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FDA Approves New Drug for Type 2 Diabetes
Neopallium writes to tell us that the FDA has approved the first of a new kind of treatment for type 2 diabetes. From the article: "JANUVIA belongs to a new breakthrough class of prescription medications called dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors that improves blood sugar control in patients with type 2 diabetes. JANUVIA enhances a natural body system called the incretin system, which helps to regulate glucose by affecting the beta cells and alpha cells in the pancreas. Through DPP-4 inhibition, JANUVIA works only when blood sugar is elevated to address diminished insulin due to beta-cell dysfunction and uncontrolled production of glucose by the liver due to alpha-cell and beta-cell dysfunction."
Here's the PubMed link to the Merck Research in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
Another downside of obese life eliminated...now if they could just make a pill that would make fat people look attractive at the beach, there'd be no limits to the future of American corpulence!
Can someone who understands this translate it for me to english, because I tried reading the article but didn't understand it, and since my father has type-II diabetes it would be interesting to understand what it's all about.
And some other natural sources do affect the control of glucose levels in a positive way. It is strange that people try to invent stuff where nature can help too. It is the dosis that matters and a good doctor should be able to help you with that.
When the FDA approves something, best bet that they gain profit from it. In money or otherwise....
- Unomi -
While being fat does appear to have a correlation with type2 diabetes, genetics appears to have a greater effect. I am not fat, but have suffered from type2 for a number of years. Any medical advances dealing with this are most welcome.
*faint*
Meta will eat itself
Folks, this is some pretty big news in biotech. While not a cure for cancer, over 20 million people have diabetes. Just taking insulin is a tricky business, and even in the best of cases leads to necrosis (cell death) in the hands and feet, along with blindness and kidney failure. Think of it like a pendulum...the more you mess with it, the farther it swings - like steroids. This works on fixing the problem without that pendulum swing. It's worthy of a front page.
It's an upstream inhibitor of glucagon. Glucagon signals the body that it has low blood sugar. It tells the liver to produce sugars in response, because the body thinks you're in a fasting state. In a normal person glucagon is inhibited when you eat food, because insulin is released. Insulin tells the body - 'It's Dinner Time!!' - and you're liver production of sugar stops as blood sugar is used up. Apparently this system gets screwed up in people with diabetes, as the balancing act between insulin and glucagon doesn't work properly. Therefore this medication will help the body realize, that when blood sugar is high, to stop liver production of sugars (and possibly tell the pancreas to release insulin), which should aid diabetics in controlling blood sugar levels.
The medicine is great for the people that need it, I'm sure. But let's go off on a tangent; I see a number of posters already are doing so.
Why are so many slashdrones so terribly hostile toward diabetics? It's not possible to post a story mentioning diabetes without various people posting inaccurate information ("Being lazy and getting fat causes diabetes!") combined with hearty invective ("You're sub-human slobs and you all deserve to die!").
(Just for the record, obesity is associated with diabetes but is not the cause. Diabetes is a failure of various regulatory mechanisms and heredity plays a big part. There's lots of good research that indicates the process of becoming diabetic tends to make you fat rather than the reverse. And treatment is severely problematical, often because common drugs cause massive weight gain, a problem this new drug is supposed to address.)
So why all the bile poured out on diabetes sufferers? I really don't understand it. There are lots of other diseases that make people unattractive or can be partially blamed on lifestyle, but I don't see anyone jumping on the "People get cancer because they're stupid!" or the "All alcoholics should be shot!" bandwagons, even though those ideas make about as much sense as condemning diabetics for being sick.
What's up? Anyone want to clue me in?
Instead of making America take more drugs and waste more money, how about they just ban high fructose corn syrup? We might not have the big diabetes epidemic we have right now if we stopped filling all our food with such a dangerous sweetener. But of course, our government is more concerned with the "rights" of big business than the well-being of the people that it supposedly serves. And those pharmacutical companies that "donate" to our politicians stand to make a larger killing off of this than they would with an actual good plan.
I assume it was a 17 patent on it.
People could just eat a proper diet and less crappy foods. Especially avoiding things with that poisonous High Fructose Corn Syrup that manufacturers love to use. This isn't about obesity, it's about diet.
While I wouldn't go so far as to say type 2 diabetes can be totally prevented, it's generally a self inflicted disease. And our society isn't helping either because the crappiest foods are often the easiest to get (eg. fast food).
