Jul/110
Facts About Actos And Diabetes You Need To Know
Lack of exercise and improper diet cause the body's small store of naturally made insulin to be depleted. Adult onset, or Type II, diabetes results when blood sugar levels cannot be controlled by the body. Physicians treat this with two drugs. One stimulates the muscles to use the insulin made in the body and the second stimulates the insulin to be made. This is in the beginning, before insulin shots are necessary, when diet and exercise, along with a little medication, can get the disease under control. Actos helps the body use the insulin.
All details provided for informational purposes only, contact an experienced Actos side effects lawyer where required.
What Is Actos?
It's generic name is pioglitazone. It stimulates the body to be sensitive to insulin, thereby helping to control blood sugar levels. It comes in tablet form and is taken once per day, with or without food. This medication is often prescribed by doctors in combination with drugs such as Avandia.
Before Taking Actos
The Mayo Clinic has performed studies on Actos and advises diabetics to talk with their physicians before taking Actos. The doctor will need to know, and will find through blood tests, if the patient experiences swelling in hands, wrist, ankles, or feet or rapid weight gain. These could signify a serious heart problem. The doctor will also need to know if stomach pain, dark urine, no appetite, vomiting, fatigue, or jaundice happens because liver problems may occur.
Women Taking Actos
The National Institutes of Health are concerned about women taking Actos. If a woman has experienced slowing or stopping menses, this drug could cause them to start again. If a woman hasn't even begun the change, she could get pregnant while taking this drug because it stimulates ovulation. The Mayo Clinic also advises women that this drug could cause bone fractures.
Studies
When it's arch-rival, Avandia, suffered in studies proving it contributed to heart disease, Actos came under the microscope. The Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, wrote in 2007 that while Actos showed beneficial effects to diabetics, it also "significantly increased the risk of serious heart failure". Noticing the controversy, the Federal Drug Administration, or FDA, got involved but produced a study that reported a government-stamped warning regarding the drug's connection to bladder cancer, instead of congestive heart failure. Not a month later, the JAMA confirmed the study's connection of the diabetic drug Actos to bladder cancer. This follows a French and German boycott of the drug because studies of their own proved a connection.
Diabetics consulting their physicians concerning use of this drug will, of course, check into the dosage needed to avoid all these dire conditions and still fight the disease. Nor should these warnings and studies spark the need for legal advice, but simply caution.
Goldberg & Osborne, a personal injury law firm, has provided this article for informational purposes only, written by an independent author, and has not reviewed or edited this article and is not responsible for its content or accuracy.
