Lower-limb amputation is a severe complication of diabetes that can often be averted by controlling blood glucose control, not smoking, caring for your feet, and reporting problems early. Now a five-year study has found that fenofibrate, a cholesterol-lowering medicine taken once a day, reduced amputations by 36 percent in people ages 50 to 75 with type 2 diabetes compared with a group that took a placebo. Fenofibrate is the first drug therapy found to lower amputation risk. The medication prevented some amputations below the ankle, a complication associated with small blood vessel (microvascular) disease, but not amputations above the ankle, which are often attributed to the same large blood vessel (macrovascular) disease that causes heart attacks and strokes. Previous studies indicated that fenofibrate may improve two other microvascular complications: eye disease (retinopathy) and kidney disease (nephropathy). The trial’s primary purpose was to see if fenofibrate could reduce heart attacks or deaths from coronary heart disease. It did not, although statins, another class of cholesterol buster, have been shown to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease in people with diabetes.