Danger danger danger!--or maybe not

Big headlines about the Diabetes drug causing heart attacks. Big bad drug company killing people. Docs incompetent. Yada yada yada.

We docs went thru this in 1970 with Orinase. But how much is politics? according to one doc at Medscape,

“The NEJM was irresponsible to go to [Drs Bruce] Psaty and [Curt] Furberg for the editorial--they were always going to emphasize concerns about drug safety; that’s what they do," he commented. “But I’m not surprised this paper was published like this. The three major medical journals are becoming more like British tabloid newspapers--all they lack is a bare-chested woman on page 3," he jibed.

My take is HERE. Translation: tiny risk, major disease, and what the hell a lot of the time it's the only medicine that works. And anyway, it's probably better to maybe increase your risk of heart attack by half a percent than to feel lousy all the time and end up losing your foot from high blood sugar.