The ratio of people to cake is too big
disclaimer: I am a pharmacologist. I do not work for Merck or any other drug company. I do work for an ICU specialist group.
This drug works by decreasing the amount of sugar produced by the liver. In most type II diabetics the liver produces too much, for reasons we only partly understand. It also makes the pancreas produce more insulin in response to high blood sugar. This mechanism is also defective in type II diabetes, again for reasons poorly understood. It does these things by a new mechanism of action, and is the first drug that affects the first problem I listed above.
Does your father go to an endocrinologist? Diabetes is still not as well understood as we would like, and this is the third brand new treatment for diabetes in the last couple of years (one of them is for type I diabetics only). There are a lot of new options out there.
Using plain ol' text since 1968
Speaking as an ex-"lazy slob", it does have EVERYthing to do with being Lazy AND making BAD choices about food. All the options are there, it's just in America we tend to make the WRONG choices. Either cause it's faster, cheaper, or it just tastes better.
And the day I start making a concerted effort to eat "way less red meat", is the day I think I start thinking what the hell did I do this for?
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
Someday, one of these announcements will actually help those of us with Juvenile Diabetes (Type 1), who have to take multiple shots a day and not just pop a pill.
Genetics sucks.
No statement I can see about how much this treatment will cost. Many new-gen drugs are so expensive that only the super-rich can afford them. So, while nice to know of, they are effectively useless for 99 per cent of humanity. The irony is that the super-rich are much less likely to need such treatments, since they can afford to eat well. No corn-syrup-soaked breakfast cereal for them, no breads mostly containing only fats and air with a few corner-sweepings of wheat thrown in, no vegetables pumped full of water and then covered in salt and sugar.
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
No it doesn't. That happens when people don't take enough insulin. Then the sugar level in their blood gets too high. A lot of people with diabetes constantly walk around with about 2-3x as much sugar in their blood stream as what's normal.
Sugar is sticky. So it sticks to the insides of the blood vessels. When a blood vessel is coated with enough sugar on the inside, it won't be able to transport blood any more. The first blood vessels to clog this way is obviously the thinnest ones. Like the ones in the hands, feet, eyes and kidneys (see the connection?).
So all of those issues isn't because people are taking insulin, they are because people are *not* taking their insulin. Under-dosing some other drug won't help either.
Installed the Bubblemon yet?
My wife is Type 1 diabetic, and her take on this is that $5 a pill is a lot of money for something that doesn't really work any better than the existing therapies available at 50 cents a pill. Getting A1C readings down to 7 is nothing to crow about. 7 is still too high. To minimize the long term complications of uncontrolled blood sugars, you really want your A1C down around 6.
Alright, you did say "most people". But some are slim, physically active people who happen to have inherited one of a large number of genetic faults that cause their glucose metabolism to malfunction. Me, for example, I have never been overweight in my life - yet I have the same DM 2 condition that my mother and her mother had. Diagnosed at the age of 54. ... )
(I could have slugged that eye specialist. He examined my eyes carefully and told me I had no diabetic damage to my retinas. As I breathed a sigh of relief, he added, "but you have beginning cataracts on both eyes". Grrr
There is a word that describes people without glucose in their blood. :-0
It's "dead". It's what happens if you shoot too much insulin.
Every cell in your body needs glucose, it their fuel! If you don't eat carbohydrates at all, the body will start manufacturing glucose
from fats and proteins. Unfortunately the byproducts of this process are poisonous and can kill you - WILL kill a diabetic.
If you're not a diabetic, I think it's called the Atkins diet and can kill you by starvation
For people skipping AC post, this is what he wrote:
Umm, if you're not ingesting carbohydrates, and don't have glucose in your blood, you won't need insulin (an incredibly destructive hormone anyway), and thus, your lost pancreatic islet cells can remain lost.
Why is it not Slashdot news? Don't know any nerds with Type II Diabetes? I do. If you don't like the information, you don't have to read it, and you definitely shouldn't waste your time posting here.
Don't you understand what the science means?
I had a heart attack at the grand old age of 30 six years ago, and was diagnosed diabetic at the same time. I was out of the USMC by only a few years, and while I did have a stressful job with the sometimes according eating habits, I was by no means fat/obese, and didn't certainly live on sugar. (No family history either FWIW). No definitive cause was found, but strongly suspected the undiagnosed diabetes as the impetus. In my case, I had symptoms for several years, but simply attributed them to...getting older and being tired. It was suspected that I had gotten a bacterial infection at some point that essentially shut down my pancreas-instant diabetic essentially. Thankfully, I had a great doc who treatment centered around the concept of "jumpstarting" my pancreas, and today, I'm fully controlled by now with only one oral medication taken daily. I can say that I am excited by these new drugs as I *have* put on weight since having to take the current classes of drugs-probably 40 pounds. I exercise, eat decently, and can do both to extremes by can't seem to lose/maintain weight no matter what (all sideffects of the current class of drugs).
