June 8, 2001
Pills for Diabetes
Question from Bellevue, Washington, USA:
My 46 year old husband has had type 1 diabetes for 21 years and is on Lente twice a day. We are fortunate in that he has never had to go to the hospital or had any complications even though he rarely checks his blood sugar and just relies on how he “feels” to monitor himself. He knows this isn’t best since his A1c usually runs around 8.3% (range 4.2-5.8). At his yearly check-up, his doctor recommended that he try Avandia to see if it would help with keeping his sugars lower and improve his A1c and prescribed it. He will check liver tests and another A1c in a month.
In my research, it seems that Avandia isn’t really for my husband’s case, and the chance that it will help is really remote. It is worth the chance of possible side-effects, even if only used for a month?
Answer:
Avandia [rosiglitazone] is primarily a drug for patients with type 2 diabetes. It is not a primary drug for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. I would encourage your husband to begin monitoring and improve his insulin therapy as the treatment of choice.
JTL
[Editor’s comment: If your husband is not currently seeing a diabetes team, I would strongly recommend that he ask for a referral to one.
SS]
