The info you don’t have on your diabetes med could kill you

A recent investigation by MedPage Today and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that the FDA’s system of monitoring meds to see how dangerous they are is practically worthless.

While the FDA may turn a blind eye, we’re seeing the impact of their incompetence — in the hospital reports and the obituaries.

And diabetes drugs are some of the most dangerous of all.

In fact, the slew of diabetes meds approved in the last 10 years have already sent hundreds of thousands rushing to the ER — and thousands of those to the morgue.

Hear no evil, see no evil

Once a drug is cleared for takeoff to your doctor’s prescription pad, the FDA basically washes its hands of it.

As Dr. Jerome Avorn, a Harvard professor of medicine, says, the process works by “approving drugs based on a lab test and then losing track of them.”

That “lab test” for diabetes drugs measures one thing – whether they can lower your blood sugar.

And that’s all they care about.

So these drugs can knock your blood sugar down all right, but the way it’s done is often at the expense of your health.

Some of them, for example, force your kidneys to excrete glucose through your urine and that can cause a deadly drop in blood pressure.

But you, your doctor, and your pharmacist might never hear about that risk before you start taking a deadly Rx.

Because the system the FDA created to keep track of adverse events is completely toothless.

First, only drug companies are required to file adverse event reports with the FDA. So IF you have a reaction that you recognize as an adverse event AND you report it to your doctor AND he reports it to the company, THEN they are legally bound to report it to the FDA.

But you can bet Big Pharma isn’t out searching for them!

And while doctors can send in a form directly to the agency if a patient sufferers a reaction, they aren’t required to and typically don’t. After all, a doctor would have to take a big chunk of time out of his day to fill out a lengthy case report. And he’d have no assurance that he’ll even hear back or that anything will be done.

Of course, you and I are free to send in these reports, too. But how many of us even know that or would know how to do it?

Down and dirty

Knowing about adverse events is especially vital if you’re taking one of these new diabetes meds. And it’s something your doctor absolutely needs to know before he takes out his Rx pad and decides which one he plans to put you on.

But, like I said, it’s very likely that your doctor is in the dark, as well.

Because nothing other than lowering blood sugar has to be proven.  The FDA doesn’t require that the drugs prevent heart attacks, strokes, amputations — all those scary complications that can come along with diabetes.

Just get that sugar number down and you’re good to go.

Dr. Avorn says that “most doctors don’t fully understand that the recent drugs approved for diabetes haven’t been proven to reduce organ failure and might actually carry risks.”

Drug makers have been on a roll with diabetes meds for the last decade. They’ve given us terribly risky treatments that do nothing better than the older (and cheaper) drugs can do.

So if you’re on one of these new meds, do like those drug commercials say and “ask your doctor.” Only in this case, ask if he can prescribe another drug, one that’s been on the market for a good long time and has a solid history of use with limited adverse events.

Or even better, find out what you can do to control your blood sugar using natural methods and get off of these risky meds altogether.

Sources:

“FDA reporting system comes up short on new diabetes drugs’ potential dangers” Coulter Jones, John Fauber and Elbert Chu, December 22, 2014, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, jsonline.com

“Benefits of diabetes drugs dubious” John Fauber, Elbert Chu and Coulter Jones, December 21, 2014, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, jsoline.com