If you are a Type- 2 diabetic, you could be taking a drug that will kill you, or make you seriously ill as you do all you can to improve your health! Avandia, one of the most popular drugs for diabetics on the market in years, may affect the heart, causing angina, chest pain, fluid retention, shortness of breath, coronary artery blockage and other symptoms of heart failure. In November 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advised doctors to closely monitor patients with Type-2 diabetes who were taking the drug to lower their blood sugar levels, alone or in combination with other drugs. The FDA voted 22 – 1 not to take the drug off the market, but asked its manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline to increase warnings about it to the highest level by adding “ …new information to the existing boxed warning in the drug’s labeling about potential increased risk for heart attacks.”

One Million Americans On Avandia:

The drug was first approved in 1999, along with diet and exercise to lower blood sugar levels. But
serious alarms were raised in May 2007about its potential to cause heart failure when the nationally respected Cleveland Clinic reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that patients taking Avandia were 43% more likely to have a heart attack or be hospitalized for blockages of the coronary arteries. By August 2007, the FDA had posted black box labels on prescriptions warning that the drug might cause heart failure. Now the drug carries the FDA’s highest warning.

Why Is “Heart Attack” Drug Still Sold?

The FDA asserts there is no definitive proof yet that Avandia causes heart attacks in diabetic patients. It points to other studies that do not show a connection between the drug and heart failure in diabetics. The FDA has ordered a trial to compare the drug’s heart attack risk with other oral diabetes drugs. It expects results in 2014. Meanwhile, patients taking the drug may be playing Russian Roulette with their health. In a USA Today story about the drug, an FDA scientist who recommended taking the drug off the market, said the FDA warning did not go far enough. David Graham said it should include information about alternative drugs that “work as well and… don’t have this cloud hanging over them.”Meanwhile, patients taking Avandia are advised not to stop the drug without seeing a doctor. But those on the drug when they had a heart attack might do well to consult an attorney.