New drug can cut stroke risk for diabetics

A new drug could slash the risk of type 2 diabetes patients having heart attacks, research has revealed.

The revolutionary new treatment could help thousands of patients who do not respond to the commonly used first-line treatment, metformin, the Daily Express reported.

Metformin can become ineffective in the long term for many patients, according to an article published online in The Lancet.

Patients are then offered a class of drugs that is known as sulphonylureas in addition.

However, these drugs can lead to low blood sugar levels that is known as hypoglycaemia, and weight gain, putting patients at increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

The new drug, linagliptin, results in significantly less weight gain and also less hypoglycaemia, experts from Tubingen University Hospital, in Germany, has found.