I was in a waiting room at a clinic the other day and overheard a woman telling a man she was with (her husband, maybe?) about a treatment her doctor was considering for her.  She apparently wasn’t happy about it .  But mostly because she couldn’t pronounce it.

Other than being concerned for the lack of discretion she was showing in a busy clinic waiting room, telling one and all about her health woes and apparent options, I was also concerned about the treatment plan changeshe was trying to describe.

Salsalate is a medication that is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is generally prescribed for people with rheumatoid arthritis.  It is used to treat pain and tenderness caused by swelling and inflammation at the joints.

I guess she didn’t have RA or even osteoarthritis, for which it is also prescribed.  This gal had diabetes.

This isn’t uncommon…a drug being used to treat one condition, or beat back a side effect…when it’s actually intended for a completely different condition or disease process.  This is called an off-label use.

I had heard about this use for people with type 2 diabetes, because it has been shown to boost insulin sensitivity and control blood sugar levels.  The theory is that inflammation, a common instigator of problems with not only arthritis, but also heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases, is controlled by this drug.

Aparently, according to a variety of researchers, salicylates have been studied for use with people who have diabetes for over a hundred years.  Aspirin is a common salicylate.

Because salsalate has fewer bleeding side effect problems than aspirin, it has been gaining favor as a recommended treatment for type 2 diabetics.

However, it is not without side effects.

One of the very first paragraphs on most pages that discuss the drug usually contains the warning that using salsalate may increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.  This is especially true if someone is already on aspirin therapy or taking a medication that has an interaction with NSAIDS. Diabetics are already at risk for both of these conditions, anyway.

Reducing inflammation to reduce the severity of type two diabetes- only to replace the complications with equally bad side effects- may sound kind of counterintuitive.

So what’s a person to do?

The best place to start is to ask your doctor the hard questions if you have concerns about a recommended treatment plan.  Complaining to a companion in a crowded waiting room isn’t going to make a person feel more comfortable with the decision to start this course of treatment.  And it certainly isn’t going to help a person fully understand all the side effects, benefits, and risks associated with it.

All it may do is concern the companion.  It is the physician whose ear is needed.  If a visit costs a hundred bucks, one would hope that the patient gets a hundred-dollar answer.

Even if the visit is free- a doctor can’t help a person if there are serious questions needing an answer and those questions never get asked.  In the same vein, a doctor who doesn’t take the time to listen to the questions in the first place sets the experience up for failure as well.

There are many natural ways to reduce inflammation that is precipitating type two diabetes, and my guide to Beat Diabetes can show you how.

To Your Best Health,

Jodi Knapp

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