New drug breakthroughs, same old pricing.
The good news is, if you're not at least upper-middle class, then in 5 or 6 years, when a better drug comes out, you'll finally be able to afford this one!
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
This is flamebait because 1) it does not adequately describe Type II Diabetes, 2) The OP's 'causes' ignore gentic factors, and 3) the OP neglects to mention diet and exercise as treatments of Tyoe II Diabetes.
It was a comment designed to provoke an outraged response, which is pretty much the definition of flamebait to me.
You say you want a revolution....
I have to argue about the cheaper thing. Try putting all the healthy food (fruit, vegetables, etc.) on one bill, and then put all the red meat, chips, pop, and other stuff on another bill. See which bill comes out to more. It's only 29 cents pound for bananas. You can't even get mock chicken that cheap, let alone quality meat. Also, it's way more expensive to be lazy. Sitting around watching TV or going out to a movie is expensive. $40+ for cable, $13 for a movie. You can go ice skating at your local arena for $2. Public swimming at your local pool is equally cheap. Going to the local park for a walk is free. I really don't understand why anybody thinks that being inactive and eating bad is actually more expensive. If they do, they clearly haven't done a good comparison.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
As a Byetta patient, I would love to switch to this new CLASS of drug. It is the first of the new class in ORAL drugs. As you may be aware, Byetta is not an ORAL drug, but is administered by needle (twice per day as well!).
/. rules, but this is important dammit!), I e-mailed a link to my Endocrinologist for evauluation.
The other big problem is storage of Byetta. Constant refridgeration in a small range (36-46 degrees f) is a royal pain. This is a pill, so room temperature is great!
Also this drug does not seem to have as many side effects as Byetta. Thou the one good side effect of Byetta is missing, weight loss.
After seeing this article and reading the actual article (I know, that's against
Thou the one good side effect of Byetta is missing, weight loss.
You can compensate for that by exercising and eating properly.
You're looking at my statement wrong(yes, I can't resist talking to the AC's). I said a concerted effort. That means I actively chose something other than red meat. That doesn't imply that I currently can't control my desire for red meat. Generally, the only time I go after red meat is when I want a slab of beef known as a "ribeye". I mainly trim the excess fats and other "good" parts of the cut because it's just too much fat for my tastes now. Also, could the CORRELATION of red meat to heart attacks doesn't generally take in the rest of the diet. IE, a person who actively choses not to eat red meat will, generally, seek out healthier alternatives in all other foods. Or, what about the guy who loves his steak, crusted in pepercorns and salt, and to go with the meal he has a big ass baked potato with butter(real) and sour cream, and why not toss in a few pieces of garlic french bread? Like was said by a smarter man than me: Correlation != Confirmation and "It's all lies, damned lies, and statistics." It all comes down to the individual and education. Once you know what something does to you, it's up to you to make the decision about what it's worth to you to do that something.
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
Europe is sooooo much better than America!! Just admit it! All you Americans are useless slobs!!!
Can someone mod the parent down as offtopic? Christ, he thinks he's going to solve the world's health problems in a slashdot post.
If you really think that Europeans are generally better than Americans at making health decisions then you are clueless. I mean, Europe invented foie gras. If you don't know what that is, then look it up. Then come back and tell me how much healthier Europeans are.
Finally, I am willing to bet that the only reason Europe has smaller drink sizes is that soda costs more in Europe. Oh, but I forgot, in Europe, they don't care about money. Businesses just give their products to the poor and needy because everyone in Europe is more moral than us American slobs and our rabid, fast food consuming families. Really, they gave up money years ago in Europe. IT's SO 20th century!
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
oh well.. first of all, this is not a prevent medicine.
Second, this disease does not necessary come with eating bad food or being a fat person although it is one of the major causes. There are lots of people in the world who started contract with this disease due to generation and other factors. I think it is big hit.
People with diabetes also suffer from the side effects of the disease over time (heart disease, kidney failure etc...) while being careful about their diet. I think this medicine will help those people by producing natural hormones instead of taking insulin everyday to live.
