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Beware of Illegally Marketed Diabetes Treatments

Information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

December 1, 2018 | 2 min reading time

This article is 6 years old. It was published on December 1, 2018.

As the number of people diagnosed with diabetes continues to grow, illegally marketed products promising to prevent, treat, and even cure diabetes are flooding the marketplace.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising consumers not to use such products -- for many reasons. For example, they may contain harmful ingredients or may improperly be marketed as over-the-counter (OTC) products when they should be marketed as prescription products. Illegally marketed products carry an additional risk if they cause people to delay or discontinue effective treatments for diabetes. Without proper disease management, people with diabetes are at a greater risk for developing serious health complications.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 30 million people in the United States have diabetes, and one out of four don't know they have it. Millions more have pre-diabetes, meaning they have higher than normal blood sugar levels and can reduce their risks of developing diabetes through healthy lifestyle changes including diet and exercise.

If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably a scam. Watch out for these and similar red flags:

  • "Lowers your blood sugar naturally!"
  • "Inexpensive therapy to fight and eliminate type II diabetes!"
  • "Protects your eyes, kidneys, and blood vessels from damage!"
  • "Replaces your diabetes medicine!"
  • "Effective treatment to relieve all symptoms of diabetes!"
  • "Natural diabetes cure!"

FDA laboratory analysis has found "all-natural" products for diabetes to contain undeclared active ingredients found in approved prescription drugs intended for treatment of diabetes. Undeclared active ingredients can cause serious harm. If consumers and their health care professionals are unaware of the actual active ingredients in the products they are taking, these products may interact in dangerous ways with other medications. One possible complication: Patients may end up taking a larger combined dose of the diabetic drugs than they intended. This may cause a significant and unsafe drop in blood sugar levels, a condition known as hypoglycemia.

Products that promise an easy fix might be alluring, but consumers are gambling with their health.

For more information, visit www.fda.gov.

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