Berberine Works But May Very Well Be Harmful
I have been getting a lot of email of late about the supplement Berberine, which appears to be the latest miracle cure being sold to those people with diabetes who believe that completely unregulated herbs imported from countries with long histories of food and drug adulteration are somehow safer and "more natural" than the tightly regulated pharamceuticals.Berberine does appear to work to lower blood sugar. The problem is that we really know very little about how it does it or what its long term effects are on the body. I see many mentions on sites promoting berberine supplements of the fact that berberine has a lon...
Source: Diabetes Update - August 14, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Jenny Source Type: blogs
Ultra-rapid reviews, first test results
In conclusion, this is early days and our first testing steps. The results have been very encouraging and when our new system is out it'll be even better. But much more testing is required!Oh yes, the time taken - if you're interested, then scroll down.With the exception of the second to last result they all took around 2-3 minutes. The second to last one took approximately 5 minutes (as I had to scroll through around 55 results to select the 17 that we used). (Source: Liberating the literature)
Source: Liberating the literature - August 2, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Source Type: blogs
Diabetes Drugs Pancreatic Cancer Risk Not Backed By Existing Evidence: FDA
In yet another boost to several large drugmakers, the FDA has decided that there is no evidence that to confirm recent concerns that a widely used group of diabetes drugs called GLP-1 inhibitors is linked to pancreatic cancer, an FDA spokeswoman says. The decision comes several days after the European Medicines Agency reached the same conclusion (here is the EMA statement).
“The FDA concurs with the EMA’s conclusions regarding the potential pancreatic effects of GLP-1 based therapies,” the FDA spokeswoman writes us. “The agency believes that the current labeling for approved GLP-1 based therapies reflects the exten...
Source: Pharmalot - July 31, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Vaccines, Depression, and Type-1 Diabetes—Going Beyond Your Doctor
CONCLUSIONS
As per doctor recommendation, I would receive flu shots, my children would continue to be vaccinated, I would live through the nightmare of antidepressants, and our daughter would receive uncontrollable amounts of insulin that caused frequent and potentially life-threatening side effects. Doctors can be dead wrong, partially right, and completely right in their diagnosis, analysis, and treatment recommendations. As per my own research and in consulting with experts, I will never receive a flu shot again, and my children will not be vaccinated again until independent studies proof safety and effectiveness of vac...
Source: vactruth.com - July 22, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Markus Heinze Tags: Markus Heinze Top Stories 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) Adverse Reaction Depression type-1 diabetes Source Type: blogs
Emergency cardiology consult for Acute abdomen !
The other day my fellow got a call from surgical ward for emergency ECG opinion for a suspected Inferior MI .It later turned out to be an acute cholecystitis.
One of the important anatomical mis-perception among physicians , is to consider inferior, posterior and diaphragmatic surface of heart as separate entities .They are all closely linked.In fact, they more often mean the same anatomical zones !
Heart is a dynamic suspended organ within the middle mediastinum .It can assume a vertical or horizontal position due to number of surrounding anatomical and physiological factors. (Diaphragm, L...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - July 18, 2013 Category: Cardiology Authors: dr s venkatesan Tags: cardiology -ECG Clinical cardiology myocardial disease Ascites Gross obesity inferior mi differential diagnosis pancreatitis and q waves in ecg q waves in inferior leads Source Type: blogs
Novo's Moses: 'We Are Open To Sharing' Data With The ADA
Two weeks ago, the NIH ran a workshop to examine the safety of several widely used diabetes drugs called GLP-1 inhibitors and whether a definitive link can be established to acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, which were the subject of recent studies that generated considerable controversy. The outcome was inconclusive, but the FDA may want further studies. Meanwhile, the American Diabetes Association called for drugmakers that sell these meds to release patient-level data that can be used for an independent review (back stories here, here and here). To what extent the drugmakers - Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZ...
Source: Pharmalot - June 27, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
A Bristol-Myers And AstraZeneca Diabetes Trial Is A 'Dud'
In a setback to an important joint venture between Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and AstraZeneca (AZN), the top-line results of a large, late-stage study of their Onglyza diabetes drug failed to show superiority in reducing cardiovascular deaths, heart attacks and strokes compared to a placebo in Type 2 diabetes patients with cardiovascular risk factors (read this).
At the same time, the findings of the so-called SAVOR study, which examined more than 16,000 patients, also indicated that Onglyza did not cause cardiovascular harm, which is a key FDA litmus test for diabetes pills since heart risks are a common concern for diabe...
Source: Pharmalot - June 19, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
ADA's Ratner: We Expect Patient Level Data From All Drugmakers
Last week, the NIH ran a workshop to examine the safety of several widely used diabetes drugs called GLP-1 inhibitors and whether a definitive link can be established to acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, which were the subject of recent studies that generated considerable controversy. The outcome was inconclusive, but the FDA may want further studies. Meanwhile, the American Diabetes Association called for drugmakers that sell these meds to release patient-level data that can be used for an independent review (back stories here, here and here). Whether the drugmakers - Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Eli ...
