DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #30: Can the BRAIN ITSELF Be Targeted To Treat Type 2 Diabetes???

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: “For several years, researchers have known that hyperactivity of a subset of neurons located in the hypothalamus, called AgRP neurons, is common in mice with diabetes.”

So…weirdly enough, I just finished a book called THE THREE POUND ENIGMA: The Human Brain and the Quest to Unlock Its Mysteries by Shannon Moffett (©2006). Granted, it’s technically nineteen (most likely 20) years out of date. Most of the book is a fascinating examination of what science and scientists had discovered about the brain up to that point.

But it didn’t talk about how playing with the BRAIN might have an effect on controlling Type 2 diabetes!

“For several years, researchers have known that hyperactivity of a subset of neurons located in the hypothalamus, called AgRP neurons, is common in mice with diabetes. These neurons are playing an outsized role in hyperglycemia and type 2 diabetes,” said UW Medicine endocrinologist Dr. Michael Schwartz, corresponding author of the paper.

What’s AgRP? “Agouti-related protein, is produced in the brain by the AgRP/NPY neuron. The cells controlled by the AgRP increase appetite and decrease metabolism and energy expenditure. It is one of the most potent and long-lasting of appetite stimulators.”

So, this protein come from the brain and makes me hungry and lazy!

How’d they figure out the connection between the brain and my Type 2 diabetes? (Not that it comes as any great surprise...)

 Once they discovered the connection, “…researchers…made AgRP neurons express tetanus toxin, which prevents the neurons from communicating with other neurons. Unexpectedly, this intervention normalized high blood sugar for months, despite having no effect on body weight or food consumption.”

“The new findings align with studies published by the same scientists showing that injection of a peptide called FGF1 directly into the brain also causes diabetes remission in mice. This effect was subsequently shown to involve sustained inhibition of AgRP neurons…Further research might help scientists to better understand the role of AgRP neurons in how the body normally controls blood sugar, and to ultimately translate these findings into human clinical trials, he added.”

WHOA!!! Amazing! (Weird how I just happened to be reading a book on how the brain works!)

So…if I understand this right, it may someday be possible for me to get a shot to the brain by a protein that makes neurons in my brain produce a TETANUS TOXIN...that abruptly causes the communication between neurons to STOP telling my body that it wants to eat more and exercise less? And this will make my blood sugars return to normal?

WOW!

Now don’t get me wrong – THIS IS NOT A TREATMENT YET!!!!!

But…it’s a possible treatment, AND has the advantage of removing from ME responsibility of taking ANY blame for being diabetic! Just the RESEARCH is communicating to the world that THIS WAS NOT MY FAULT!!! (Or the fault of my genetics!)

THIS is the definition of "weird science"!

Links: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/05/250515191148.htm
Image: https://media.istockphoto.com/id/1254574508/vector/world-diabetes-day-banner-or-flyer-with-diabetes-symbol-blue-round-frame-and-map-14th.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=lLYo37GeVPirX-phRKE-p6h64a0_BoSMZQ4nFwcS6Y4=

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #32: Taking Ozempic…after LOTS OF RESISTANCE…

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!

You’re SO lucky you’re not my wife…

I’ve ranted against Ozempic pretty much ever since it first appeared. First, I thought it was a lazy way to deal with the necessary measures a person had to take to change their lives and get healthier and deal with the new information about the deadly results of just letting it run its course.

Don’t get me wrong, I WANTED to take the easy way out! But, I also wanted to maintain my sense of self. A modicum of CONTROL over what I could and couldn’t DO with my own body.

Secondly, I railed against how the pharmaceutical world had encouraged, advertised for, and pushed Ozempic (and similar drugs) as a quick, easy, painless, and SIMPLE way for a fat person to eat whatever they want to eat and then just take a shot and watch the ugly fat melt away…no more diets! No more self control (LOATHSOME WORDS to the rich, beautiful, and self-indulgent!)

So, there you have it.

And here you find me. My doctor recommended I take Ozempic – though I fought him to find a pill version. I first discovered that the actual tablet is one of the most bitter things I have ever attempted to ingest. I had to play around with placing it on the correct part of my tongue in order not to taste the horrific thing!

Right after that, and after three or four bottles, I discovered that the COST was absurd: I was being charged over $900 for a three month supply for Rybelsus after my first bottle that my insurance covered…I fought it for almost another year, then my doctor said I NEEDED it to lose enough weight not to drop dead of one of the things that can kill a Type 1 diabetic:

MAJOR COMPLICATIONS OF TYPE 2 DIABETES (as opposed to just being fat, flabby, unfit, and unwilling to do ANYTHING that someone else tells you to do. Why break a sweat when you’re rich enough to buy skinniness with a shot?) WHICH CAN LEAD TO DEATH!

