DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #9: “RADICAL” New Approach?????

From the first moment I discovered I had been diagnosed with DIABETES, I joined a HUGE “club” that has been rapidly expanding since it stopped being a death sentence in the early 20th Century. Currently, there are about HALF A BILLION PEOPLE who have Type 2 Diabetes. For the past 3500 years – dating back to Ancient Egypt – people have suffered from diabetes. Well, I’m one of them now… Not one to shut up for any known reason, I added a section to this blog…

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: “Radical New Approach to Managing Type 2 Diabetes Receives $3.5 Million”

OK, in today’s pop-a-pill-get-a-shot world, this study IS radical! In the real world, this strikes me as eminently a smart move smart people would take. But when it comes to Diabetes, how many of US are smart?

Think about it, I KNOW A Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait® is NOT good for me; I know it will have a negative impact on my blood sugars the following morning. It’s not good for Olympic athletes, either. It’s not even particularly good for your average teenager But, does that matter?

Nah! I go ahead and get one anyway and hope my Type 2 Diabetes won’t notice it. Which is, for me, RIDICULOUS! I have a BS in Biology, I was a science teacher for 41 years, I also have an MS in School Counseling. I ain’t stoopid! But I AM when it comes to my Type 2 diagnosis.

Reading the first article explains not some kind of RADICAL new program. It outlines what I SHOULD have been doing all along. Possibly what we ALL should be doing anyway in today’s Fast-Food Nation: eating right. Simply put, this “radical new program” just received a $3.5 million dollar grant to do a large STUDY of “Glucose Everyday Matters, or GEM – aims to prevent blood sugar spikes via educated food and drink selection. This is coupled with physical activity to hasten recovery when blood-sugar spikes do occur. So someone might indulge in a piece of fruit or a small, sweet treat, knowing how it will affect them, and then go for an evening stroll to help even out their blood sugar.”

We all know how to eat right and of course exercise. I can do it myself. People all over the world eat right and exercise. Those people have normal blood glucose levels. They don’t need to take Metformin or Glipizide, Insulin, Ozempic, or any of the other drugs that are being coopted by obese people who want an way to get thin AND keep eating at MacDonald’s for four-square meals a day (“But I get a diet Coke with my double Big Mac Attack Burger!”) [PS – I AM an Obese People who wants a way to get thin and keep eating…].

BUT all that advertising is so…motivational! Even the weight loss clinics, and the fad diet foods (I KNOW of what I speak! I use Atkins food products; so if I sound disparaging, I’m SELF-disparaging!) It makes is sound easy.

When we try them, we discover much to our horror that they DON’T WORK. The way to lower my glucose levels and my A1c is by eating right and exercising.

That’s what this RADICAL program is supposed to test: to see if “GEM [Glycemic Excursion Minimization] was self-administered, [and] with the aid of a 4-chapter pocket guide…diary, automated motivational text messaging, and feedback from an activity monitor, as well as a Constant Glucose Monitor [CGM](an in-arm needle/sensor device that is read by the participant’s cell phone at any time), supplies for the 6-week intervention and the 3-month follow-up. Test subjects were instructed in the use of all technology.”

Anyone who is NOT in the program can ALSO do this. In fact…well, I have some opinions about the $3.5 Million that this program was granted to experiment with…I will try very, very hard not to judge. But this is something that I have managed to do myself. I DO take Metformin twice daily and finger prick to take my blood glucose levels. My wife and I encourage each other…and a simple English translation of “Glycemic Minimization Excursion” might be “how quickly foods affect blood sugar” + “the reduction of something you don’t want” + “a short journey or trip”…so this GEM program might more simply be named: “a trip to get rid of bad foods that hike your blood sugar”.

I’m pretty sure that anyone can do this – without a cash incentive, along with a little help from our friends/spouses/family members (we DO have to ask) and a bit of effort to reduce the number of those Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait®s from three a week to only one a week…and if THAT AIN'T a Radical New Approach, I don't know what is!

Links: https://newsroom.uvahealth.com/2023/08/31/radical-new-approach-to-managing-type-2-diabetes-receives-3-5-million/, (The ACTUAL study with data, charts, and methodology) https://diabetes.jmir.org/2022/1/e34465
Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg