Tayside scientists find diabetes drug may save lives

Scottish scientists have found that a cheap and common diabetes medicine can “reverse” a crippling kind of heart disease and save thousands suffering from the condition from death.

The drug, metformin, is routinely used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Researchers at Dundee University have discovered it can reverse thickening of the left ventricle – the heart’s main pumping chamber.

It also helped to bring down high blood pressure and reduce body weight in patients who had a heart attack.

The results – from two separate studies – mean new hope for patients with high blood pressure-induced heart damage.

The British Heart Foundation praised the breakthrough as giving “real hope” of cutting deaths.

The Dundee team will present its discovery today at a conference of the British Cardiovascular Society in Manchester.

The first study involved treating people with coronary heart disease with metformin or placebo over a period of 12 months to see how the drug affected the heart and circulatory system.

The dangerous thickening of the left ventricle was reduced by twice as much in those taking metformin compared to the placebo.

Patients who took metformin also had reduced blood pressure and lost an average of almost half a stone, compared to no weight loss in the placebo group.

In the second study, the researchers looked at the records of diabetic patients with aortic stenosis (AS).

The team found that diabetic patients with AS who were treated with metformin were less likely to die from heart attack, stroke or heart failure than those on other diabetes treatments.