The Diabetes Prevention program has released 10 year data demonstrating that treating pre-diabetes with the drug metformin (Glucophage) can prevent progression to diabetes and save money by doing so. However, treating pre-diabetes with lifestyle interventions (diet and exercise) did an even better job of improving health and quaulity of life.

Metformin (850 mg twice daily) reduced overall health care costs over those ten years by $1700 per person, cpompared to $2600 per person with the lifestyle changes.

COMMENT: Diabetes is a huge problem in the U.S. and is quickly becoming one of the most common diseases. It is an expensive disease to treat once it occurs and has numerous complications. By catching it early and treating it with either metformin or lifestyle changes, costs can be significantly decreased and quality of life can be significantly increased.