Every month, I’ll be highlighting Diabetes research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: Top Discoveries and Developments of 2022
The first big change is that the FDA Approved the use “of the first immune therapy for type 1 diabetes.” As a physician-scientist, Dr. Mark Anderson’s main focus is on research on ‘why diabetes happens,’ with a particular focus on type 1…‘is an autoimmune disease, where the immune system makes a mistake and kills the cells that make insulin in the pancreas, so this takes up a lot of my attention,’ he said.” It is “an injection aimed to delay the onset of stage 3 type 1 diabetes in adults in addition to pediatric patients who are eight years and older who have stage 2 type 1 diabetes.”
While this is important, I can’t really speak to it. It’s far too late for my best man, who died of complications of Type 1 diabetes a bit over 34 years ago, and living with Type 2 Diabetes has become an issue for me now – in addition to my wife and several family members. In my blog, I’ll be focusing on my own journey, as you are focusing on yours!
Let me do what I do best: translate the doctors!
“…in May of 2022, the FDA approved a new double-targeted treatment for type 2 diabetes — tirzepatide... It’s injectable and improves control of A1C levels, the measure of blood sugar levels, in adults with type 2 diabetes, working WITH diet and exercise.”
And that means…what? First of all, it’s not magic medicine. Working WITH my diet, exercise, I would get shots. That immediately eliminates those people who are either uncomfortable with shots or just plain HATE THEM. The new drug “is a dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist — a drug that attaches itself to a receptor that’s either on or inside a cell and causes the same kind of action as the kinds of substances that normally affix themselves to the receptor.”
OK – I’m pretty sure that’s Greek to most of us, so let’s break it down.
“…dual GIP/GLP 1 receptor agonist” – We start with fancy words. “Gastric inhibitory polypeptide” (GIP) – my small intestines make these molecules. It’s a hormone (like the ones that make teenagers crazy!) that gets into your blood and goes to the pancreas. It works there with the good stuff from food, especially glucose, so that enough insulin is released so that the nutrients and glucose get stored in your liver, fat and muscle until they are needed to provide energy. GIP also slows emptying of food from the stomach, which decreases the rate with which fats in food are broken down and stored. Then it disappears. I don’t make enough GIP to store enough glucose and nutrients. The other one, “Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)”, works like GIP, just not as much.
Together, they cause something called the “incretin effect” which is the release of insulin after a meal. Type 2 diabetes KNOCKS DOWN the incretin effect. Because of that, we get “hyperglycemia” – what I say to my wife when I read my blood sugars are 266. “Honey, my blood sugars are really high!” Over time, high blood sugars cause nephropathy (nerve death), retinopathy (eye problems), and cardiovascular disease (heart problems).
Tirzepatide is the first medication that activates the receptors in the cells of the pancreas to create more enough insulin to pick up and store the glucose in my blood. According to the research, this new drug works BETTER than Ozempic in every way.
Tirzepatide HAS NOT BEEN OFFICIALLY APPROVED FOR USE!!! It WAS just fast-tracked by the FDA as an official weight loss medication. (WTFudge?!?!?) One clinical trial revealed the drug reduced the weight of participants by up to 21%. The drug has been well received by those using diabetes medications. But it’s REALLY hard to get hold of because fat people LIKE ME have been getting it to lose weight. So, I’d be great for this! I have Type 2 AND I’m fat! But, that’s not what it was invented for: it was invented for people only HALF like me – people with Type 2 diabetes… (As always, tirzepatide can have some side effects like nausea and gastrointestinal symptoms.) Here's to hoping it will be approved for US!
Link: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/diabetes-the-top-discoveries-and-developments-of-2022 https://diabetesatlas.org/#:~:text=206%20million%20adults%20living%20with,caused%20by%20diabetes%20in%202021. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00239707
Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg
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