More meds, more quickly to treat type 2 diabetes

USA TODAY, July, 2008 by Mary Brophy Marcus

For years, doctors have followed a standard approach to treating their type 2 diabetes patients:

*Advise them to lose weight and exercise.

*Start them on an oral medicine that helps lower blood sugar.

*Add more drugs as needed over time.

But a new attitude is evolving among some doctors who believe a more aggressive approach would better control the disease and help patients avoid its severe consequences in later life.

Instead of starting with lifestyle changes and one drug and adding more later, physicians would treat patients swiftly from the start with multiple drugs, in addition to encouraging diet and fitness changes.

Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the USA. An estimated 23.6 million Americans...