Lets appreciate the good contribution of today's science.!!!
Finally, I dont work for that company or I am not diabetic. This is a pure appreciation to a good science.
I have been doing this for the last few months and it has really turned the tide for me, before I really felt like I was loosing the battle against diabetes. The only trick is finding the right *kind* of cinnamon can be difficult. There are hundreds of types of cinnamon and the kind you want is commonly called "cassia" or "cinnamonium aromium" (sp?) or sometimes "cinnamonium romulus" (generally the chinese name). It is grown in indonesia and china. Problem being that most cinnamons sold in the US are blends of Saigon Cinnamon which does not seem to have the same properties. A number of nutrition stores sell cinnamon pills (vitamin shoppe, gnc) that have the correct cinnamon in them. Currently the best price i've found is at GNC -- if you buy their GNC card ($15/year) it knocks a bottle of 200 pills down to about $12. Before you say "thats expensive for cinammon" as yourself -- what are you spending on medication right now? On your glucophage, on your metformin, on your zocor, on your benazepril, on your insulin?
For me the cinnamon does not have the horrible side effects of things like metformin and glucophage. The side effects (sudden intense hunger, increased appetite) make me eat more, gain weight, and thus require more medication. I am not suggesting you replace your medications for cinnamon, but if you are having trouble controlling your blood sugar, try adding cinnamon to your diet. If you are not having trouble, try replacing some of your medication with cinnamon.
I am planning on starting a website soon about this to try and get the word out. How many times in life is there something simple and safe that can improve your health?
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
I gotta tell ya, your posts make too much sense here sometimes. Shouldn't you be in slashdot fantasyland like most of the posters?
:)
Seriously, though, what you're getting at (which many self-induced fatasses don't see) is moderation and I completely agree. Consumption of red meat may be linked with heart disease if the rest of the diet is ignored, but consumers of large quantities of red meat generally get it through McDonalds hamburgers, not steaks (I'm extrapolating this from purchasing statistics, McD's buys a LOT of the beef in this country). Fast food consumers are generally... unhealthy, due to their habit of eating a lot of highly processed fast food.
But hey, when I want a ribeye (and to me, there is no better part of the cow), I'm going for the baked potato or some fries. But the education that you speak of limits me to doing that maybe once a month, sometimes twice. The rest of the time I cook my meals at home to control what goes in. Why? Because when I graduated college two years ago I was a bit overweight, and I've been told that's bad for you. Having been very healthy when I started and overweight with high blood pressure when I finished, I figured controlling what goes into your body involves knowing exactly what's in your food. If you don't, and say, get the $4.50 chinese lunch special 3x a week because your apartment is 25 steps to the restaurant, you might end up fat at graduation
Anyway, for anyone who's reading this looking for some help getting started, buy the Abs Diet book. It's a very intuitive, sustainable diet. You don't starve yourself, it's just a guideline on how to eat a balanced diet. You still get red meat and some crap you shouldn't eat thrown in, it's a pretty realistic book.
For me, eating healthy has definitely been more expensive. Yes, produce is pretty cheap, but good quality meats tend not to be. I only shop the perimeter of the supermarket now (and maybe the bread aisle for natural peanut butter and whole grain bread, which can be tasty these days). While my big bag of tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers, and various greens are generally cheap (yep, Italian-American here) the lean cuts of beef and pork aren't. Boneless, skinless chicken breast, which may be the most bland, boring thing ever, can usually be found on sale though. Head over to the dairy case and the yogurt that isn't loaded with shit is definitely more expensive than the stuff that is, milk is like $3 a gallon, etc. It's definitely more expensive than going over to the freezer and buying a bunch of frozen pizza and tv dinners.
Why are so many slashdrones so terribly hostile toward diabetics?
It's not about you. It's about them. They're better than you -- that's their point. They're "the good people". How would you know how much better they are if they didn't tell you how bad you are in comparison? More importantly, how would they know?
Similar people drive a Prius, only buy organic food, support smoking bans in taverns, and "only watch PBS on TV".
http://www.nerf-herders-anonymous.net/images/Wilfo rdBrimley.jpg Unavailable for comment.
nothing
If you're at risk for diabetes, control your diet, exercise, and take chromium. Chromium for diabetes is not new. It's three or four decades old.
The link to the vendor I provided listed only the positive studies. There are some negative studies as well. Because chromium opens up the cell gateway for fat, my personal unscientific opinion is that it accelerates fat loss or gain, depending on diet. That's been my experience -- when on chromium, I gain or lose weight faster.
