Actos is a once-a-day prescription pill for type 2 diabetes that along with healthy eating and physical activity helps your body more effectively use its own natural insulin or the insulin you take, when your necessary efforts at healthy eating and physical activity alone do not control your blood glucose levels. Actos is an antihyperglycemic agent.

Actos helps reduce insulin resistance, which has been identified as one of the major problems in type 2 diabetes. Some of the benefits of therapy with Actos are:

Actos lowers blood glucose by helping your body use insulin more effectively.

Actos is a convenient, once-a-day pill that can be taken anytime.

Actos helps the body respond better to insulin and it reduces the amount of sugar produced by the liver. It can help control blood sugar levels.

Actos is used, along with diet and exercise, in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Actos may also be used alone or in combination with a sulfonylurea (e.g., Diabeta, Glucotrol, Micronase, others), metformin (Glucophage), or insulin when diet and exercise plus any one of these medicines alone do not result in adequate blood sugar control.

Actos can be taken with or without food.

Actos may have a good effect on HDL (good) cholesterol and blood fats (triglycerides) with no consistent changes in LDL (bad) cholesterol or total cholesterol.

Actos has not been associated with stomach upset when used alone.

Actos can be used alone or in combination with certain other diabetes medicines such as sulfonylureas, metformin, or insulin. Taken alone, Actos does not cause hypoglycemia (low blood glucose levels). However, if you take Actos with insulin or sulfonylureas, you may be at increased risk for hypoglycemia. Talk to your health professional about the signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia.

Actos is available in three different dose levels so you and your health professional have more treatment options to consider.

Actos can often begin working within 2 weeks, although it may take several weeks to see the full effect.

Actos (and the similar drug Avandia) can be used alone or in combination with insulin injections or other oral diabetes medications such as DiaBeta, Micronase, Glucotrol, or Glucophage.

What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is the fifth-deadliest disease in the United States.

Prevalence of Diabetes
Diabetes prevalence increases with age. Approximately half of all diabetes cases occur in people older than 55 years of age.

The risk for type 2 diabetes increases with age. Approximately 18.3% (8.6 million) of the United States population age 60 and older have diabetes.

Approximately 8.7 million, or 8.7% of all men over the age of 20 in the United States have diabetes. However, almost one-third of them do not know it. The most life-threatening consequences of diabetes are heart disease and stroke, which strike people with diabetes more than twice as often as they do others. Other complications of diabetes include blindness, kidney disease, and amputations.

Approximately 9.3 million or 8.7% of all women over the age of 20 in the United States have diabetes. However, about one-third of them do not know it. Because of the increasing lifespan of women and the rapid growth of minority populations, the number of women in the United States at high risk for diabetes and its complications is increasing.

Women with diabetes have an increased risk of vaginal infections and complications during pregnancy. For women who do not currently have diabetes, pregnancy brings the risk of gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes develops in 2% to 5% of all pregnancies but disappears when a pregnancy is over. Women who have had gestational diabetes are at an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

Diabetes is of 2 types

• Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was previously known as juvenile diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin.
• Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. In type 2 diabetes, either the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. Insulin is necessary for the body to be able to use sugar. Sugar is the basic fuel for the cells in the body, and insulin takes the sugar from the blood into the cells. When glucose builds up in the blood instead of going into cells, it can cause two problems:

Right away, your cells may be starved for energy.

Over time, high blood glucose levels may hurt your eyes, kidneys, nerves or heart.

While diabetes occurs in people of all ages and races, some groups have a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes than others.

Diagram: Type 2 Diabetes

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