Higher risk of Cardiovascular Disease: heart attack, stroke, and heart failure and its complications. High blood pressure and cholesterol: increase the risk of cardiovascular disease; higher risk of stroke leading to long-term disability and death, and narrowing of the arteries in your legs and feet. Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD - narrowing of the arteries in your legs and feet giving you decreased blood flow damaging skin, muscles, nerves and other tissues.

Chronic Kidney Disease; end-stage renal disease (ESRD); damaging blood vessels in the kidneys, impairing their ability to filter waste (leading to…) kidney failure; damage the kidneys over time which may require dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Diabetic Ketoacidosis: the body produces high levels of ketones creating a life-threatening complication where ketones build up in the blood, making it acidic.

HHS: (Hyperosmolar Hyperglycemic State) very high blood sugar leads to severe dehydration and confusion.

Infections: impaired ability to fight off normal infections and more susceptible to complications from common infections. People with diabetes are more susceptible to infections due to impaired immune function and poor blood circulation; diabetic foot infections (potentially requiring amputation) and severe systemic infections like influenza, pneumonia, a severe form of otitis externa (swimmer's ear) that can spread to the surrounding bones and tissues, particularly affecting the temporal bone and often seen in elderly individuals with diabetes; and a potentially fatal fungal infection affecting the sinuses, brain, and sometimes the eye area (aka, rhinocerebral mucormycosis). The last two are almost exclusively seen in people with diabetes and can be life-threatening.

Gum disease

Eye complications

Nerve Damage: numbness, pain, foot ulcers, infections, possible amputations

Foot problems: ulcers and infections, which can sometimes result in AMPUTATION

Vision/Eye problems such as diabetic retinopathy and blindness

Need I say more? I did NOT become diabetic because I “ate too many sweets as a child” or "REALLY let myself go as a teenager". It’s a disease inherited from your parents. And just because you haven’t been diagnosed YET…well, if you keep a porcine diet, OZEMPIC DOES NOT KEEP YOU FROM GETTING TYPE 2 DIABETES!!!!! LOSING WEIGHT, EXCERCISING, AND A GOOD DIET CAN HELP YOU AVOID DEVELOPING TYPE 2 DIABETES…and even then, there’s no guarantee…

Source: (a few of them) https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/type-2-diabetes, https://www.health.com/condition/type-2-diabetes/diabetes-complications-death, https://diabetes.org/ 

Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #29: Type 2 diabetes mellitus: One of the Pandemics of the 21st Century (World Health Organization/WHO)

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 Can I DO about one of the Pandemics of the 21st Century?

If you’re like me, your diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes took you by surprise.

What’s even more surprising to me, is that despite being identified as DIFFERENT conditions some 1600 years ago when Type 1 was associated with young people (hence one of the old names, “juvenile onset diabetes”), [HOWEVER, the rates of type 2 diabetes are increasing in young people today]. Type 2 was associated with being fat (I’m just gonna call it here – “overweight” is so cloyingly polite, it makes me cringe. I will call myself as I see me: I’m fat.

You can self-identify as overweight if it makes you feel better…); we’re no closer today to controlling EITHER ONE and rates of type 2 diabetes have increased markedly since 1960 in parallel with obesity.[

It's hardly surprising then that the rate of Type 2 diabetes has been steadily increasing. In the 1970s, the incidence of Type 2 was 2.7%. In the 1980s, the incidence was 3.6% (approximately 30 million in 1985); and the 1990s, it was 5.8%.

As of 2015, approximately 392 million people diagnosed with the disease. Doing a bit of calculation, given that there are now 8 billion people on Earth (8,000,000,000) and that 11% of the population (800,000,000) of Earth has some form of diabetes and that of that: “The latest IDF Diabetes Atlas (2025) reports that 11.1% – or 1 in 9 – of the adult population is living with diabetes and of THAT number, 90% (or 9 of 10) have Type 2.”

“So, what? Why bother me about it? I’m me! I’m not no one else! What are you gonna do about ME????”

Here’s a little more definition to those numbers: “…[they are] living in low-and middle-income countries. More than half of people living with diabetes are not receiving treatment. Both the number of people with diabetes and the number of people with untreated diabetes have been steadily increasing over the past decades.”