And while I'm on the topic of unpatentable vitamins, at least half the people on Prozac should just be taking copper and zinc instead. The theory goes that they're no longer present in our food due to overfarming, so we need to take them as supplements.
IANAD
I've got Diabetes II. Really, you *don't* need drugs to treat it. It sounds clichéd, but exercise, a good diet, and (if it's your thing) supplements like garlic and cinnamon and you'll be fine.
I get a little annoyed at the "Illness? Take a pill!" attitude I see so much of today.
Sweet!
Hey, what do you know? My doctor is smart enough to recognize that past injuries preclude that in my case. But then *YOU* are smarter than my doctor and I put together, I guess. Jackass.
I completely agree. I am a Type 1 diabetic, the kind that you DON'T get from being lazy and fat. In fact, I am quite normal in size and was when I was diagnosed. Type 1 just happens to you and it's not anyone's fault. My body decided to attack its own pancreas. And somehow that's my fault?!?!? I think not.
I'm not bitter, I'm just unsweetened.
This jerk has no clue about the real causes and just wants to blame the people that suffer from a disease for the disease itself.
It isn't funny, and is very indicative of a class of people in this world. We generally refer to them as "jackasses".
And no, it isn't funny either.
At first I got excited about the inhaled insulin, but after reading it again, it seems pretty lame. It's freaking huge (12"?!?!), doses are very imprecise, and only good for people who take more than 60 units of short-acting insulin per day. I despise large testing/insulin devices as I try to be as discreet and normal as possible and I only take about 15 units of short-acting insulin per day. So basically, this thing is useless to me. I guess I just have to wait another 20 years...
I'm not bitter, I'm just unsweetened.
Your oh-so-funny post conveniently ignores the contribution of genetics in the predisposition to Type 2 diabetes.
No not really, my oh-so-sarcastic post simply failed to mention my own genetic predisposition for type 2 diabetes and it also should have mentioned that I used to be one of those lazy nerds. Crawling behind a genetic predisposition for cover won't help you any more than it helped me. It is a statistical reality that the majority of patients with type 2 diabetes have been obese. Most of the time (there are exceptions as another poster here pointed out) a genetic predisposition to get diabetes only causes you to get diabetes 2 at an abnormally early age if you eat like a pig and never get off your ass and exercise which is how I contracted my diabetes. Several of my extended family also have this predisposition and have led very normal lives regardless because they eat and live healthy. My luck was that because of the genetic predisposition there are a few others in my family who have diabetes 2 and so I was dragged kicking and screaming to a doctor who diagnosed my diabetes very early. As a consequence of that early diagnosis and due to the fact that I became a sports fanatic I suffer very mildly from diabetes. So long as I stick with my diet and exercise I will probably never suffer very badly from it although there will always be some consequences. Unfortunately of the other people which I know and who also contracted premature diabetes 2 at an early age some 70-80% only take medication and do little else to deal with it. I shudder to think what sorts of medical problems they will have in 20 years time.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
From what I've been able to glean from the descriptions of the actions of Januvia and Byetta, they appear to have similar effect. They both are incretin mimetics, and affect the same pathways of blood glucose control - increase the amount of insulin released by the pancreas and decrease the amount of glucose released by the liver.
Here's hoping that your endocrinologist will prescribe Januvia for you, and that it is as effective as Byetta.
This is a whole new class of diabetes drug (a DPP-4 inhibitor), it works reasonably well (typical drops in HbA1C, FPG and post-prandial glucose) and seems to be safe (and have a safe mode of action - and it only work when glucose is up, preventing hypos).
Interesting because of the science, it will help people, and I really wish I had stock in the company right now!
(one can make a killing on pharma companies, one can also get burned).
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
This is really cool news indeed. I should also mention that if you're diabetic and haven't read this collection of 6 articles, you might be able to save your feet and eyes and kidneys. It's non-commercial, just a collection of papers and a diabetic writer who's putting it together.
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/ Most important conclusion: If you can keep blood sugar controlled enough, Type-2 need not deteriorate. Don't reply until you've read the article and references.
I will be on the lookout to see if it works for feline and canine diabetics too (I run the wiki on for diabetic cats & dogs: http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/ )
Like I said, I don't think it's completely preventable for this exact reason.
