Proton pump inhibitors as a treatment method for type II diabetes

SummaryRecent reports have hypothesized a role for exogenously administered gastrin in regulating beta cell function or activity. We surmised that a class of agents, proton pump inhibitors (omeprazole, esomeprazole, pantoprazole, rabeprazole, lansoprazole), known to increase serum gastrin levels could have such an effect, and that data might be available in our database which could address such an effect. We examined our electronic database to obtain glycohemoglobin (HgbA1c) levels measured in the past two years from all type II diabetics and extracted from those diabetics who were concurrently taking a proton pump inhibitor. A comparison of these groups showed an average HgbA1c of 7.6% for type II diabetics not taking a proton pump inhibitor (n = 282) and an average HgbA1c of 7.0% for type II diabetics concurrently taking a proton pump inhibitor (n = 65), T = −3.61, p = 0.002. These data support the hypothesis that proton pump inhibitors can be used to treat type II diabetes.