Another Option for Pre-diabetes?

The drug pioglitazone may reduce the chance of diabetes in people at high risk of developing it, new research finds. The new study included 602 adults. All of them had been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. Their blood sugar was higher than normal, but not as high as in people with diabetes. This condition often leads to diabetes. But diet and exercise can help to prevent it. So can taking the diabetes drug metformin. Half of those in the study were randomly assigned to take a different diabetes drug, pioglitazone (Actos). The others took a placebo (fake pills). Researchers kept track of them for about 2 ½ years. In that time, 2.1% of the group that took the real drug developed diabetes, compared with 7.6% who took the placebo. Nearly half of those taking pioglitazone went back to normal blood sugar levels. This happened for only 28% of those taking the placebo.