Health Impact of Drugs
Just like any other drug, these diabetic drugs create biochemical and hormonal dependencies within your body that can lead to long-term damage to your cells and organs.

If you are taking one of these drugs, it may be difficult to beleive this, because you feel fine, you do not feel any discomfort or side effects.

However, many of the side effects will not be felt for several years, maybe even longer. But, eventually the following scenario will occur:

1. The drug loses its effectiveness and your blood glucose level starts to rise.
2. Your doctor increases the dosage to bring your blood glucose level back to the normal range.
3. If this doesn't work, your doctor adds a new drug.
4. Eventually when the oral drugs lose their effectiveness to lower your blood glucose level, your doctor will put you on insulin.

I know that you're probably thinking that if you keep taking the oral drugs and watch what you eat, you won't have to go on insulin. 

But, that's not true. Why? Because while you were taking the drugs, the diabetes continued to progress (silently) and cause damage to more and more cells in your body. Eventually, the damage becomes so widespread that your doctor has to either increase your dosage, add another drug, or put you on insulin.

Read Chapters 3, 12, 14 and 15 of Death to Diabetes to learn how to decrease the damage caused by the long-term use of these drugs.

Sidebar:
The author has nothing against drugs -- in fact, drugs saved his life!

He believes that drugs are important and especially critical in acute life-threatening situations, such as what he experienced.

However, long-term use of these drugs causes too much damage to the organs and tissues.

Consequently, a non-drug solution would provide the best opportunity for optimum health. 

Diabetic Drugs
Western Medicine uses diabetic drugs such as metformin (Glucophage), glyburide (Micronase, DiaBeta) and glipizide (Glucotrol) to "treat" your diabetes.

So, do these drugs work?

It depends on your point of view.

These drugs help to lower your blood glucose level, but they do absolutely nothing to help your body get rid of the disease! 

In fact, these drugs cause long-term side damage that leads to gastrointestinal problems, kidney failure, liver failure, and other health issues that your doctor may not mention to you. 

In addition, these drugs do not stop the development of diabetic complications such as amputation, kidney failure or heart attack.

If you find this hard to believe, just visit any of the pharmaceutical websites or google on "diabetic drug expenses" -- do your own research.

For more information about the dangers of these diabetes drugs and their side effects, go to this link: More About Diabetes Drugs

For more information about the dangers of high blood pressure and cholesterol drugs, go to this link: High Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Drugs

Note!: Just because you don't feel any discomfort such as an upset stomach or headache, does not mean that your body is not experiencing any side effects!! Most side effects such as liver/kidney damage go undetected for years!

Financial Impact of Diabetic Drugs
Are you aware that diabetic drugs are getting more expensive? Diabetic drug costs have soared to ver $12 billion dollars.
(See excerpt from news article below)

Are you aware that you will be taking more and more drugs and eventually end up on insulin?

Are you aware that eye surgeries and kidney dialysis are becoming more expensive?

Are you aware that the cost of post-surgery home care is increasing to even higher levels?

Do you really want to be dependent on drugs for the rest of your life?

Diabetes drug costs soaring, top $12B last year

By Carla K. Johnson, Associated Press Writer
Mon Oct 27, 2008

CHICAGO – Americans with diabetes nearly doubled their spending on drugs for the disease in just six years, with the bill last year climbing to an eye-popping $12.5 billion.

Newer, more costly drugs are driving the increase, said researchers, despite a lack of strong evidence for the new drugs' greater benefits and safety. And there are more people being treated for diabetes.

The new study follows updated treatment advice for Type 2 diabetes, issued last week. In those recommendations, an expert panel told doctors to use older, cheaper drugs first.

"We need to pay attention to this," said Dr. David Nathan, diabetes chief at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital, who wrote an editorial but wasn't involved in the new studies. "If you can achieve the same glucose control at lower cost and lower side effects, that's what you want to do."

The studies, appearing in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, were both funded by federal grants.

In one, researchers from University of Chicago and Stanford University looked at which pills and insulin doctors prescribed and total medication costs. Diabetes drug spending rose from $6.7 billion in 2001 to $12.5 billion in 2007, a period when costs dropped for metformin.

More patients got multiple prescriptions as new classes of drugs came on the market. And more patients with diabetes were seeing doctors, increasing from 14 million patients in 2000 to 19 million in 2007.

"There's been a remarkable change in diabetes treatments and remarkable increases in the cost of treatments over the past several years," said study co-author Dr. Caleb Alexander, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. "We were surprised by the magnitude of the changes and the rapid increase in the cost of diabetes care."

Nearly 24 million Americans, 8 percent of the population, have Type 2 diabetes, which can lead to kidney failure, blindness and heart disease.

Current guidelines say doctors should prescribe metformin (about $30 a month) to lower blood sugar in newly diagnosed patients and urge them to eat healthy food and get more exercise. Other drugs can be added later, on top of metformin, to help patients who don't meet blood sugar goals. The updated guidelines don't include Avandia, which costs about $225 a month.

Dr. Susan Spratt, an endocrinologist at Duke University Medical Center, said she prescribes whatever it takes to lower her patients' future risk of blindness and amputations. That can mean coupling more costly drugs with metformin to hit blood sugar goals.