A Sweet Deal for Diabetes

Statin-induced diabetes: too sweet a deal?

Bottom line Statins modestly increase blood glucose levels, which leads to 1 in 250 or so patients crossing the “diabetic threshold” in a 5-year period. Pre-existing elevated blood glucose levels, other diabetes risk factors, or higher statin doses might slightly increase the risk. This should not change statin prescribing, as statins reduce cardiovascular events and allcause mortality in appro...

Chocolate and cardiovascular disease: a sweet deal?

‘Take two of these chocolates daily, and call me in a month.’ Who among us would not want to be able to provide such a delicious prescription to our patients who carry the complicated and eventually fatal diagnosis of heart failure? Unfortunately, the solution is not that simple, yet the recent study by Flammer et al. may bring us a step closer to understanding the relationship between cocoa, e...

Big Deal - good deal? Or is there a better deal?

Canagliflozin: Improving diabetes by making urine sweet.

Canagliflozin is the first sodium-glucose cotransport 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor approved in the United States for treating type 2 diabetes mellitus. This drug blocks reabsorption of glucose in the proximal tubule, lowering the renal threshold for glucose and thereby increasing glucose excretion. Its novel mechanism of action is insulin-independent. Trials have demonstrated reductions in fasting gluco...

Diabetes: the sweet irony of modern technology.

Q: Why has diabetes become a major threat to global health? A: People with Type 2 diabetes produce an abundance of insulin in response to an environment that allows them to ingest more calories than ever before without many physical demands, such as walking, cycling and physical work, while leading a rather sedentary lifestyle sitting at a desk. This combination of excessive amounts of calories...