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Last month, Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association, published an article linking sulfonylurea use to increased risk of cardiovascular disease in women. Sulfonylureas stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin and include glipizide (Glucotrol), glyburide (Micronase), and glimepiride (Amaryl) in the US, as well as gliclazide (Diamicron), available in Great Britain and Australia. Although many newer medications are receiving a lot of attention in the media, sulfonylureas remain among the most widely prescribed diabetes medications on the market. Dr. Steve Parker wrote a nice overview of sulfonylureas a few years back.
A few pertinent facts about the study referenced above:
It was a long-term study following 4900 women for more than 10 years as part of the Nurses' Health Study
Researchers took into consideration confounding variables such as family history of CVD, smoking, duration of diabetes, etc.
The association with coronary heart disease (CHD) increased with duration of sulfonylurea use
I find this quite concerning, but I've only read the abstract and would like to read the entire study before commenting further. (If anyone is willing to share the full text with me, it would be much appreciated.) However, the well-known side effects of sulfonylureas are precisely what I saw in many patients in my former position as an outpatient dietitian in a large hospital:
Read the full article at Franziska's blog: http://www.lowcarbdietitian.com/blog/diabetes-medication-associated-with-heart-disease-in-women
