VIVUS, Inc. (VVUS), Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARNA): The Top Three Causes of Diabetes

The two key takeaways
There are two primary takeaways from the top three causes of diabetes. First is that many of these risk factors are preventable. By choosing to live a healthier style, eating right, exercising, and not smoking, you could be dramatically reducing your chances of getting diabetes in your lifetime. It’s true we can’t do anything about our genes or about getting older (age has been shown to slightly increase our risk of diabetes as well), but focusing on putting good things in our body and keeping the bad things out is a big step toward avoiding unwanted health complications.

The other takeaway is that the therapies available to treat diabetes are rapidly improving. SGLT2 inhibitors could completely replace DPP-4 and other classes of diabetes drugs by the end of the decade as the gold standard in care. Also, weight-loss drugs such as Qsymia and Belviq offer investors a growing pool of potential patients. Really, any of the health-care companies I’ve mentioned here have a shot at becoming a leader in treating diabetes symptoms in the coming years.

The article The Top 3 Causes of Diabetes originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of, and recommends, Johnson & Johnson.

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