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: What’s NEW in Type 2 Research?
Diabetes Rates Skyrocket Globally With millions left untreated (November 18)
“The total number of adults living with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes in the world has surpassed 800 million - over four times the total number in 1990, according to findings from a global analysis...”
“Additionally, 445 million adults aged 30 years and older with diabetes (59%) did not receive treatment in 2022…”
They found that “…widening global inequalities in diabetes…treatment rates stagnating in many low- and middle-income countries where numbers of adults with diabetes are drastically increasing…people with diabetes tend to be younger in low-income countries and, in the absence of effective treatment, are at risk of life-long complications…like amputation, heart disease, kidney damage or vision loss - or in some cases, premature death.”
While the conclusion of the article is aimed specifically at Type 2 diabetes among a younger population in India, the recommendation CERTAINLY applies to us here in the US: “…preventing diabetes through healthy diet and exercise is essential for better health throughout the world. Our findings highlight the need to see more ambitious policies, especially in lower-income regions of the world, that restrict unhealthy foods, make healthy foods affordable and improve opportunities to exercise through measures such as subsidies for healthy foods and free healthy school meals as well as promoting safe places for walking and exercising including free entrance to public parks and fitness centers.”
Anti-Obesity Drugs Increase Food Waste In Some Users (November 22, 2024)
“Taking anti-obesity drugs has led some U.S. adults to throw away more food than they tossed before starting the medications, a new study has found.
“In a survey of people currently on treatments like Ozempic, 25% of respondents agreed they had wasted more food since taking the drugs, compared to 61% who disagreed.”
“The fact that food waste appears to decrease as patients acclimate to the medication suggests there may be a fairly simple remedy, may find themselves discarding food as their diets change, which could reduce food waste and lower their spending.”
I found this to be true when I started taking Rybelsus (I detailed what happened here: https://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2024/08/guys-gotta-talk-abouttype-2-diabetes-23.html
This site has LOTS of links to current Type 2 research, and it’s written in an easy-reading style. While I’ll be pulling articles from here from now on, check it out for yourself! I really like it! The link is below:
Links: https://www.news-medical.net/condition/Type-2-Diabetes
Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg
For the first time since I started this blog eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes two weeks ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!
Every one of us who has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes has seen this Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aES9XjAg09U
Every one of you who, like me, would like something MAGIC to happen if I do something simple like drinking lemon water after I get up in the morning.
And just like me, you have a healthy aversion to being conned.
But, maybe like me, I sometime wonder if the Medical Establishment IS conning me to sell Metformin; and in my case…well, it was one of the biggest shocks of my life.
My doctor suggested I start taking the solid form of Ozempic; it’s called Rybelsus. I talked about my adventures with it in this entry: Guy's Gotta Talk -- About DIABETES; breast cancer, Azheimer's: GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #23: Ozempic, Rybelsus, and Me
So, he increased it a couple times, and at this last checkup, I A1c had dropped from 7.7 to 6.8!!! I was thrilled. He upped it one more time, I suppose thinking that “more is better”. I had the prescription for 14 mg (double my most recent prescription) of Rybelsus filled. I went to pick it up, and when the pharmacist tendered it, in addition to my cheaper meds, I had to pay over $535 for the new prescription! I about fainted!
I was even more stunned, when I read on the receipt that the RETAIL price for my three-month prescription of Rybelsus was… $3420.99! (I’d add about thirty exclamation points here, but I don’t feel like wasting perfectly good ranting space!
So, it makes sense that I (who have really good health insurance) was stunned to find out what anyone who does NOT have access to good insurance would have to face. IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO ACCES THE MEDICATION. Possibly a medication that would save or extent their lives.
That explains then, the “confidence schemes” set up by people without scruples of any kind that claim to want to “help” others cheaply. Others like me, only with lesser (or even NO) insurance.
It explains the FEAR we have a claims of “amazing stuff” like an artificial pancreas, regrowing our own pancreas, diabetes-damaged cells being regenerated, I react like “I get suspicious that gobbledygook is being written to cover up a lack of facts with absurdly used terms substituted for straightforward language.” I am a suspicious kind of person when it comes to medicine: especially when young doctors – or physicians assistants (whose training, while different from mine in the INTENT, is no more than the education I got my Masters of Science in School Counseling for – both are Masters degrees. A PA cannot practice in the US WITHOUT a MD supervising them.
So, when something DOES come along that sounds FAKE, we shout FAKE and run the opposite direction.
While I am NOT a PA or an MD, I am a reasonably intelligent person who has a Bachelor of Science in Biology, and who reads constantly (journals, biology summary sites, science research, and am in contact with some of my former students who ARE researchers in medical biology or are doctors themselves) in my field as it has advanced since I graduated (when I took an Immunology class in 1977, the textbook had NO MENTION OF AIDS!))
I can only state to you that when I DO report on some new advancement, I’m not getting my information from whacky sites, but from SCIENCE sites. Check the links below each article. I always link to the source of my information.
So, while I am SKEPTICAL BY NATURE, I delight when I am convinced through data that something NEW is coming out to help us with Type 2 diabetes live longer and healthier lives.
EVIDENCE THAT PEOPLE AVOID RESEARCH THAT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. So, from my own blog:
Articles on CURES for Type 2 diabetes: 5
Number of hits: 166
NEARBY Articles NOT about CURES for Type 2 diabetes: 5
Number of hits: 314
The numbers speak for themselves -- maybe we're giving up HOPE because of the TRASH out there. But not ALL of it is trash.