For most people though it's not a direct genetic problem. Just like most obese people are not obese due to direct genetic problem.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
By the way, just because they didn't eat corn syrup or fast food doesn't mean they ate a proper diet.
I'm also surprised they died so young. Sound like they went undiagnosed for a long time. Were they not seaking health care or it wasn't available?
The ratio of people to cake is too big
Actually, already got a response from my e-mail to him. He is staying with the Byetta, at least for now.
/. story on it's own!
How about that folks? Response to an e-mail to not only a doctor, but a specialist, and the response lists the time as exactly 30 minutes after sending the original e-mail. That ought to be worth a
I would not want to take this. It's tricking your beta cells to produce more insulin. Beta cells die off after so many tries at insulin production. beta cells are not regenerative. Everyone has thier x number of beta cells. it sounds like you get the same
results if you take metformin and avandia together..which I will not do. Beta cell depletion will just lead to type I symtoms and you will need to be on insulin. Here's what I do. I take 100mg of metformin a day along with 1000mg of chromium picolinate.
My hba1c number is now normal! I am hoping to wean off metformin and just take the chroimium picolinate for a while, eventually
no chromium picolinate either. And I measure my glucose now even though it's pretty flat and normal now.
This drug that's mentioned is only going to lead to injecting insulin later in life.
You know what helps attack the cause of type II diabetes? large doeses of chromium picolinate with your meals!
I am taking 500mg in the morning and 500mg with supper. My hba1c is now normal, I asked my Dr. if I can stop taking
metformin (100mg/day)... he said in 6 months if I continue with my hba1c as normal I can cut it.
I read on the net at some medical college that chromium is a key trace element required for the receptor/insulin connection.
There was always a cure for diabetes in ayurveda. I have seen it work. But apparenttly the pharma cos. are the ones making money out off it.
What do you call someone who had a type I diabetic mother, survived cancer, and then became a type II diabetic? Sports and exercise are not an option, due to side effects of previous problems, like "Chronic left subdeltoid Burrsitus with inpingement syndrome" to screw up one shoulder and a hip screwed up by the process of doing a bone marrow biopsy during cancer treatment?
"Eating like a pig" has nothing to do with it. There is nothing about lifestyle CHOICES that causes oen to get the disease.
Crawl back under your rock and thank someone that YOUR condition isn't more serious.
I'm going to try this! I'm on metformin and I am taking (thanks to the net) 1000mg/day of chromium picolinate.
My HBA1C is now 7.2! 3 weeks of chmium picolinate and 6 months of 100mg/day metformin. I'm going to add the cinnimon! I would
love to dump the metformin. Once I am down to 6.9 I will tell the Dr. "No more metformin for me!"
I wol d never take stuff like this drug mentioned. It sounds similar to a combo of metformin and avandia. Avandia stimulates your
pancrease to produce more insulin. Good old high school bioligy teaches you have a finite number of beta cells. When you use beta cells they eventually die. So each beta cell is capable of x amount of insulin. So eventually you end up on insulin.
I think attacking the problem with chromium supplements and cinnamon is more direct. At least if the docs on the internet have been correct.
Note: I read that up to 5000mg/day of chromium picolinate is ok, over that you can run into problems.
1000mg/day for type II is recommended, under that you may not see results.
I've been lucky so far.
If beta cells die off after insulin production we would all be type 1 diabetics. Additionally, from what I understand about these incretin enhancers it seems that beta cell functionality IMPROVES and beta cell mass can INCREASE. They are also weight neutral and shouldn't have hypoglycemic side effects. So there is no reason for this medication causing a need for insulin injections. With Avandia and Actos your cells are actually producing MORE insulin receptors so they draw more insulin in. Great for lowering blood sugar, bad for weight control. For any person who has diabetes or is borderline, talk to your doctor, an endocrinologist or a pharmacist about treatments and monitoring.
1000mg of chromium picolinate Are you sure you didn't mean 1000 mcg?
Look, for those of you who clearly don't have even the first clue about the realities of this killer disease, let's put you straight - it's not a choice between the "cheaper things", the "healthy lifestyle" or the avoidance of laziness and taking the medication. To be absolutely clear, type 2 diabetes requires that you lead the healthy lifestyle, take the exercise, eat healthy food, etc, plus that you take 5 different types of tablet and give yourself 4 injections per day, to the point where your body is physically trying to reject the distribution of the very insulin that is increasing your weight. Boy, oh boy do I hope that you (and those others of you who are so ready to attack those of us unfortunate enough to suffer it) get to find this out for yourself first hand some day. Who shall we start on next? Oh, I know, all aids sufferers deserve it for being gay (with the level of intelligence shown by many of you on this topic, I'd better make it clear that I do not mean that last statement - but you probably do, don't you?)
