Could Type 2 Diabetes Patients Live Longer than Healthy Individuals?

A commonly used drug among patients with type 2 diabetes may help some live longer than those without the condition.

Recent findings published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism found that the survival of diabetes patients who were given metformin, a commonly used drug used to control glucose levels in the body, exhibited certain anticancer properties that could offer prognostic and prophylactic benefits.

For the study, researchers at the Cardiff University School of Medicine in Wales looked to examine the survival of diabetes patients who were administered metformin compared to those given a similar drug called sulphonylurea.

Researchers also compared the life expectancy of these two groups to those without the health issue, matching counterparts by similar age, gender, smoking habits and clinical status.

"Patients treated with metformin had a small but statistically significant improvement in survival compared with the cohort of non-diabetics, whereas those treated with sulphonylureas had a consistently reduced survival compared with non-diabetic patients. This was true even without any clever statistical manipulation," Currie added, in a news release. "Surprisingly, the findings indicate that this cheap and widely prescribed diabetic drug may have beneficial effects not only on patients with diabetes but also for people without, and interestingly, people with type 1 diabetes. Metformin has been shown to have anti-cancer and anti-cardiovascular disease benefits. It can also reduce pre-diabetics' chances of developing the disease by a third."

However, he noted that patients with type 2 diabetes were also at risk for early death from other health complications. For instance, as type 2 diabetes progresses, most patients are switched to more aggressive treatments. 

"The best way to avoid the condition altogether is by keeping moderately lean and taking some regular light exercise," he concluded.