THE poisonous spit of a monster lizard has been turned into a new drug to control diabetes.

Compounds in the saliva of the endangered gila monster, which helps the carnivore digest its meals extremely slowly, have been copied and used to develop an injection to treat type 2 diabetes.

The gila monster is a native of North America and Mexico and its unique saliva and physiology allows it to eat only three or four times a year. The only downside seems to be that it is an injection. The full story is here

Another story I read today said that Actos is a diabetes drug in the same class as Avandia. The researchers found that Actos also raised users' risk for heart failure by 40 percent. But the drug lowered the risk of heart attack, stroke or death from cardiovascular causes by more than 18 percent. The full story is here.

The scary thing comes when you read the datasheet for actos and avandia. I don't thing I want to change from avandamet thank you very much!!

Who would have thought it? The Gila Monster has a feature that helps us diabetics?

The drug is the first incretin memetic to be approved and works by mimicking the action of naturally occurring human incretin hormone, glucagons-like peptide-1 (GLP-1).

Byetta has been shown to stimulate insulin secretion only when blood sugar is high, and can even restore the 'first-phase' insulin response, an activity of the pancreas' insulin-producing cells that is lost in patients with type II diabetes.

Now is that bloody magic or what? Of course now I am worried that they are going to have to trap and kill a load of lizards just to help me.