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A new prescription drug that helps lower blood sugar is also
helping some patients lose weight. But that drug is now in
such high demand; the company that makes it is asking doctors
to delay starting the therapy in new patients temporarily.
The Eli Lilly Company is taking this unusual step as a way
to prevent a shortage of the medicine. Here's a look at what
it is and why it's become so popular.
It's called Byetta. It's a twice a day injection used by
people already taking a pill for the type two diabetes. Some
of the side effects can be unpleasant. But in people who can
get past them, Byetta can lead to weight loss.
43 year old Cris Welling has a lot to smile about when it
comes to her blood sugar. It's almost always in the normal
range these days. That wasn't the case back in August of 2001
when she was diagnosed with type two diabetes. "I didn't
feel good, I felt fat and lazy and didn't want to get up and
exercise, I didn't have the energy."
She also had a constant appetite, along with high blood pressure
and high cholesterol. Then in August of last year, struggling
to keep her blood sugar under control with the help of a pill
called Metformin, she began taking injections of a new diabetes
drug called Byetta. Each day before breakfast and dinner she
would inject herself.
"After each of those meals I would be nauseous and just
I mean literally I would just have to sit for a couple of
hours and not move because if I moved I would be vomiting,"
recalls Welling.
But after three weeks those side effects went away. That's
when Cris began noticing another, more welcome side effect.
"The first time in my life I was not all the time hungry
and between the nausea and being full I didn't want to eat."
Byetta's history is just as interesting as its effects on
the human body. The drug is made from the venom or saliva
of the Gila monster. A scientist in New York made the discovery.
He found the saliva of the Gila monster closely mimics a hormone
found in the human digestive tract.
Dr. Bickel says not a lot is known about the long-term effects
of Byetta. While he's had some patients lose considerable
weight, studies done on the drug show the average weight loss
at just six pounds after 30 weeks. Still unknown is what happens
when patients go off the drug. "Generally as with almost
anything you do to lose weight once you stop it you regain
the weight and I would expect that might be the same thing
with Byetta."
There are no current studies looking at Byetta as a drug
for weight loss.
Source:http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=100304
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