What To Know About Metformin

What to Know About Metformin

Metformin is considered a first-line drug for people who have Type 2 diabetes . While there are a growing number of classes of drugs to help treat Type 2 diabetes, most clinical guidelines suggest that metformin be prescribed first. Why? Metformin is safe, effective, and inexpensive. In addition, metformin may provide other health benefits besides helping to lower blood sugar. But metformin remains somewhat shrouded in mystery and controversy. Not everyone understands how it works, and many people claim that its dangerous and should be avoided like the plague (we can thank the Internet for perpetuating some of these unfounded facts). While metformin isnt for everyone, theres a lot about this drug thats helpful and important to know.
Metformin has been around for a long time.
Metformin contains a substance called guanidine, which can lower blood sugars. Guanidine is found in an herb called goats rue (also known as French lilac), and this herb has been used to treat diabetes since the early 1900s. The FDA approved metformin in 1995, although its been used in the UK since 1958.
Metformin can be used to treat prediabetes .
About 84 million people in the U.S. have prediabetes. Most of them dont know they have it. And without intervention, about 70% of them will go on to develop Type 2 diabetes. The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) , a landmark clinical trial, showed that lifestyle changes (weight loss, healthy eating, physical activity) can lower the risk of getting Type 2 diabetes by close to 60%. It also showed that taking metformin can lower the risk by 31%. Data from Continue reading

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Relation of total sugars, fructose and sucrose with incident type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies

Relation of total sugars, fructose and sucrose with incident type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies
Christine S. Tsilas , HBSc, Russell J. de Souza , ScD RD, Sonia Blanco Mejia , MD MSc, Arash Mirrahimi , MSc, Adrian I. Cozma , MSc, Viranda H. Jayalath , MSc, Vanessa Ha , MSc, Reem Tawfik , HBSc, Marco Di Buono , PhD, Alexandra L. Jenkins , PhD, Lawrence A. Leiter , MD, Thomas M.S. Wolever , MD PhD, Joseph Beyene , PhD, Tauseef Khan , MBBS PhD, Cyril W.C. Kendall , PhD, David J.A. Jenkins , MD PhD, and John L. Sievenpiper , MD PhD
Toronto 3D Knowledge Synthesis and Clinical Trials Unit (Tsilas, de Souza, Blanco Mejia, Mirrahimi, Cozma, Jayalath, Ha, Tawfik, Leiter, Wolever, Khan, Kendall, D. Jenkins, Sievenpiper), Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre, St. Michaels Hospital, Toronto, Ont.; Division of Food and Nutritional Sciences (Tsilas), Brescia University College at Western University, London, Ont.; Department of Nutritional Sciences (de Souza, Blanco Mejia, Mirrahimi, Cozma, Jayalath, Ha, Di Buono, A. Jenkins, Leiter, Wolever, Khan, Kendall, D. Jenkins, Sieven-piper), Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.; Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (de Souza, Ha, Beyene), Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.; School of Medicine (Mirrahimi), Faculty of Health Sciences, Queens University, Kingston, Ont.; MD Program (Cozma, Jayalath), Faculty of Medicine University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.; Department of Medicine (Leiter, Wolever, D. Jenkins, Continue reading

Metformin Improves Overall Survival of Colorectal Cancer Patients with Diabetes: A Meta-Analysis

Metformin Improves Overall Survival of Colorectal Cancer Patients with Diabetes: A Meta-Analysis
Correspondence should be addressed to Li Song and Wenyue Wang
Received 5 September 2016; Accepted 9 January 2017; Published 8 February 2017
Copyright 2017 Fanqiang Meng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Introduction. Diabetic population has a higher risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality than nondiabetics. The role of metformin in CRC prognosis is still controversial. The meta-analysis aims to investigate whether metformin improves the survival of diabetic CRC patients. Methods. PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library were searched till July 1, 2016. Cohort studies were included. All articles were evaluated by Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Hazard Ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each study were calculated and pooled HRs with corresponding 95% CIs were generated using the random-effects model. Heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed. Results. We included seven cohort studies with a medium heterogeneity (
) in our meta-analysis. An improved overall survival (OS) for metformin users over nonusers among colorectal cancers with diabetes was noted (HR 0.75; 95% CI 0.65 to 0.87). However, metformin reveals no benefits for cancer-specific survival (HR 0.79, 95%, CI 0.58 to 1.08). Conclusions. Metformin prolongs the OS of diabetic CRC patients, but it does n Continue reading

Diabetes–the top things you can do.

This is one of the things that goes with food. Particularly in countries with great cooking traditions, which I am inclined to think goes hand in hand with Catholic culture because of these reasons: first, people are typically fun-loving and fun to be with and savor plenty of festivities and family events to celebrate and secondly, they are not averse to layering/combining/enriching flavors. For this is what I have noticed in truly good Catholic art–food, architecture, literature etc. It draws on more than one layers of meaning, source, nuance, style, symbolism. When Catholic design great, graphic artist Massimo Vignelli wrote to the Vatican proposing a redesign of the Vatican coat-of-arms suggesting a simple minimalist stark cross symbol, the Vatican in typical diplomatic fashion simply answered him in silence. Because though a faithful Catholic drawing lots of students for his kindness and generosity (his obits are effusive) he may have missed an essence of the Catholic spirit. It is Catholic. Wide-embracing, far-reaching, deep and enduring. So meaning is not only for the now, but for forever. It seeks to delight as well as to instruct. It is not pared down but so rich in power. The Word after all has Christological, eschatological (church), moral (personal) and literal meanings. So food in the Catholic style would have to be, not the three-simple-ingredient fare (which my husband had banned me for rightful reasons), but for meals that without breaking the bank would have possibly another counter flavor of cheese, spice, earthy tones, savory hints aside from the main on Continue reading

Positive or Negative Language Can Influence Your Diabetes Control

Positive or Negative Language Can Influence Your Diabetes Control
Posted by Roberta Kleinman | Jul 19, 2017 | Diabetes Management , Newsletters | 3 |
Proper wording can have a huge influence on the interpretation of the dialogue and further discussion in most conversations, especially when they concern diabetes. Words are powerful and cant be retracted once said. Words can shape feelings and attitudes and may even cause discrimination. The Diatribe Foundation created a language toolkit hoping that certain words when related to people with diabetes would empower them instead of using words that cause anxiety, disappointment, depression and frustration. Diatribe is a patient focused online publication which is part of the Diatribe Foundation. It offers all patients with diabetes the latest cutting-edge information. The Foundations mission is to improve the lives of people with diabetes.
Powerful and appropriate words can enable the patient to feel engaged, supported, helped and motivated which is an extremely important aspect of diabetes self-management. Spoken, negative language can and will affect relationships with our family, friends, working associates as well as your physicians and health care team. Which words can be positive or influential as opposed to offering negative connotations when it comes to diabetes? Lets take a look:
Patients are not diabetic and should be considered PWD or people with diabetes. Anyone who has diabetes knows there are so many more aspects to them than just diabetes. They are a complete person with diabetes.
When patients think of the Continue reading