The drug helps the body use insulin more efficiently. As a result, levels of insulin and sugar in the blood go down. However, the study is preliminary and does not prove that lowering blood-sugar levels with the drug prevents diabetes.
Doctors from the University of California at San Diego tested the drug on overweight people who had high blood-sugar levels but were not considered diabetic. Such people are at high risk of adult, or Type 2, diabetes, which is more common than the variety that strikes during childhood.
In an editorial published with the study, Dr. Harry Keen of Guy's Hospital in London said the potential for a drug treatment is too great to be ignored.
The research, conducted by Dr. John H. Nolan and others, was published in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Doctors experimented on 18 people. Half got troglitazone, while the rest got dummy pills, for 12 weeks.
A condition called insulin resistance is an important underlying factor in adult diabetes. The body needs insulin to absorb sugar. Some people make even more insulin than normal, but their bodies do not use it properly, so sugar levels in their bloodstreams rise too high.
All the study participants had insulin resistance. After taking troglitazone, their insulin levels fell 41 percent, and their sugar levels declined significantly.
by CNB