Another 'off the label' type of medicine is being prescribed to fight diabetes: ACE inhibitors. Originally used to lower blood pressure, these medications seem to have a positive effect on Type 2 diabetes symptoms, even if the patient does not have high blood pressure.

Use of ACE inhibitors, and control of hypertension (high blood pressure), appears to have independent and additive protective effects in patients with type 2 diabetes, suggest early data from a large Italian study known as the BENEDICT trial.

In the study of 1180 type 2 diabetic patients with hypertension, treatment with the ACE inhibitor trandolapril, or trandolapril combined with another BP lowering drug called verapamil (Veratran), delayed the onset of "microalbuminuria" -- a build-up of the blood protein albumin in the urine that can signal kidney disease. Diabetes is a leading cause of kidney disease.

According to Dr. Piero Ruggenenti and colleagues at "Mario Negri" Institute for Pharmacological Research in Bergamo, Italy, "effective BP reduction has a specific and independent protective effect against the development of microalbuminuria."