New medicine to aid those with diabetes
Diabetes, that burdensome and unwanted guest, imposes itself on a host and never leaves. Scientists of various disciplines have paid a lot of attention to this disorder, including those in genetics. Until we find a cure for diabetes we must find a way to treat it.
There are several ways to treat the disorder and the methods depend on if a person has type one or type two diabetes. Type one diabetics must use an insulin hormone that is manufactured in laboratories because their beta cells, located in the pancreas, are unable to produce insulin naturally.
Type two diabetes, which has grown at an alarming rate, is caused by several factors both internal and external. In some cases, beta cells cannot produce enough insulin, especially after meals, and in other case the insulin produced cannot enter a person’s cells. In both cases the result is high blood sugar.
A person’s lifestyle significantly increases the risk of type two diabetes. Physical inactivity, obesity, family history and old age are likely to increase a person’s chances of getting the disorder.
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) stated that Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have about 3 million people above the age of 20 with diabetes. They note that there is a similar number of people that are pre-diabetic and that patients do not know they have the disorder until they start showing signs of symptoms.
Diabetics have always complained about the need to use needles and shots to treat their disorder. Meanwhile, researchers are hard at work to find easier, better and more effective ways to deliver medication to those with diabetes. Novo Nordisk a pharmaceutical company established 87 years ago dedicated to treating diabetes introduced a new revolutionary once-a-day drug called Victoza to help improve the lives of those with diabetes.
The drug helps effectively control blood sugar while at the same time helps reduce and control a person’s weight and improves the function of beta cells that produce insulin. The drug can be taken once a day to lower blood sugar levels regardless of when a person eats because the medicine helps boost the body’s ability to release insulin only when it is needed.
Beyond providing patients with an important new way to control diabetes, Victoza also helps them lose weight significantly. This is important because weight gain is a common side effect of some medicines used to treat type two diabetes.
Dr Mohamed El-Shamma, a diabetologist at the American Hospital in Dubai, told Kuwait Times that “we tell patients to lose weight while giving them a medicine that increases their weight. This makes treating diabetes very difficult, but with Victoza it is different.” When asked if children with type two diabetes can use the medication he said that it is only used for those 18 years of age and above.
When asked about the possibility of using Victoza as a weight loss supplement, the Senior Vice President for Marketing at Novo, Jakob Riis said it is too early to talk about using the medicine in such a way because the medicine’s benefits are still being researched.
kuwaittimes.net