It’s not enough to pump diabetics full of drugs. Now there’s a mad rush to shove meds down the throat of anyone who might even be at risk for the condition.
At this point, that’s practically everyone. But don’t fill that prescription just yet — because meds don’t work, and the latest studies dump two more drugs onto the trash heap of pharma failures.
Researchers armed with a pocketful of cash from Novartis gave two of the company’s drugs to patients at high risk of diabetes: the blood pressure med Diovan and the diabetes drug Starlix.
And according to the studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Starlix didn’t do a thing to reduce diabetes, cardiovascular death, heart attack, stroke or heart failure.
Diovan did only slightly better, lowering new diabetes diagnoses by 14 percent… but the med did zippo when it came to reducing the cardiovascular conditions tied to diabetes — which means there’s still no point in taking it.
"It would be great if we had something that would prevent diabetes and cardiovascular disease at the same time," study leader Dr. Robert M. Califf told HealthDay. "We didn’t get that."
Is this guy for real?
"It looks like diet and exercise are the mainstays of prevention," he said. You can almost hear the sigh of disappointment in his voice as you read that.
Even then he’s only half right — diet is the key, but pass on the exercise. There is one surefire way to avoid diabetes and lower your risk for heart disease, and it’s called not eating so much crap.
All the drugs in the world won’t save your oversized high- risk rear if you keep on downing doughnuts and cheese puffs… but if you want to try the meds-and-junk food diet anyway, be my guest.
Just don’t come crying to me down the road.