London: A popular diabetes medicine taken by millions of people around the world raises mortality risk by 60 percent, British researchers have claimed.
The drugs, known as sulphonylureas, are commonly used to treat type two diabetes.
The researchers at Imperial College London found that the drug increases the risk of dying from any cause by 60 percent. They also increased the likelihood of heart failure – a condition where the heart fails to beat strongly - by 30 percent, compared with another common medicine.
They said the findings were `important` but stopped short of saying that diabetics should avoid the drugs. They said guidelines already recommend that metformin, the drug they used for comparison, be used in preference to sulphonylureas.
Lead author Prof Paul Elliott wrote in the British Medical Journal: "The sulphonylureas, along with metformin, have long been considered the mainstay of drug treatment for type 2 diabetes. Our findings suggest a relatively unfavourable risk profile of sulphonylureas compared with
metformin.
Another author Dr Iain Frame said, "This study looks at the relative risk of the various drugs used to treat Type 2 diabetes. It is a retrospective study and there is nothing particularly new revealed here".
In addition, the study - involving over 90,000 diabetics in Britain - found a newer drug pioglitazone, reduced the risk of dying when compared with metformin by up to 39 percent, The Telegraph reported.
- PTI
