On Diabetes: Veganism better than drugs; death

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Research has sent a petition to the Food and Drug Administration asking them to require that Avandia, a drug developed to help control diabetes, include in its packaging a warning stating that: "...A low-fat vegan diet is a safer, more effective way to control blood sugar" than the drug itself.

The Committee also claims a vegan diet is an effective treatment for high blood pressure, weight loss, and even the prevention and reversal of heart disease. 

The vegan diet and diabetes are no strangers. Many main-stream health publications acknowledge the positive influence of a low-fat, plant based diet on diabetes and its resulting conditions, much more so than the American Diabetes Association's prescribed diet.   

GlaxoSmithKlein is the primary manufacturer and marketer of Avandia, also known as rosiglitazone - which falls in to the thiazolidinedione class of drugs. Avandia has been purported to cause Macular Edema (partial blindness), increased incidences of bone fracture, and heart attack, and increased likelihood of death from resulting heart attack. The FDA has recently decided to require a blanket statement warning to be including on Avandia's packaging after clinical researchers confirmed the drugs role in over 13,000 incidents of heart attack/ failure since the drugs release in 1999.

Warning: Possible side-effects of veganism can include sustained health and weight loss, possible alienation of close family members, and frequent, often amusing gas.