Most diabetics are
familiar with metformin because that is one of the first medicine a doctor
prescribes when a person is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Diabetics are
prescribed a low dosage at first to be taken once a day to see how their bodies
adjust to the medicine. A higher dosage is prescribed later to keep the glucose
numbers within the acceptable range.
Yahoo! News on
Aug. 9, reports that a large-scale study conducted by researchers at Cardiff
University says that type 2 diabetes patients live longer than people without
the disease because of metformin.
The results of the recent study were announced on Friday.
Over 180,000 people treated with the widely prescribed diabetic drug metformin
can live longer than those who don't take metformin. So metformin can help
non-diabetics.
Source: HEALTH
AND WELLNESS BLOG INDIA
The findings in the study show that metformin could offer
prognostic and prophylactic benefits to people with and without diabetes.
Metformin has anti-cancer and anti-cardiovascular disease
benefits and can offer surprising health benefits to non-diabetics also. So
people who take metformin, whether they are diabetics or not, get a cushion
against cancer and cardiovascular diseases even though they are taking
metformin for diabetes.
While this is true with metformin, it wasn't found to be
true with sulphonylurea, another common diabetes drug. Metformin was the drug
that was found to have a statistically significant improvement in survival,
according to Craig Currie, professor at Cardiff University's school of
medicine.
This, however, does not mean that people with type 2
diabetes who take metformin should relax. When their disease progress, diabetes
will be typically be taken off metformin and switched to more aggressive treatment.
Therefore, a long life expectancy is not guaranteed.
While metformin is commonly taken by diabetes, the medicine
is prescribed to patients for the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome, and
has been investigated for other diseases where insulin resistance may be an
important factor. Metformin works by suppressing glucose production by the
liver.
The study was published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and
Metabolism.
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