"People with wellcontrolled type  diabetes httpsdiabetes.webmd.comguidediabetesoverviewfacts had even better sugar control used less insulin https and lost an average of  pounds in six months when taking the type  diabetes httpsdiabetes.webmd.comguidediabetes_symptoms_types drug Victoza in a small clinical study. Those who continued treatment for a full year continued these improvements and felt much better overall says study leader Paresh Dandona MD of the State University of New York Buffalo. It is a dramatic change. They can see that their unexpected and unpredictable oscillations of blood sugar https are minimized. They also lost weight https Dandona tells WebMD. Over a protracted period of time as their diabetes https continues to be well controlled there is delightful improvement in patients wellbeing. At the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Boston Dandona reported the results of a study in which  adults whose type  diabetes https was well controlled with insulin https given via an insulin pump https received oncedaily Victoza for either one week or  weeks. Continuous glucose monitoring showed that their blood sugar was as tightly controlled as possible with insulin https treatment. Yet all patients blood sugar peaked and dipped at unpredictable intervals. Adding Victoza to insulin therapy quickly eliminated these peaks and dips in blood sugar. After one week average fasting https and weekly blood sugar levels https each dropped by about . And during Victoza treatment patients needed less and less insulin. Their average dose of mealtime insulin decreased by seven units  and their need for allday insulin dropped by eight units . Patients who continued treatment for  weeks had further decreases in insulin doses and lost an average of  pounds. This appeared to be due to reduced appetite and food intake. Hemoglobin Ac https levels dropped from . to a normal level of .. Some patients have now been treated for up to a year and the effect is as good as it was at the beginning Dandona said at a news conference webcast from Boston. Why Victoza Might Help Type  Diabetes Victoza is a class of drug called a GLP receptor agonist. Its taken by injection one daily. Byetta https the other FDAapproved GLP agonist requires twicedaily injections. The GLP receptor agonists mimic the natural GLP peptide which is released from the gut after a meal. GLP increases insulin secretion from the pancreas https when blood https sugar is high and slows sugar absorption from the gut. It also lowers levels of glucagon a hormone that counteracts the effects of insulin. Victoza and Byetta slow the progression of type  diabetes https But they hadnt previously been tested in type  diabetes https because people with this type of diabetes https lack insulinproducing beta cells. But Dandona and colleagues wondered whether the glucagonlowering effects of these drugs might benefit people with type  diabetes https Their clinical findings suggest that lowering glucagon may be a much greater benefit in type  diabetes https than previously thought. Would Byetta work as well as Victoza in type  diabetes That hasnt yet been tested but Dandona says it should have much the same effect. Neither Victoza nor Byetta is approved for use in type  diabetes. Doctors could prescribe these medications https for type  diabetes known as offlabel use but Dandona says this should be tried only by a endocrinologist specializing in diabetes  and only with careful and frequent patient monitoring. GLP inhibitors act on the brain https to reduce appetite. Because of the weight loss https thin people with type  diabetes should not use these drugs. However some  of people with type  diabetes are overweight https so the weight loss would be a benefit to such patients. Victoza has other more serious side effects. The most important are abdominal pain https nausea https and vomiting https although these side effects tend to lessen or go away after a week or two of treatment. Even so Dandona says these side effects cause about  of type  diabetes https patients to stop taking the drug. Although the Dandona study was performed without drug company support Victoza maker Novo Nordisk is paying for a larger clinical trial https Dandona already has asked the National Institutes of Health to support a largescale study if this larger study yields similar results to the current pilot study."