Med-O-Meter

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MedHead Message:

I love shedding light on the new diabetes medications. Many of them don’t lower blood sugar any better than good old metformin at $4 per month. Part of why MedHead exists is so that you can have your own team fighting for you and your pocketbook when going to the doctor’s office. Metformin lowers the Hemoglobin A1c lab test by 2 or more points, while Januvia lowers it by less than 1 point, and costs 100X more than metformin!

References:

1. Raz I, Chen Y, Wu M, et al., Efficacy and safety of sitagliptin added to ongoing metformin therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes, Current Medical Research Opinion. 2008;24(2):537–550 2. https://www.drugs.com/price-guide/januvia Barzilai N, Guo H, Mahoney EM, et al. Efficacy and tolerability of sitagliptin monotherapy in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Curr Med Res Opin. 2011;27(5):1049–1058 3. Efficacy of metformin in type II diabetes: results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-response trialAm J Med. 1997 Dec;103(6):491-7 4. https://www.goodrx.com/metformin?drug-name=metformin