Beta Blockers Linked to Diabetes

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Study Links Beta Blockers With Risk Of Diabetes

(3-29-2000) BOSTON (AP) - A study confirms the suspicion that the widely

prescribed blood pressure pills called beta blockers can modestly increase

the risk of diabetes. But the research clears another important variety of

hypertension medicines.

The study also found that people with high blood pressure are 2 1/2 times

more likely to develop adult-onset diabetes - what doctors call Type 2 or

non-insulin-dependent diabetes - than are those with normal blood pressure.

Like some earlier research, this study found that the risk of diabetes is 28

percent greater among patients who get beta blockers than among those whose

high blood pressure is left untreated. However, in contrast to smaller

studies, this one found no sign that thiazide diuretics contribute to

diabetes.

The study also found no link between diabetes and two other major classes of

blood pressure medicines - ACE inhibitors and calcium-channel blockers.

The study, involving 12,550 adults ages 45 to 64, was conducted by Dr. Todd

W. Gress and others from s Hopkins University in Baltimore. It will

appear in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The doctors said they do not recommend abandoning beta blockers, since these

drugs are proven to lower the risk of heart disease. But they said

physicians need to monitor their patients carefully for diabetes.

The study was financed by the National Institutes of Health and the American

Heart Association.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.