WHICH ANTIHYPERTENSIVE DRUG IMPROVES INSULIN RESPONSIVENESS

The impact of different antihypertensive drugs on insulin sensitivity has been widely studied by both the euglycaemic clamp technique and a range of clinical and surrogate measures of insulin and glucose metabo lism. Unfortunately, there are very few well and appropriately designe d studies and, in many instances, the published results are conflictin g. Overall, the available evidence suggests that thiazide diuretics ha ve the most adverse effect; the beta blockers also have adverse effect s; the ACE inhibitors (despite soil le early positive reports) and the calcium antagonists appear to be neutral; and the most favourable res ults occur with selective alpha 1 antagonist drugs. (C) 1997, Medikal Press.