Diabetes 2, Exercise and Diet

Time to rethink our choices?

A report released a month or so ago, stated that a pill widely prescribed for diabetes 2 increases the chance of heart attack by forty-three percent. The complete report is in the June 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Diabetes 2 can usually be controlled with proper diet and exercise.

The researchers stated that, barring any conflicting information, the FDA should take regulatory action to restrict access to the medication. Quick fixes are like crash diets, they seldom work over the long haul. Try as we may, it's not possible to legislate personal change. Each of us, individually, has to make the decision to get well. The manufacturer issued a statement saying that Avandia, made by GlaxoSmithKline and also sold under the generic name rosiglitazone, poses no greater risk than other oral diabetes medications.

Considering the manufacturer's statement, does it mean they all carry the same forty-three percent risk factor increase? If so, it would seem prudent to look at lifestyle choices, unless we are willing to take the risk of eating and not exercising our way into the other complications connected with diabetes. The choice is always ours.

There are millions of people who've chosen to go on Lipitor rather than to make changes in eating habits and exercise that could possibly have the same cholesterol lowering effects. On the surface, the drug is fairly cheap and far less trouble than having to make lifestyle changes. Would diet and exercise lower everyone's cholesterol and triglycerides? Probably not and it would be hard to say. We may never find out, there's no direct money benefit from a study using techniques and items that aren't patentable. It's difficult for people to change when their idea of treating a cold, from childhood, is taking two aspirin and drinking a soda.

We can't lay all the blame on pharmaceutical companies. It's like drugs of all kinds, if there were no demand, there'd be no supplier. If we want change in any part of our lives, it has to come from within.