Note from Connie: My blog researcher Jennifer Moore has been following the Avandia story. Here’s her quick report about an editorial from an endocrinologist, which appears in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.
Endocrinologist Clifford J. Rosen, M.D., wrote a revelatory commentary in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine about the July 30 meeting held by an FDA advisory committee he chaired that was to decide whether the diabetes drug Avandia should be removed from the market.
Dr. Rosen gets right to the bottom line:
"The basic plot of the rosiglitazone story quickly became obvious to the advisory committee," he writes, noting that "a new `wonder drug,’ approved prematurely and for the wrong reasons by a weakened and underfunded government agency subjected to pressure from industry, had caused undue harm to patients."
Type 2 diabetes is largely preventable. Given the difficulty of treating it, and given that the FDA can’t be trusted to make sure the drugs they recommend are safe, it’s important that people do what they can to avoid developing diabetes with a diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables and low on processed foods and sugar, maintaining a healthy weight, and by gettting enough exercise. (You also can get help by reading Connie’s book SUGAR SHOCK! to find all about the tasty foods you can eat instead of sugar and quickie carbs.)
Jennifer Moore for SUGAR SHOCK! Blog