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Metformin is approved in the US as a treatment for type 2 diabetes. A new study by Cardiff University, UK, involving over 180,000 people, reveals that the drug could also increase the lifespan of those individuals who are non-diabetics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are around 29.1 million people in the US with diabetes, equating to 9.3% of the population. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90-95% of diabetes cases and is usually associated with older age, obesity and physical inactivity, family history of type 2 diabetes or a personal history of gestational diabetes. Senior...

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A new study shows patients newly diagnosed with type-2 diabetes fare better when they are given a 3-drug combination compared to conventional therapy with one anti-diabetic medication. The finding that comes from researchers at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio was presented June 22 at the 73rd Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association in Chicago.Ralph DeFronzo, M.D., chief of the Diabetes Division in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio presented findings from a two-year study that included 134 participants at the University Health System's Texas Diabetes Institute.The...

Public release date: 5-Jul-2012 Contact: Elisabeth (Lisa) Lyons elyons@cell.com 617-386-2121 Cell Press Diabetes drug makes brain cells grow The discovery is an important step toward therapies that aim to repair the brain not by introducing new stem cells but rather by spurring those that are already present into action, says the study's lead author Freda Miller of the University of Toronto-affiliated Hospital for Sick Children. The fact that it's a drug that is so widely used and so safe makes the news all that much better. Earlier work by Miller's team highlighted a pathway known as aPKC-CBP for its essential...

Metformin prevents tumors from growing in human culturesEAST LANSING, Mich. — An inexpensive drug that treats Type-2 diabetes has been shown to prevent a number of natural and man-made chemicals from stimulating the growth of breast cancer cells, according to a newly published study by a Michigan State University researcher. The research, led by pediatrics professor James Trosko and colleagues from South Korea's Seoul National University, provides biological evidence for previously reported epidemiological surveys that long-term use of the drug metformin for Type-2 diabetes reduces the risk of diabetes-associated cancers, such as breast cancers. The research appears in the current...

It’s common enough for researchers to look at the impacts of prescribed drugs on the body. And if you’re a diabetes researcher who believes that exercise has great benefits for those with type 2 diabetes, you’re hoping your research will show that. But when Normand Boulé looked at the dual impacts of exercise and metformin – two of the most commonly-prescribed modalities for glucose control – on that very outcome, the hoped-for double whammy wasn’t the result. “The study had three objectives: we wanted to look at the effect of metformin on exercise in people with type 2 diabetes, examine...

.... Metformin was originally designed for diabetics who overproduce insulin. It works by preventing the liver from breaking down starch into sugar while also stimulating uptake of sugar by the body's muscles, causing blood sugar and insulin levels to fall. But when a number of studies noticed that diabetic patients taking metformin also had a significantly lower cancer rate, scientists began investigating its cancer-fighting properties. Dr. Michael Pollak, a professor of oncology at McGill University, said the findings that metformin might be a cancer fighter are "one of the most unexpected and innovative findings" he's seen in years. "Here we...

LONDON (Reuters) – Patients treated over long periods with metformin, a common drug for diabetes, are at risk of developing vitamin B12 deficiency which is also likely to get worse over time, according to a study published Friday. Dutch scientists who carried out the study said the findings suggest that regular checking of vitamin B-12 levels during long-term metformin treatment should be "strongly considered" to try to prevent deficiency and its effects. Vitamin B12 is essential to maintain healthy nerve cells and red blood cells. It is found in meat, dairy products, eggs, fish, shellfish and fortified breakfast cereals, and...

Metformin Kills Breast Cancer Stem Cells, May Fight Many Cancers Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD The next breakthrough breast cancer treatment may be a diabetes drug already on the shelves of nearly every pharmacy. The drug is metformin, available generically and under brand names such as Glucophage and Fortamet. A growing body of evidence suggests that diabetes patients taking metformin are less likely to get cancer, and have better outcomes if they do get cancer, than those not taking the drug. Now Harvard researcher Kevin Struhl, PhD, and colleagues find that metformin can kill breast cancer stem cells, thought to...

WASHINGTON - Type 2 diabetics got a new option to help control their blood sugar Friday, a drug derived from the saliva of the Gila monster — but one that must be injected twice a day. The Food and Drug Administration approved Byetta, known chemically as exenatide, the first in a new class of medications for Type 2 diabetes — but for now, it's supposed to be used together with older diabetes drugs, not alone. Makers Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Co. said the prescription drug would begin selling by June 1, but wouldn't provide a price. Some 18...