Water retention cause of weight gain by diabetes drug

The journal Diabetes Care has published a report that may hold the key to the weight gain reported by many patients treated with a popular diabetes drug.
The study, carried out by experts at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minesota, investigated the effect of the diabetes drug pioglitazone. They found that approximately 75 per cent of body weight increase that can occur when type 2 diabetics take the drug is caused by water retention. The drug actually reduces abdominal fat and blood pressure levels.
Pioglitazone is sold under the trade brands Actos and Glipizide, and in the US under the brand Metaglip. The study, which took data from 19 patients suffering from type 2 diabetes, assigned pioglatizone to the patients and monitored the results. The drug was found to increase bodily levels of water, to the extent of just under 2.5 litres. The researchers also noted a reduction in abdominal ad visceral fat. Pioglatizone was shown to lower average blood pressure amongst the patients.
The effects of the drug on body water content was recorded as being “more substantial than had been previously thought,” according to one key expert involved in the study. The implications for diabetics who also suffer kidney and heart disease are large.