Monday, July 7, 2008
New method: More meds, more quickly for type 2 diabetes
For years, doctors have followed a standard approach to treating their type 2 diabetes patients:
• Advise them to lose weight and exercise.
• Start them on an oral medicine that helps lower blood sugar.
• Add more drugs as needed over time.
But a new attitude is evolving among some doctors who believe a more aggressive approach would better control the disease and help patients avoid its severe consequences in later life.
• Advise them to lose weight and exercise.
• Start them on an oral medicine that helps lower blood sugar.
• Add more drugs as needed over time.
But a new attitude is evolving among some doctors who believe a more aggressive approach would better control the disease and help patients avoid its severe consequences in later life.
Warning over diabetes amputations
About 100 people a week in the UK have a limb amputated as a result of diabetes, a charity has warned.
The disease, which affects more than two million Britons, causes damage to nerves and blood vessels to the limbs, which can lead to amputation.
About 5,000 people a year have the operation, and diabetics are 15 times more likely to need a lower limb amputating than those without the disease.
Diabetes UK said there was an "urgent need" for greater awareness of the impact of diabetes, which also causes heart attacks, stroke, blindness and kidney failure.
About seven out of 10 people having an amputation will die within five years as a result of possible complications and their condition, figures suggest.
Read More....
The disease, which affects more than two million Britons, causes damage to nerves and blood vessels to the limbs, which can lead to amputation.
About 5,000 people a year have the operation, and diabetics are 15 times more likely to need a lower limb amputating than those without the disease.
Diabetes UK said there was an "urgent need" for greater awareness of the impact of diabetes, which also causes heart attacks, stroke, blindness and kidney failure.
About seven out of 10 people having an amputation will die within five years as a result of possible complications and their condition, figures suggest.
Read More....
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