"We've shown spectacular control of blood sugar levels in the absence of weight gain, a common side effect of drug therapies for type 2 diabetes," said Dr. Philip Raskin, professor of internal medicine and senior author of the study. "And we can keep the blood sugar under control with relative ease. This is a step in the right direction for effectively treating type 2 diabetes."

Type 2 diabetics who use drug therapy typically take insulin and only one of the drugs. Those patients often reduce their blood sugar, or HbAlc, below the 7 percent limit suggested by the American Diabetes Association. But they also tend to gain weight and often have to increase their insulin doses, said Dr. Raskin.

In the UT Southwestern study, however, all 28 patients who used triple therapy reduced their blood-sugar levels below 7 percent without increasing insulin. Patients who took the therapy in a particular order, with the thiazolidinedione administered after a period of insulin and metformin use, actually showed a slight decrease in weight, along with lowering blood sugar. Almost 60 percent of all patients, regardless of what order the drugs were taken, reduced HbAlc levels below 6 percent.

Suzanne Strowig, a UT Southwestern faculty associate who led the study stated that,
"we anticipated that the triple therapy would better control blood-sugar levels, but we never imagined that the patients wouldn't gain weight," Ms. Strowig said. "And the triple therapy can be done without more insulin and isn't complicated for patients to follow."

Drugs like metformin and those in the thiazolidinedione family help the body regulate the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood and decrease the amount of glucose made by the liver. They also help the body more effectively use its own insulin.

Efforts to achieve near normal control of blood sugar levels have resulted in an array of pharmaceutical interventions that not only lower blood glucose levels but also improve blood pressure and lipid levels in the blood, the UT Southwestern researchers reported.