“So, whaddya want ME to do aboudit?!?!?!”

What CAN we do about The Other Pandemic? Diabetes is “…the silent epidemic that claims an estimated 6.7 million lives around the world each year – close to the total recorded death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic. One in ten adults is affected by the condition, and it is one of the top 10 causes of death globally.”

You can’t run out and “save the world” from diabetes!

BUT: Here are some things we CAN DO! https://worlddiabetesday.org/ before, during and after World Diabetes Day, Friday, November 14, 2025! And we can start doing SOMETHING now! I’ll be coming back to this in a few weeks!

Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_2_diabetes , https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circulationaha.106.613828 , https://diabetesatlas.org/media/uploads/sites/3/2025/04/IDF_Atlas_11th_Edition_2025.pdf , https://www.who.int/health-topics/diabetes#tab=tab_1

Image: https://worlddiabetesday.org/

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #31: The SUREST Way to Summer Lower Blood Glucose? MEAT!

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!

The caveat here? DON’T BE STUPID!

As they said in the hysterically ridiculous movie from several hours of misspent young-adulthood, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “And there was much rejoicing.” (To get the full effect of the ridiculous scene, follow this link:) https://www.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/bd0748ad-7c88-4805-b9a4-9d401577e488/gif)

“…higher meat consumption was associated with higher type 2 diabetes incidence ... The current findings support the notion that lowering the consumption of unprocessed red meat and processed meat could benefit public health by reducing the incidence of type 2 diabetes. Uncertainty remains regarding the positive association between poultry consumption and the incidence of type 2 diabetes, and this association should be further investigated.”

Let’s be clear here: “…Red meat refers to beef, veal, lamb, mutton, pork, goat and venison. (It does not include chicken, turkey, goose, duck, game and rabbit.)

“Processed meat refers to any meat that has been preserved by smoking, curing, salting or using preservatives. This includes sausages, ham, bacon, salami, pate, and canned meat such as corned beef. It may also include other meats such as sliced luncheon meat made from white meat, such as chicken and turkey.”

OK – I am going to speak for myself now. When I eat red meat (mostly hamburger, rarely steak…(What? Do I look like I’m made of MONEY???), I don’t down eight or nine burgers at a time.

I don’t LIKE processed meats – except for RARE bacon, turkey sausages, I had enough luncheon meat growing up as a kid, that I DON’T eat lunch meat anymore.

I KNOW the “average American” eats too much meat. Some of that comes from meat being associated with MONEY!!! Like, how many of us see movies where the really rich heroine dines out on filet mignon? (Have YOU ever had filet mignon? For me, it’s pretty much a big, fat, NO! We buy ground turkey, sliced turkey or chicken, and turkey breasts – the cheap ones, like from CUB or HyVee? Rarely do we get the high class stuff unless we’re making something REALLY nice.

So, when I have a reasonable meal of chicken, or decent pork loin, or even a cheap steak plus some veggies (in the summer I LOVE ME SOME GRILLED VEGGIES!!! Zucchini, corn on the cob, carrots, cauliflower, tomatoes, squash, and onions? Yessiree!) Here’s a recipe I found online – I don’t voice for it except it looks GOOD!

https://thewholecook.com/steak-roasted-veggies/

There are lots of cookbooks – and like us, you don’t need to BUY a cookbook! Check one out from the library. Specifically search, “healthy cookbooks” and add in whatever you’re looking for specifically – fish, chicken, hamburger, pork…whatever. There are SMART ways to cook practically anything on the grill!

Of COURSE stuffing my face all the time with fatty meats and veggies dripping in butter washed down with a glass of melted butter and French fried lard slices is going to make my glucose numbers soar to the high heavens!

Duh…

But being smart when you eat meat or chicken or turkey and include LIGHTLY roasted veggies with some olive oil and season NOT SALT. There ARE other seasoning things besides salt – the EASIEST is pepper! I happen to like pepper a lot. Learn to use it; and maybe pick up a seasoning that ISN’T mostly salt.

We CAN be healthy and enjoy ourselves a good meal on the barbeque!

AND KEEP OUR BLOOD GLUCOSE LEVELS AT ACCEPTABLE LEVELS! If I can do it, you can, too!

Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(24)00179-7/fulltext; https://www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk/oafu/diet/red-processed-meat
Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #28: FUTURE Cure or Treatment: Shutting Down Our Liver’s Hyperactive Glucose Production

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: NEW as of May 2025... research into ways to shut down the CAUSE of our Type 2 Diabetes
This article is so new, it was a definite challenge to my goal of “translating CURRENT research on Type 2 into English understandable to a NORMAL person, not only someone with a BS in Biology!” Mt attempt follows...

“Type 2 diabetes (T2DM)…is a…disease (that shows itself by high levels of) glucose (in the blood). Insulin resistance starts in the liver, muscles, and fat…and decreases how much glucose the blood takes up. We end up with high blood sugars, technically called “hyperglycemia”. In the liver, glucose is built from noncarbs, and made instead of tiny molecules called amino acids and lactate (a kind of sugar that comes from milk.) The scientific word for what it’s doing is gluco– neo—genesis and glucose production being produced in the liver (HGP). Insulin in our blood (or injected) slows it down and makes sure it stays nice and steady – neither disappearing and feeding the cells just enough. When we are insulin RESISTANT, the body can’t regulate the insulin like it’s supposed to and causes hyperglycemia. Suppressing the hyperactivation of hepatic gluconeogenesis is THE treatment scientists are looking for: “an effective pharmacological intervention for treating T2DM”.”

The Conclusion of the Study

The upshot is that they DID discover a chemical that can be used to “Hyperactivated liver glucose production contributes to fasting hyperglycemia in patients with type 2. FOXO1, “…a shorter name for something called a ‘Forkhead box protein O1’. It helps to regulate our metabolism. It also controls insulin and other cellular processes but stopping gluconeogenesis in the liver. It IS a POSSIBLE target drug for treating type 2. However, by itself, it’s a poor candidate to make directly into a drug treatment. Scientists are working to regulate its activity or increase its stability as a pill.”

“Previous studies have shown that there ARE chemicals in our own cells that can increase the number of β-cells and improve insulin secretion. This study reveals that DYRK1B plays a crucial role in gluconeogenesis regulated by FOXO1, highlighting a previously unknown function of DYRK1B. By finding and combining molecules that would slow or stop both DYRK1A and DYRK1B we might eventually offer a comprehensive approach to diabetes treatment, opening new avenues for targeted diabetes therapies that consider both β-cell proliferation and HGP.”

It's not going to be a pill we can pop tomorrow – but it MIGHT be a pill any of our kids or grandkids or great-grandkids can use to control DIABETES!

Links: MAY 2025 – https://academic.oup.com/nar/article/53/8/gkaf319/8120560
https://www.forbes.com/sites/juergeneckhardt/2025/03/18/emerging-breakthroughs-in-diabetes-treatment-a-new-era-of-hope/ 

Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #30: DIABETIC SUMMER EATING WITH RECIPES!

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! The recipes you see here we either HAVE tried or we WILL try!

Summer eating is ALL ABOUT THE CARBS, right?

Who cares if my blood sugar spikes the next day (or ever try eating several handfuls on real jellybeans on Easter Day? MAN! I felt like was gonna pass out – and my blood sugars weren’t even that high…)

How come as soon as I say the words “Type 2 diabetes”, I AUTOMATICALLY feel deprived and that I should feel sorry for myself? Of course, it’s a head game to try and let force my LOGICAL brain – which knows that I’m going to be in a battle against a rebellious body who constantly tries to tell me that “IT’S NOT THAT BAD!!!” and a body that I abuse with my eyes closed, knowing that when I go get that Peanut Buster Parfait (which is ABSOLUTELY ALLOWABLE and I’m NOT punishing myself for “getting diabetes”) I am absolutely going to pay for it – and if I end up having to pay for all the stuff I eat that don’t go with DIABETES OF ANY TYPE – it will speed up an already certain death – only I might keep my feet and hands and kidneys and liver…

So: I’m going to TRY and eat for my BLOOD SUGAR!

Here’s one that’s not necessarily JUST for the grill, and it’s NOT an entire fancy meal…but IS better for me than the alternative!

Grilled hamburgers, buns, ketchup, mayo, corn-on-the-cob, brats, and oh, let’s say, cookies and ice cream with chocolate sauce?

