Study provides hope for diabetes sufferers

A widely used blood pressure drug may prevent diabetes in people at high risk for the disease, a study suggests.

The preliminary research found that patients taking an ACE inhibitor called ramipril and sold as Altace reduced their risk of diabetes by more than 30 percent.

The tantalizing result was first observed by the same researchers in a previously published study showing that ramipril could reduce deaths, heart attacks and other complications in diabetics and people at high risk for the disease.

The new study, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, expands on the finding.

The researchers and other doctors expressed caution because the results came in a study that was not designed to determine if the drug could prevent diabetes.

The results "require confirmation because of the enormous clinical and public health potential of these findings," said the researchers, led by Dr. Salim Yusuf of McMaster University in Canada.