Medications for high blood glucose lead to increased mortality in type-2 diabetics
A fasting blood glucose level is the common test for hyperglycemia ordered by your doctor in addition to testing your cholesterol. This test administered on type 2 diabetics will reflect high and fluctuating glucose levels. Another blood test for chronically high blood glucose levels is the diabetes biomarker hemoglobin A1c. If you have type 2 diabetes and run high blood glucose levels, you’re at increased risk for disease in several organs, such as retinopathy (eye), neuropathy (peripheral neurons), and nephropathy (kidney). And when diagnosed, your clinician is likely to prescribe medications such as oral hypoglycemics (glucose-lowering agents) and injectable insulin to lower blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c.
So why do these medications lead to increased mortality? Initially, it looked like these medicines made things better. There was an initial reduction in amputations in dialysis with intensive blood glucose control. But the rates of type 2 diabetes continue to climb, and the potential side effects of these meds, which can include dizziness, drowsiness, heartburn, gastrointestinal distress, and seizures, continue to accrue. In fact, the side effects of glucose-lowering meds are responsible for 100,000 ER visits in the US per year. Again, modern medicine tends to target the pathology of an illness rather than preventing it.
References
- Lustig, Robert. (2021). Metabolical Chapter 2. “Modern Medicine” Treats Symptoms, Not Disease (p. 55). New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
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Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Medicine / Pharmacology Status:☀️