A San Antonio doctor is challenging a long-held methodology for treating Type 2 diabetes and says he received a grant from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) to test out his theory, according to a recent report on the website of ABC affiliate KSAT12.
People with Type 2 diabetes are considered insulin resistant, meaning their bodies produce insulin but do not use it efficiently.
Typically, the ADA recommends that doctors and patients try and control their Type 2 diabetes through exercise, weight loss and lifestyle modification. If that doesn’t work, most patients take the widely-used drug Metformin. If that still doesn’t work, doctors generally prescribe an additional drug from a class of drugs known as sulfonylureas, which push the pancreas to produce more insulin. If those measures fail to bring the diabetes under control, insulin is prescribed (However, insulin is not always seen as a last resort for Type 2 diabetics).
Dr. Ralph DeFronzo, a researcher with the Texas Diabetes Institute, says that year after year this process is proven to be ineffective. Instead he says doctors should be prescribing two other kinds of drugs: thiazolidinediones and a GLP-1 agonist.
People that want to join the study, which will follow the two methods over a three year period, should call the Texas Diabetes Institute at 210-358-7200.
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