Research
Hormonal
In overweight patients, metformin is superior to acarbose for lowering fasting blood glucose, while acarbose is superior to metformin for lowering 2-hour post-challenge blood glucose.
If you are overweight and newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, metformin may be better for controlling your fasting blood sugar, while acarbose may be better for controlling your blood sugar after meals. This allows for personalized treatment based on your specific glucose profile.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
In overweight group, fasting blood glucose (FBG) after metformin treatment showed greater decline compared to acarbose group at 48 weeks... however the decrease of 2 h post-challenge blood glucose (PBG) after acarbose treatment at 48 weeks was bigger compared to metformin group
Why this rating
Randomized trial with clear statistical significance (P<0.05, P<0.01).
Source
MARCH2: Comparative Assessment of Therapeutic Effects of Acarbose and Metformin in Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Patients
Guang Wang et al. · PLoS ONE · 2014
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0105698
rct · n=784Cited 23×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Acarbose and metformin provide similar HbA1c reduction and modest weight loss in newly diagnosed Chinese type 2 diabetic patients regardless of BMI status.Good
- Metformin is superior to acarbose for improving insulin resistance in normal weight patients, while both drugs are similar in overweight and obese patients.Good
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