THE ALTERNATIVE

Grilled chicken breast on Brownberry Ovens WHOLE WHEAT Sandwich thins; salsa; low fat “mayo”, grilled spaghetti squash (or, more easily, spaghetti squash MOSTLY heated to “noodles” in the microwave, then grilled up on a baking dish and mixed with a dash of butter, olive oil, and some fancy combination of a salt and mild garlic, (you CAN have brats, but make them TURKEY brats and cut them so they fit on the Sandwich thins); and lastly, there are COUNTLESS chocolate chip (DARK CHOCOLATE!) cookies that are diabetic friendly (though you’ll need to EXPERIMENT so that you can fool your grandkids!); and finally something I discovered a few days ago! Take a container of your favorite lowfat/1%/2% or whatever level you want that’s NOT FULL FAT!; yogurt, pop it into the freezer for a bit, then scoop it out, sprinkle with Splenda or Monk Fruit or any other artificial sweetener (NO, DON’T USE TEN TEASPOONS!!!) but to taste, THEN add a MODERATE amount of chocolate syrup. Stir it in, and voila! You have summer grill out food that WON’T DESTROY you blood sugars – AND you can have fun with the rest of the family!

Source: It’s What We Do!
Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #27: After Fasting, Why Are My Blood Sugars STILL High???

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: "Why are my blood sugars high even AFTER I've had nothing to eat all night???

“The World Health Organization (WHO) considers type 2 diabetes, one of the pandemics of the 21st century…it is a condition that results in high levels of circulating glucose – the cellular energy fuel – due to a deficient insulin response in the body…When blood glucose, also called blood sugar, levels rise after you eat, your pancreas [is supposed to] releases insulin into the blood. Insulin then lowers blood glucose to keep it in the normal range…In T2 patients, the glucose synthesis pathway in the liver (gluconeogenesis) is hyperactivated, a process that can be controlled by drugs such as metformin. ”

HOW does the insulin from the pancreas work? “Insulin moves glucose from your blood into cells all over your body…insulin is the key that opens the doors of the cells in your body. Once insulin opens your cell doors, glucose can leave your bloodstream and move into your cells where you use it for energy.” (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22601-insulin)

Metformin (which is what I take) has never CURED T2. It wasn’t meant to. It’s a way to CONTROL T2. A group of researchers noticed something odd: from the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic, “…factors involved in the control of gluconeogenesis [which is the liver making blood sugars and injecting them into our bloodstream]… sometimes patients hospitalized with COVID-19 showed high glucose levels…[it] seems to be related to the ability of the virus to spark the activity of proteins involved in starting the liver up making glucose and sending it to the bloodstream…”

So, that response of the bodies of people with COVID sometimes made their body react as if they were also Type 2 diabetic. Now, I take FOUR metformin tablets every day. I was SHOCKED to read this: “The mechanisms of action of metformin, the most commonly prescribed drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, which reduces how much glucose is in the blood, are still not fully understood.”

In other words, researchers, doctors, and pharmacists DON’T KNOW HOW METFORMIN WORKS!!!!!!! While I intentionally made that more alarming than I could have, the fact is that as researches dig into the method of metformin function, they’re finding out WAY more than they expected, up to and including the effect of metformin in REDUCING AGING!!! “Early evidence highlighted the liver as the major organ involved in the effect of metformin on reducing blood levels of glucose. However, increasing evidence points towards other sites of action that might also have an important role, including the gastrointestinal tract, the gut microbial communities and the tissue-resident immune cells.”

“At the molecular level, it seems that the mechanisms of action vary depending on the dose of metformin used and duration of treatment. Initial studies have shown that metformin targets hepatic mitochondria (= “liver powerhouses”); however, the identification of a novel target at low concentrations of metformin at the lysosome surface might reveal a new mechanism of action. Based on the effectiveness and safety records in T2DM, attention has been given to the repurposing of metformin as part of adjunct therapy for the treatment of cancer, age-related diseases, inflammatory diseases, and COVID-19.”

Rest assured; I’ll be poking around this paper more as time goes on!

To briefly recap, it seems that HOW metformin works is even deeper than just at the level of CELLS – but deeper still into the “powerhouse” of every cell in your body: the mitochondria…

So, that’s it for now. Obviously I’ll continue to dig deeper into HOW metformin works. (I commented to my wife with a sigh, “Oh, great, now metformin with become as hard to get as Ozempic because the rich will start to pop the pills to stay young and beautiful!”

[*sigh* I vote we should just suppress THAT little bit of information!]

Links: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/06/240607121434.htm; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4214027/; https://fagron.com/news-media/post/exploring-the-multifaceted-benefits-of-metformin-hydrochloride-beyond-diabetes-management/; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41574-023-00833-4

Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES – 2025: A Summer of Type 2 Diabetic Eating #1!

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!

Spring sprung yesterday, and the next season coming up is EATING!!!

Um…I mean…SUMMER!

