Doctors Say Avandia Warning Label Should Tout Vegan Diet

-Diabetes Health

01/15/2008 - A professional doctors' group has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require that Avandia's warning label include a statement that a low-fat vegan diet is a safer, more effective approach to lowering blood sugar levels than the drug itself.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says that the benefits of the diet, which include a lowering of blood pressure and cholesterol levels, weight loss and the prevention - even reversal - of heart disease, should be made clear to Avandia users.

The group's request comes in the wake of a recent FDA decision to require a "black-box" warning on Avandia alerting users to the increased risk of heart attacks. Researchers claim that 13,000 instances of heart attack and heart failure in the United States can be attributed to the drug.

Avandia is the brand name for rosiglitazone, part of the thiazolidinedione class of drugs used to control blood glucose. GlaxoSmithKline introduced the drug in 1999.