Asthma inhalers increase chances of diabetes: Researchers
MONTREAL ? Montreal researchers have discovered that patients using inhaled steroids increase their chances of developing diabetes.
Patients with lung disease should ask their physicians about treatment with the synthetic hormone medication because the higher the dose, the greater the risk, said Samy Suissa, director of the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research of the Jewish General Hospital.
Oral corticosteroids like prednisone have long been known to increase the risk of diabetes, but this is the first time the effect has been observed with the inhaled form, said Suissa, lead author of the study published in the American Journal of Medicine.
Inhaled steroids have become the mainstay of medical treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the new name for emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
But they have been shown to increase the risk of cataracts and pneumonia, "and now we are finding the increase in diabetes," said Suissa, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University.
Dipping into the database kept by the Quebec health insurance board, Suissa's team studied 400,000 patients over 18 years.
The study determined that inhaled steroids increased the rate of onset of diabetes by 34 per cent for every year of use, from 14 people per 1,000, to 19 per 1,000.
"That would be OK if these drugs worked in (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) COPD but, unfortunately, the data that we have suggests they don't for the majority of these patients," he said.
In asthma patients, inhaled steroids are extremely effective in controlling the disease by reducing the airway inflammation that can lead to fatal attacks. It saves lives and reduce hospitalization, Suissa said.
But the same medication does not have the same benefit for COPD, whose lung decline is often caused by smoking. About 70 per cent of COPD patients rely on bronco-dilator sprays and micropowders, usually in high doses.
Physicians should reserve inhaled steroids for asthma patients who can really benefit from them while reassessing COPD patients for lowest effective dose, Suissa said.
cfidelman@montrealgazette.com
MONTREAL ? Montreal researchers have discovered that patients using inhaled steroids increase their chances of developing diabetes.
Patients with lung disease should ask their physicians about treatment with the synthetic hormone medication because the higher the dose, the greater the risk, said Samy Suissa, director of the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research of the Jewish General Hospital.
Oral corticosteroids like prednisone have long been known to increase the risk of diabetes, but this is the first time the effect has been observed with the inhaled form, said Suissa, lead author of the study published in the American Journal of Medicine.
Inhaled steroids have become the mainstay of medical treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the new name for emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
But they have been shown to increase the risk of cataracts and pneumonia, "and now we are finding the increase in diabetes," said Suissa, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University.
Dipping into the database kept by the Quebec health insurance board, Suissa's team studied 400,000 patients over 18 years.
The study determined that inhaled steroids increased the rate of onset of diabetes by 34 per cent for every year of use, from 14 people per 1,000, to 19 per 1,000.
"That would be OK if these drugs worked in (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) COPD but, unfortunately, the data that we have suggests they don't for the majority of these patients," he said.
In asthma patients, inhaled steroids are extremely effective in controlling the disease by reducing the airway inflammation that can lead to fatal attacks. It saves lives and reduce hospitalization, Suissa said.
But the same medication does not have the same benefit for COPD, whose lung decline is often caused by smoking. About 70 per cent of COPD patients rely on bronco-dilator sprays and micropowders, usually in high doses.
Physicians should reserve inhaled steroids for asthma patients who can really benefit from them while reassessing COPD patients for lowest effective dose, Suissa said.
cfidelman@montrealgazette.com