Salicylate Effect on Diabetes

Diabetes is a difficult disease to treat because people respond to medications and treatment in different ways. The effects of diabetes are systemic and produce an enormous range of complications, many of which are life threatening. Most doctors take a multilevel approach, combining medications, diet guidelines and exercise to attack the disease from all angles, but until recently, the cause of diabetes was unknown. Researchers are optimistic that recent studies may hold the key to the origins of diabetes and, eventually, to the cure.

What is Salicylate

• Sodium salicylate, or salsalate, is an anti-inflammatory drug closely related to aspirin that is often used to treat joint pain. Low dose aspirin is often prescribed as part of a diabetes regimen to help protect the cardiovascular system against complications that could produce heart disease or stroke. Aspirin is also known to reduce blood glucose levels in type 2 diabetes patients in very high dosage, but comes with life-threatening side effects that exclude it from being a treatment option. Salicylate has been found to have similar benefits without the damaging side effects.

Salicylate Research

• In 2005, researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston made a stunning discovery. Type 2 diabetes has long been associated with obesity, but the root cause was unknown. Simply put, people who are obese have more fat in their livers, and the excess fat triggers the production of a protein known as NF-kB. This protein is the switch that turns on the infection-fighting response in the body, causing the white blood cells to the site of an injury, a response that causes inflammation. When the levels of this protein are elevated, causing constant inflammation, insulin processing is disrupted, resulting in diabetes.

  The researchers then reasoned that controlling the inflammation may also result in controlling diabetes, and the results were both successful and a cause for optimism. Diabetes remained controlled in mice given appropriate doses of salicylate. Progress to human trials was immediate, as the drug was already approved and on the market.

Human Trials

• The researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center completed a 14-week study of 108 adults with type 2 diabetes in 2007. The patients all had A1C levels of 7.0 percent to 9.5 percent and were all treating diabetes with a combination of diet, exercise and oral medications. Each patient was randomly assigned to receive either a placebo or one of three different dosages of salicylate in addition to their current treatment. The A1C of all three salicylate treatment groups decreased compared to patients who received the placebos, and triglyceride and adiponectin levels were also reduced. Side effects were mild, but an increase in urine albumin concentration in the kidneys of the patients taking salicylate proved to be a source of concern for researchers. A second, longer study is under way, as of 2010.

Additional Benefits

• During the research an additional benefit was discovered. Since salicylate is an anti-inflammatory drug, it was also shown to have influence on C-reactive protein levels (CRP). CRP is considered an indication of cardiovascular disease risk, so in addition to lowering blood glucose levels, salicylate may also prove to be useful in fighting heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular conditions.

What This Means To You

• It takes a long time to pass the stringent regulations set forth by the federal government and bring a new drug to market, but salicylate already has approval for other uses and has been used safely by thousands of people, so approval could come far more quickly than average. The results are encouraging, but more study is needed to determine the long-term effect of the drug.

  Researchers urge diabetics not to rush out and self-prescribe, but to continue to follow doctors' orders, and to maintain the recommended healthy diet and exercise lifestyle determined by your health provider. Once proper dosage limits are determined and potential side effects and dangers are documented, this cheap, easily available drug will be available to you. Always consult your doctor before making any changes to your diabetic treatment regime.