I have stayed away from chromium because it is believed to be a mutagen.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Let me guess... bad knees, right? Brought on by too much weight being placed on them?
This means the endocrine system has to work well. Look it up. we have a finite number of beta cells.
If you have type II diabetes, you burn more off the beta cells than most if untreated or on avandia.
That's how you have type II with type I symptoms.
read up on the pancreas and beta cells.... It is a finite supply designed to outlast us. But if you need more insulin than
most, you run out of beta cells and have to inject insulin. I'm not making this up. It's a major problem.
Avandia doesn't increase the workload on beta cells. If anything it REDUCES the beta cell workload as your cells are more responsive to the effects of insulin. In fact, metformin should also reduce beta cell workload as it decreases the amount of glucose produced in the liver. The exact mechanism of beta cell decline in patients with T2DM, at least as far as I know, has not been definitively answered although chronic hyperstimulation is one proposed mechanism. If you have new research which answers that, please let me know.
Check up on the Chromium carefully - it may not be as safe as once thought.
Linker3000
(T2 on Metformin and Novonorm (repaglinide) amongst other things)
AT&ROFLMAO
My glucose measureing records prove that the metformin/chrmomium picolinate is working better for me than straing 100mg of metformin
a day. the first day I took chrmium picolinate I was 50 points lower. Now my bg is flatter and less high spikes. No more swings
from 180 to 110! now it's pretty much 90-150. Much better, and it's after the chromium picolinate.
I'm getting more info together. next month I'm going to aff 2000mg/day of cinnamon.
Once the A1C is down to 6.9 I am going to drop metformin and see where I stabilize.
if the bg is around 80-140 I will drop metformin completely.
TYPE I is an autoimmune disaease
TYPE II is a syndrome. there are many causes. you do not have to be heavy. I am not heavy, I play football, soccer, softball.
Ride bikes, air hockey... etc.
Good for you, but next time could you address the previous post?
Really. It's been a while since I went there, but they are always eagerly looking for new cures for diabetes. Please, please go to that newsgroup and tell your theory there. I'll step back and watch as they flame you to a crisp ...
Two injuries.
Chronic left subdeltiod bursitus with impingement syndrome Aquired in the service of my country, the USA.
And my hip was messed up by one of the bone marrow biopsies that were done to diagnose and cure my cancer, which predated the diabetis.
Any more bright comments, jackass?
Avandia and januvia will let the beta cells "rest" also. The only two classes of drugs I can think of off the top of my head that actually stimulate beta cells are the sulfonylureas and meglitinides. I dispense a fair amount of sulfonylureas but we don't even keep either of the meglitinides in stock.
Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention, my source of reference for my statement that you can avoid insulin by dying from the diabetes induced complications first, which was a touch of self-targetted sick humour, is the direct experience of watching my father die from the massive brain haemorage (forgive spelling - I've no dictionary at hand)when I was ten years old and he was 64. This was accompanied by his being certified blind, not having the use of his legs through diabetic ulcers, and losing his mental faculties. A highly unpleasant experience resulting from the poor understanding at that time of the very issue we are now debating - because he was type 2, he was not considered to require insulin.
Not all Type2 sufferers are fat and lazy slobs, Mr. Sensitivity. Some Type 2 sufferers, like my father, acquired Type 2 due to Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam. While it is true to some degree, that a lot of Type 2 cases can be regulated with diet and excercise, not all Type 2 patients can do anything about it....but then again, what do you care. It's really easy to make a painting (generalization) with broad strokes when you don't know what colors you're using (uneducated.
Who cares about the ozone layer?...thanks to CFC's I can write my name......IN CHEESE!!!
This is an obvious marketing ploy - the website got slashdotted, but "alphatradefn.com"? Does that sound like a reputable medical site to anyone?
And there appears to be critical levels of astroturfing going on, part of it pushing this new drug (Yes, it's another class of meds for type II diabetes, but metfromin and Avandia/Actos work pretty good already. Actually, they will probably work better in the long term, since they don't work by stimulating insulin production... insulin production is usually increased early on, the main problem is insulin resistance, where the cells in the body don't respond properly and fail to take up enough glucose/stop glucose production.) and part of it pushing cinnamon/chromium (Which have some evidence to support them, but they aren't a serious treatment for diabetes that has progressed far enough for someone to consider trying this stuff.).
