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Sep 17, 2008 5:55 pm US/Eastern
New Study Looking To Arthritis Drug For Diabetes
(KDKA)
When diet and weight loss weren't enough to control Mary Provost's type two diabetes, the 64-year-old was reluctant to go on a drug for this illness.
"At the same time, I was having arthritis symptoms that were driving me just crazy," says Provost.
Then, she heard about a study at the Joslin Diabetes Center to see if an old arthritis drug could help.
"I wasn't taking a drug for either of them, but I thought two for one, a two-fer," she laughs.
Joslin researchers in Boston had found that inflammation plays a big role in obesity-related diseases like diabetes. The study drug called, salsalate, is a safe inexpensive anti-inflammatory that's been used for arthritis for decades.
"And we hope that by targeting the inflammation that is caused by obesity, that we're actually getting at a root cause of the type 2 diabetes," says Steve Shoelson, M.D., PH.D., a researcher at the Joslin Diabetes Center.
Mary's blood sugar dropped steadily and her arthritis pain disappeared.
"What we found was that in patients with diabetes, or with excess weight and risk for diabetes, consistently that the drugs appeared to lower blood sugars, and to improve the circulating inflammatory markers that seemed to be associated with diabetes and even cardiovascular risk," says Allison Goldfine, M.D., another researcher at the Joslin Diabetes Center, about the preliminary results.
Provost still takes salsalate for arthritis. She's able to garden, golf -- even keep up with a puppy.
"I'm brushing her and playing with her and taking her for walks," Provost says, "There's no way, no way I could have done that before."
The Joslin research into salsalate is ongoing.
There are currently two major clinical trials -- one is a wider study of whether the drug is useful in treating type two diabetes...and the other is exploring whether salsalate might help treat or prevent heart disease.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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