A new report suggests that most Type II diabetics need a variety of therapies to maintain proper long-term blood sugar control. Researchers involved with the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study Group followed the cases of more than 4,000 Type II diabetics treated with diet alone or with drugs, such as insulin, sulfonylurea, or metformin to collect data. It was found that only 50 percent of patients treated with a single therapy maintained proper blood-sugar control three years after the study began; after nine years only 42 percent of people treated with insulin alone had control, 24 percent of those treated with sulfonylurea alone had , and eight percent of those treated with diet alone maintained proper blood-sugar levels. Authors say the data suggests that the majority of Type II diabetics need multiple therapies to attain target blood-sugar levels and note that severity of disease at diagnosis, obesity, and young age at diagnosis were all associated with the chance that a patient would need more than one therapy.
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