Source: Pharmalot - June 18, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
READER POLL: Should Diabetes Drugmakers Provide Patient-Level Data?
Last week, the NIH ran a workshop to examine the safety of several widely used diabetes drugs and whether a definitive link can be established to acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, which were the subject of recent studies that generated considerable controversy. The outcome was inconclusive, but the FDA may want further studies.
The drugs, which mimic a hormone called GLP-1 to stimulate natural insulin production, include Merck’s Januvia (MRK); Onglyza, which is sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and AstraZeneca (AZN); Byetta, which is also sold by Bristol-Myers; the Tradjenta med sold by Eli Lilly (LLY) and Boehr...
Source: Pharmalot - June 17, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
The ADA's "Investigation" of Incretin Drugs is a Gift to the Drug Companies
You may have heard that the American Diabetes Association (ADA) had called for a review of the incretin drugs--Januvia, Onglyza, Byetta, Victoza, etc.--in response to the recent discovery, which I described HERE, that they cause abnormal patterns of growth within the pancreas of a kind that lead to both pancreatitis and cancer. The call for review can be read HERE.Sadly, this call for review has nothing to do with protecting people with diabetes, a group for whom the ADA has never had much concern, save as a source of contributions to pay the inflated salaries of its top executives.The ADA is heavily funded by drug manufac...
Source: Diabetes Update - June 14, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Jenny Source Type: blogs
Diabetes Drugs Under Scrutiny As FDA Considers Another Study
As a two-day NIH workshop gets underway to examine the safety of several widely used diabetes drugs, the FDA is considering whether to run a study to determine whether a definitive link can be established to acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, which were the subject of recent studies that have generated considerable controversy.
“A review of FDA-required epidemiological studies submitted to (the FDA) have provided conflicting results and do not provide reliable evidence to refute or support a causal link between GLP-1 based therapies and risk of acute pancreatitis,” wrote Solomon Iyasu, who heads one of the FDA e...
Source: Pharmalot - June 12, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Has pancreatic damage from glucagon suppressing diabetes drugs been underplayed? - BMJ
BMJ 2013; 346 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f3680 (Published 10 June 2013)
Cite this as: BMJ 2013;346:f3680Article
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Deborah Cohen, investigations editor
Author Affiliations
dcohen@bmj.com
Incretin mimetics have been called “the darlings of diabetes treatment” and they may soon also be licensed for treating obesity. But a BMJ investigation has found growing safety concerns linked to the drugs’ mechanism of action. Deborah Cohenasks why patients and doctors have not been told.
They’ve been touted as th...
Source: PharmaGossip - June 11, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
A Lone Voice Raises Alarms on Lucrative Diabetes Drugs - NYT
LOS ANGELES — Dr. Peter C. Butler initially declined a request by the drug maker Merck to test whether its new diabetes drug, Januvia, could help stave off the disease in rats.“I said, I’m not interested in your money, go away,” Dr. Butler recalled.Merck no doubt now wishes it had. When Dr. Butler finally agreed to do the study, he found worrisome changes in the pancreases of the rats that could lead to pancreatic cancer. The discovery, in early 2008, turned Dr. Butler into a crusader whose follow-up studies now threaten the future of not only Januvia but all the drugs in its class, which have sales of more than $9...
Source: PharmaGossip - May 31, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
What Patient Harm? FDA Slams Shionogi For Not Preparing Studies
File this under ‘what chutzpah!” Last September, the FDA informed Shionogi that two clinical trials would be required after a serious risk of an irregular heartbeat was associated with its Rybix painkiller. The agency informed the drugmaker that a draft protocol was due this past February and a final report was expected by September 2014.
But last November, Shionogi told the FDA to forget about it. Why? The drugmaker wrote the agency that “the costs of participating in the PMR (post-marketing requirement)… were not commercially justified based on the sales potential for Rybix.” Never mind that patients may have b...
Source: Pharmalot - May 28, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Alzheimer's Miracle Drug Bexarotene Doesn't Work as Reported
“We all went back to our labs and tried to confirm these promising findings” ... “We repeated the initial experiments — a standard process in science. Combined results are really important in this field. None of us found anything like what they described in the 2012 paper.”
By +Bob DeMarco
+Alzheimer's Reading Room
Co-authors Karthikeyan Veeraraghavalu and
Sangram Sisodia of the University of Chicago
Three teams of highly respected Alzheimer’s researchers failed to replicate what appeared to be breakthrough results for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease using existing cancer drug Targretin® (br...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - May 23, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