Seriously, I have no idea where to start. Every single statement you posted is wrong, with the partial expection that this is decent news for biotech.
IT guys, help me out here. How do you deal with someone who thinks the CD tray is a cupholder?
The gov't medical coverage in the states only covers the latest and most expensive brand name drugs? That's crazy, though I guess it explains a few things.
Pharmacare's LCA (lowest cost alternative) rules switch to covering just the cost of the generic so fast that occasionally we have trouble getting it in. Though when there isn't a cheaper alternative, it can sometimes be overly generous - it will cover ridiculous $$$ amounts of triptans even when the patient is using the drug everyday and almost certainly getting medication-induced headaches.
Ah so. There are slim, active type 2 diabetics who manage to keep their blood glucose levels normal by diet and exercise. By your definition they are cured? By any other test they are still diabetics.
Everyone who has only read Bernstein's study, you mean. Thanks,but no thanks, I'll stick to the peer-reviewed ones.
I wasn't talking about people with diabetes being fat or anything. I have friends with diabetes, and I feel their plight. I wouldn't want to have to stick myself with needles every. I was talking about the general population as a whole being so out of shape. In a society where it seems that people only ever talk about how little money they have, and how things cost so much, and how little money they make, you'd think that people would be trying to live a cheaper lifestyle. You'd think they wouldn't spend $50 a month on cable, or spend $13 on night at the movies, when they could just go out ice skating for $2.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
In that case, I agree completely, and it's good to see your clarification. It didn't read that way in your original posting, and its context. I support your viewpoint fully in that case, and it makes me feel like hiding in shame at the general condition of the human race when I see how ready so many folk are to lead the lifestyle you describe. My frustration is equally felt against those who make their fortune out of the cynical marketing that lies at the heart of this inexorable plummet into a killer lifestyle. For what it's worth, knowing this and comparing their lifestyle with your own is particularly frustrating on the day when you're diagnosed with Diabetes, and the medics say to you "you'll have to eat healthy, you'll have to exercise and you'll have to try to lose weight" and they go into the detail and you think "but I already prefer healthy food, prefer healthy recreation and keep my food intake down to highly moderate proportion - what else can I do to improve?". But I'm not looking for sympathy, only trying to bring some balance to the debate. Enjoy your healthier lifestyle, I agree it is definitely preferable, and I hope it does prevent you from becoming "one of us".
Next Monday, I go to see the Melbourne Retina Association, because my optometrist has identified (he thinks)wet macular degenration in both of my eyes. I am using 100 units (not sure if that means any thing in the US) twice a day of Mixtard 30/70 to control my blood sugar levels, and on insulin, weight control is MUCH more difficult, according to my Endocrinologist AND my GP, but I have managed to maintain, and slightly decrease, my weight since I started on insulin injections.
What does this all mean? Well, for one, it means that the time that I can continue to contribute to forums such as this is probably limited, as when I lose my central vision, and am left with just peripheral vision, I don't believe that computers will be a resource available to me any more. Then there are the small veinous haemorages in the lower ventricles of my heart, that currently only show up after forced, vigorous exercise, and which will get worse over time. Add to that the lack of any hair on my legs (yes, hair disappears from the lower extremities) and the much lowered libido that comes with the tablets that they pump in to you.....
Do any of you think that I am enjoying going down hill like this? Or that if more exercise and an even more rigorous diet would help that I wopuldn't be at it straight away? If you do, then you are in cloud cuckoo land!
Now, I for one resent the "Fatties of the world" tag, and find the smart arse comments distasteful, to say the least.
Will those of you who think that you know what you are doing, get out of the way of those of us who know what we are doi
but I had a pretty busy week. "Metformin decreases hepatic glucose production, decreases intestinal absorption of glucose, and improves insulin sensitivity by increasing peripheral glucose uptake and utilization" (from the package insert). However the primary mechanism of action by far is the last of these (improving insulin sensitivity), which is why it is used in type I as well as type II diabetes. Perhaps I oversimplified, but the OP seemed not to be looking for complexity.
By the way, I love wikipedia, but it is often quite wrong about prescription drugs (not too far off this time, though). Try drugs.com or drugdigest.org - both are free and have good info. Wikipedia is just too vulnerable to armchair experts to be a good medical resource.
Using plain ol' text since 1968