Viagra for diabetes? Not as bizzare as it sounds…

A new study has shown that wonder erectile dysfunction drug Viagra may help to stave off the onset of type 2 diabetes.

The Researchers involved in the study discovered that the medication sildenafil – commonly sold under the brand name Viagra – boosts insulin sensitivity in those people with pre-diabetes, in addition to decreasing a biological marker that signals an increased risk of kidney and heart disease.

People who are in the pre-diabetes range are sometimes referred to as being ‘borderline diabetes’, which occurs when glucose levels are in the higher end of what is deemed ‘normal’, but not quite high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes – a condition that can lead to other complications such as heart disease or stroke, organ damage, blindness, limb amputation and is particularly common in men with suffering with erectile dysfunction.

Pre-diabetic people are typically found to be insulin resistant, meaning their bodies are unable to generate sufficient levels of the hormone insulin, or the hormone doesn’t function as it should in order to get rid of sugar from the blood.

Previous research has shown that if necessary intervention isn’t undertook, as many as 30% of people with pre-diabetes are probably going to go on and develop type 2 diabetes within a mere 5 years, with over 3 million Brits already having this kind of diabetes.

However, studies conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in the US have discovered that sildenafil also can improve the uptake of glucose from the bloodstream by muscle. This can then can then bring down the level of circulating glucose, possibly reducing diabetes risk.
Dr Nancy Brown, of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said: “We need additional strategies to help slow the progression from pre-diabetes to diabetes.

“Weight loss and exercise regimens can be difficult to maintain, and some current medications have been limited by concerns about adverse effects.

“Sildenafil and related drugs could offer a potential avenue for addressing the rising number of diabetes diagnoses.”

Erectile dysfunction drug Viagra (sildenafil) works by inhibiting an enzyme responsible for breaking down a chemical known as cGMP, which relaxes blood vessels. Therefore, if the chemical stays in the body, the vessels will continue relaxing.

For the study – published in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism – 51 overweight participants were involved. All had pre-diabetes and were given either Viagra or a similar-looking placebo for 3 months.

All people were tested to measure how much insulin was being produced by the body in response to sugar in the blood, and how sensitive they were to the hormone. Also, they were given the ‘hyperglycemic clamp’ test prior to, and after, the treatment with the Viagra or equivalent placebo.

Moreover, the participant’s had their urine tested for levels of albumin and creatinine – indicators of heart and kidney health. Overall, 42 of the participants managed to finish the study. Those taking the Viagra were found to be more sensitive to the effects of insulin and had lower levels of albumin in the urine compared to the people taking a placebo.

High amounts of albumin in the urine are a marker of risk for kidney and heart disease.

Dr Brown said: “Because existing drug therapies to prevent type 2 diabetes can have negative effects on the heart or be of limited use in patients with kidney disease, strategies to prevent diabetes without adversely affecting the risk of kidney and heart disease could have a large impact on public health.
“Further studies will be needed to determine whether long-term treatment with drugs like sildenafil can prevent the onset of diabetes in high-risk patients.”

A third of adults in England now ‘on cusp of diabetes’

Over one in three adults are on the brink of developing type 2 diabetes, according to the findings of new research.

The British Medical Journal have published alarming findings that show there has been an “extremely rapid” increase in the cases of pre-diabetes since 2003.

The authors of the study discovered that in 2011, there had been a triple increase in the number of people confirmed with having pre-diabetes, rising from 11.6% in 2003 to a staggering 35.3% by 2011. To come to this judgement, the authors looked at data comprised from the Health Survey for England for the years 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2011, which included information about the blood samples of thousands of people.

The authors said: “This rapid rise in such a short period of time is particularly disturbing because it suggests that large changes on a population level can occur in a relatively short period of time. If there is no coordinated response to the rise in pre-diabetes, an increase in numbers of people with diabetes will ensue, with consequent increase in health expenditure, morbidity and cardiovascular mortality.”

Researchers determined an individual to have pre-diabetes if they had not been previously diagnosed with the condition, and their glycated haemoglobin – a measure of blood glucose control – was found to be at a level between 5.7% and 6.4%.

If the findings were amplified for the rest of the UK, it could suggest there are now an estimated 15 million adults that are pre-diabetic, with a further 4 million actually suffering from diabetes.
Nine tenths of all cases of diabetes are type 2, often occurring in mid-life and heavily linked to weight gain, and worryingly, as a nation we are simply getting fatter.

During the last 20 years there has been almost a double rise in the number of obese adults, soaring from 13.2% amongst men in 1993 to 24.4% now. Women show a similar pattern, increasing from 16.4% to a whopping 25.1%.

Pre-diabetes previously went by the name of ‘borderline diabetes’, and is the term given when someone has glucose levels that are in the very high end of what is deemed ‘normal’, but not yet high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes – a condition that can lead to other complications such as heart disease or stroke, and is particularly common in men with suffering with erectile dysfunction.

Most people in this ‘grey area’ between normal blood sugar levels and diabetic levels, often do not display any symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes, which usually include: urinating frequently (commonly at night), feeling very thirsty, loss of muscle bulk, weight loss and feeling very tired.

However, pre-diabetes is a very serious warning to take heed of and certainly an important stage in the development of diabetes. Type 2 diabetes has been strongly linked with both genetics and ethnicity, but an incredibly large percentage of cases of type 2 diabetes are caused by poor diet that leads to being overweight or due to obesity. With early enough lifestyle changes such as improving your diet, regular exercise and weight loss, it may just be enough to slow down or even prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.

Barbara Young, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK, commented: “Unless we make people aware of their risk of type 2 diabetes and support them in changing their lifestyles, we could see an even greater increase in the number of people with the condition than we are already expecting. A tenth of the NHS budget is already being spent on diabetes and unless we get much better at preventing type 2 diabetes this spending will soon rise to unsustainable levels.”