Avandia, Actos: Scientists link diabetes drugs to heart failure

[R]esearchers today call on Nice to think again, revealing that as many as one in every 50 patients taking the drugs Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone) over a period of 26 months will have to be hospitalised for heart failure.

The class of drugs, they say in the journal Diabetes Care, doubles the risk of heart failure, and even those with no history of heart problems are affected.

"Most patients in the studies did not have heart failure prior to starting on treatment with these drugs," said Dr Loke. "There doesn't seem to be a group of patients who are safe from these side-effects."

Alastair Benbow, European medical director for GlaxoSmithKline, said of the study: "It is well recognised that the class of drug can cause fluid retention. It is wholly different from the issue raised previously about heart attacks and cardiovascular deaths."

Source, and full story: Guardian UK, July 27, 2007

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Fluid retention may be "well recognised", but at least in the US, it's something that's rarely communicated to the patients. "Fluid retention" = Extra Weight. One of the critical components to gaining control over diabetes is, as far as possible, to be at an optimal weight. Extra weight = Greater dependence on drugs. Gee, can you figure out why pharmaceutical sales representatives masquerading as doctors don't warn their victims, er, "patients", that the drugs supposedly given to "help" are actually harming + creating an increased dependence.

And heart problems? Hey, just another excuse to foist more pharmaceuticals on the victim.

TLC