
Dr. DeFronzo: The Most Powerful (and Cheap) Therapy for Diabetes Recovery
Physionic
Apr 9, 2025
Mindsip insights from this episode:
Choose triple therapy for lower failure rates in treatment
In the study, the triple therapy had a failure rate of around 33%, which was significantly better than the conventional therapy's failure rate of nearly 60%.
Implement combination therapy for complex diseases like diabetes
Dr. DeFronzo's philosophy is that if a disease has multiple underlying problems, like the eight identified in diabetes, it should be treated with a combination of drugs from the start.
Implement EDICT study's triple therapy for effective management
The EDICT study's triple therapy consists of metformin, exenatide (an early GLP-1 agonist), and pioglitazone, which are all relatively inexpensive drugs.
Utilize pioglitazone to reduce inflammation and enhance glucose uptake
The drug pioglitazone is a PPAR Gamma activator that not only helps cells take in glucose but also binds to and represses inflammation genes.
Reform 'treat to fail' model in diabetes care
The conventional ADA approach is described as a 'treat to fail' method, where you start with metformin and only add more drugs after the initial treatment stops working.
Implement triple therapy to enhance insulin sensitivity
The primary advantage of the triple therapy is that it causes a huge improvement in insulin sensitivity, while the standard ADA approach results in zero improvement.
Prioritize triple therapy for effectiveness, regardless of weight change
The triple therapy outperformed the conventional therapy regardless of whether a person lost or gained weight over the three-year study period.