Weight Loss Blog

Rosiglitazone (Avandia) Treatment for Diabetes

FDA staff reviewers have just recommended that Rosiglitazone or Avandia should be taken off the market.  “Serious” cardiovascular risk has been the stated reason over the last few months that study data has been summarized.   The FDA has yet to take any formal action on the drug but this announcement is quite new. 

Diabetes in general, increases cardiovascular risk in patients who have it.  Diabetics are at higher risk for acute myocardial infarction or heart attack as well as stroke and other vascular diseases.  This is an unfortunate case of the treatment being worse than the disease. 

The best treatment for out of control diabetes is weight loss.  Weight loss of as little as 10% of your initial or highest weight significantly decreases fasting blood sugar.  Fasting blood sugar as well as a test called hemoglobin A1c are the best ways to grade the severity of ongoing diabetes. 

Consulting with a bariatric (weight-loss) physician and enrolling in a comprehensive weight loss program is a great way to get your diabetes under control and with the right amount of weight loss can even put diabetes into remission.  An internal study in our clinic showed that diabetic patients under treatment for just 12 weeks, were able to stop 50% of their initial diabetes medications. 

There are several other medications still on the market that do not have any increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease.  We recommend weight loss as a primary therapy for effective diabetes treatment and metformin as a second line treatment.  Metformin is the only commonly prescribed diabetes medication that does not cause weight gain.  In addition there are several other medications that treat other conditions than diabetes but are commonly used in diabetics with other medical problems.  A few of note are corticosteroids, lithium, some beta-blockers and many commonly used mood stabilizing drugs.