Triple Diabetes Rx Combo May Work

A combination of three diabetes medications may help patients control their blood sugar and lose weight, a new study found.

And that could be good news for patients with type 1 diabetes, whose bodies do not produce enough insulin, potentially leading to high blood glucose (sugar). Untreated high blood sugar can lead to complications like heart and kidney disease.

The three medications tested in this study were dapagliflozin, liraglutide and insulin. 

This study looked at 30 people with type 1 diabetes. These patients were already taking liraglutide and insulin — a fairly common regimen for type 1 diabetes.

Twenty of the patients received dapagliflozin in addition to their liraglutide and insulin for 12 weeks. The other 10 received a placebo in place of the dapagliflozin.

The placebo group saw no significant change in their blood glucose levels or body weight. But the group receiving all three medications saw a drop in both their blood sugar and their weight.

Two of the study participants who were receiving dapagliflozin did not complete the study because they developed a potentially dangerous complication called diabetic ketoacidosis. The University at Buffalo researchers behind this study said they believed dapagliflozin was to blame for the condition in these patients.

This study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo funded this research. Information on potential conflicts of interest was not available at the time of publication.