MONDAY, Sept. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Patients who take the diabetes drugs known as thiazolidinediones may be at higher risk of bone fracture, new research suggests.

In the study, Dr. Ian Douglas of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and colleagues searched a database of more than 6 million patients in the United Kingdom and found 1,819 people aged 40 and older who had had a bone fracture and had been prescribed a type of thiazolidinedione. The drugs were introduced in the 1990s and are used to treat type 2 diabetes.

After adjusting their figures to account for the fact that older people are more likely to break bones, the researchers found that those taking thiazolidinediones had almost 1.5 times as many fractures while taking the drugs as they did when they weren't taking the drugs. The risk grew the longer the people took the medications.

The findings support previous research that has suggested a link between these medications and bone fractures. But the researchers acknowledge that the study didn't follow the gold standard of research, which is to randomly assign people to take the drug or not take it.

Still, Douglas and colleagues conclude that the findings "should be taken into consideration in the wider debate surrounding the possible risks and benefits of treatment with thiazolidinediones."

The study appears in the Sept. 29 online edition of the journal PLoS Medicine.

More information

Learn more about diabetes from the American Diabetes Association  .

THURSDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) -- Postmenopausal women with elevated insulin levels may be at higher risk of developing breast cancer, a new study says.

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York City found a strong association between elevated insulin levels in the blood and increased risk of breast cancer. Their findings were published online in the International Journal of Cancer.

"Up to now, only a few studies have directly investigated whether insulin levels are associated with breast cancer risk," said Geoffrey Kabat, the lead author and senior epidemiologist in the department of epidemiology and population health at Einstein. "Our study involved analyzing repeated measurements of insulin taken over several years -- which provides a more accurate picture of the possible association between insulin levels and breast cancer risk."

Kabat's team examined data on 5,450 women who took part in the Women's Health Initiative, a large study that looked at how various factors influence women's health. The researchers found that women with insulin levels in the highest third were twice as likely to develop breast cancer as women in the bottom third. The team also discovered that the link between elevated insulin levels and breast cancer was stronger for thin women than for obese women, who tend to have higher insulin levels.

"This finding is potentially important because it indicates that, in postmenopausal women, insulin may be a risk factor for breast cancer that is independent of obesity," Kabat said in the news release.

The study is ongoing, but Kabat recommended that postmenopausal women try to keep insulin at normal levels through weight loss, regular exercise and other methods.

More information

More on breast cancer can be found at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

(HealthDay News) -- Before some people develop full-blown diabetes, their blood sugar is above normal, but not high enough to qualify for a diagnosis of diabetes.

This condition is called pre-diabetes, the American Diabetes Association says.

Normally, a person's blood sugar (glucose) is 100 mg/dl or below. When it rises to between 100 mg/dl and 125 mg/dl, a person has pre-diabetes. Once a blood test determines that blood sugar is 126 mg/dl or higher, diabetes is diagnosed, the ADA says.

If you have pre-diabetes, you should discuss with your doctor making lifestyle changes including modest weight loss and getting regular exercise. This can help prevent pre-diabetes from turning into the full-blown disease.