Researchers say GLP-1 medications appear to be more effective in treating prediabetes than the commonly prescribed drug metformin.They said GLP-1 drugs were also associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes as well as fewer cases of heart attack and stroke.The study findings could pave the way for another option to treat people with prediabetes.<\/p>\n
GLP-1 drugs are more effective in helping prevent type 2 diabetes than the commonly prescribed medication metformin, according to a new study.<\/p>\n
Researchers said GLP-1s such as Ozempic<\/a> and Mounjaro<\/a> were more likely to reduce blood sugar to healthy levels in people with prediabetes<\/a> and obesity.<\/p>\n They added that people prescribed GLP-1 medications<\/a> had a lower risk of progressing from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n The researchers noted that GLP-1 users also had a lower risk of death from any cause as well as fewer heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure events compared with metformin users.<\/p>\n \u201cThe great news with prediabetes is that it\u2019s still possible to reverse the progression of the disease,\u201d said Vinicius de Sousa Barzon Serra<\/a>, MD, a study author and research fellow in cardiovascular medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, in a press release<\/a>. \u201cThis research may add to the case for considering GLP-1 medications earlier for certain patients, rather than waiting until they develop type 2 diabetes.\u201d<\/p>\n Serra noted that metformin still remains an effective treatment for people with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is less about replacing one medication with another and more about discussing additional options with specific patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n David Cutler<\/a>, MD, a family medicine physician at Providence Saint John\u2019s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, wasn\u2019t involved in the study, but said the findings were \u201cquite impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt elevates the comfort of prescribing GLP-1 drugs as a front-line treatment,\u201d he told Healthline.<\/p>\n Robert Eckel<\/a>, MD, a former president of the American Heart Association who was likewise not involved in the study, agrees the research provides more options for patients and prescribers.<\/p>\n \u201cGLP-1s provide another option for prevention, perhaps as an add-on therapy. However, costs and access to these medications are important factors,\u201d said Eckel, an endocrinologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, in the press release.<\/p>\n For their study, the researchers analyzed the medical records of 256,000 adults in the United States with prediabetes<\/a> and obesity<\/a>. About 76% of the subjects were women, and the average age of the participants was 52.<\/p>\n About half of those studied were taking GLP-1 drugs with the active ingredient semaglutide, tirzepatide, liraglutide<\/a>, or dulaglutide.<\/p>\n The other half had been prescribed metformin<\/a>, a medication used to help manage blood sugar levels<\/a> in adults and some children with type 2 diabetes by decreasing glucose production in the liver, reducing glucose absorption from food, and improving the body\u2019s insulin sensitivity.<\/p>\n The researchers reported that the people in the study who were taking GLP-1 drugs had a 1.5 times higher chance of reversing high blood sugar<\/a> to healthy levels compared to people who were using metformin.<\/p>\n The researchers also noted that GLP-1 medication users had a 31% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes and a 41% lower risk of death from any cause.<\/p>\n The researchers cautioned that their study is observational and, therefore, cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship. They also noted they relied on prescription records, so the frequency and dosage at which patients took their medication was not reflected.<\/p>\n In addition, the GLP-1 drugs were grouped together, so individual differences between medications were not considered.<\/p>\n Eckel said in the news release<\/a> that the benefits for people taking GLP-1 drugs were probably mainly due to weight loss. Eckel noted that the research results open up a wide range of possibilities.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an important finding because the GLP-1 receptor agonists are commonly used today and this is a population that in the transition from prediabetes to diabetes are at increasing risk for cardiovascular disease<\/a>,\u201d Eckel said in a taped interview<\/a> alongside the study findings.<\/p>\n Cutler noted that these people, however, might be reluctant to take GLP-1 drugs because they may not be experiencing symptoms of their prediabetes but could develop side effects with the medications.<\/p>\n \u201cThey would not be getting any immediate benefits,\u201d Cutler said. He added that metformin, which was first used clinically<\/a> in 1958, remains an effective alternative. \u201cIt\u2019s been proven safe, effective, and it\u2019s very cheap,\u201d Cutler said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s estimated that 40 million people<\/a> in the United States have diabetes, with more than 90% of those cases being type 2 diabetes<\/a>, a chronic condition characterized by high blood glucose levels<\/a> that results from the body\u2019s ineffective response to insulin or insufficient insulin production.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also estimated that 115 million adults<\/a> in the United States have prediabetes<\/a>, a condition in which a person has higher-than-normal blood sugar levels but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n Around 5\u201310%<\/a> of people with prediabetes develop diabetes every year. More broadly, up to 70%<\/a> of people with prediabetes eventually develop diabetes.<\/p>\n Medication is sometimes prescribed for people with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. Lifestyle changes can help reverse type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, as well as prevent the progression from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n Cutler said the lifestyle changes needed to prevent type 2 diabetes are pretty clear.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important thing for people with prediabetes to know is they should lose weight, reduce their carbs<\/a>, exercise<\/a> daily and, if that doesn\u2019t work, then consider medication,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers say GLP-1 medications appear to be more effective in treating prediabetes than the commonly prescribed drug metformin.They…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[103,61,60,371],"class_list":["post-674654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}