Grilling, chopping, snacking, running (or walking at a leisurely pace), swimming (or sitting under a shady tree), and because we actually DO spend more time moving around than during the summer, we feel ABSOLUTELY JUSTIFIED with eating whatever we want to, because we’re really “working out”. I even found a study done in 2021 that confirms that populations AROUND THE WORLD move more during summer months than they do during the winter! (I was born, raised, left, and returned to Minnesota to marry and raise a family, taught here for 41 years, and retired here for the past 5 years.)

To be precise: “Physical Activity level follows seasonal variations…higher PA level in summer compared with other seasons, especially compared to winter. Sitting around a lot follows the opposed trend regarding seasonality. Results are consistent across very different countries: US (Desert SW, Vermont, Michigan, Boston); Canada (Nunavut, Montreal, Quebec); Iceland, Netherlands, Lithuania, Belgium, Brazil, Norway, Denmark, Australia, Scotland, Qatar, Poland, France, and Switzerland. [I note for the record that NO African country, India, China, or Russia was included in the study].

If you happen to be a data-hog like I am, here’s the link to the study if you’d LIKE to go down the rabbit hole! https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8751121/#:~:text=Statistically%20significant%20higher%20number%20of,significative%20variations%20for%20subjective%20methods.&text=Statistically%20significant%20higher%20PA%20in%20summer%20tan%20winter.

NOW, the point of today’s post is to lay out some data for my SUMMER 2025 season of posts. Basing it on my current habit of posting on my DIABETES site every other Sunday, and rotating the posts between GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES (which is this one); and DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW!, I’ll be posting on “Summer Eating”…which I just decided to the thread!

My INTENT is to cook SUMMERY, Type 2 Diabetes-friendly meals. So…I’m hoping you enjoy it; maybe even follow along with us as we explore. I’ll begin a couple of weeks from now!

The schedule for, (in case you’re interested) Summer 2025 will be: March 23; April 6; April 20; May 4; May 18; June 1; June 15; June 29; July 13; July 27; July 10; July 24; September 7; and September 21 (and the following day is the First Day of Autumn!).

Expect our first Diabetic Summer Eating Experiment on April 6!

Later!

Recipe (and sometimes coaching!) Sites: https://www.urgentcareoffairhope.com/2023/07/11/6-diabetes-friendly-summer-snacks/; https://www.diabetes.org.uk/living-with-diabetes/eating/cooking-for-people-with-diabetes/seasonal-cooking/summer-eating-and-diabetes; https://www.eatingwell.com/gallery/8055145/easy-diabetes-friendly-lunches-summer/ ; (100 recipes link here!) https://www.iowadiabetes.com/2023/08/11/10-diabetes-smart-snack-ideas-for-summer/; DANG! There’re like a million recipes recommended by the Mayo Clinic (I’m partial to the place! I live in Minnesota and my sister and her family live in Rochester (Minnesota!) home of the FIRST Mayo Clinic, and where the Mayo brothers grew up…) https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/recipes/diabetes-meal-plan-recipes/rcs-20077150

Image: https://rainierobinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/IMG_2359-768x1024.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #26: POSSIBLY Protecting the Pancreas!

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 highlight Type 2 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: “Are treatments that protect the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, potentially slowing or even preventing the progression of diabetes possible?”

Early in March of this year, a study was done together by research universities with grants and scientists from the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, and the European Union to protect the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. A particularly damaging condition called glucolipotoxicity enables the progression of type 2 diabetes (T2D).

T2D, as you probably know if you have read about the condition in yourself or people you love, is “…a chronic condition where the body doesn't use insulin properly, causing blood sugar levels to become too high because the body can't effectively utilize glucose for energy; this often occurs due to a combination of factors like genetics, obesity, and lack of physical activity, and is characterized by the body's resistance to insulin, meaning cells don't respond normally to the hormone that helps glucose enter them.”

In earlier GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…DIABETES, I’ve written about the possibility of growing a new pancreas from cells cloned from your own, albeit damaged pancreas; creating an artificial pancreas, stimulating your pancreas to repair itself, and well as new drugs that might be used to either repair or replace the insulin WE need to live.

This approach has NEVER been tried. First you need to know what “glucolipotoxicity”. I’ll be using my ability to translate technical terms into ones more people can understand. (I can do that because I have BS in biology and spent the last four decades teaching science (of various sorts) to kids who ranged in age from 10 to 18.

So, let me have at it: “glucolipotoxicity”. First I’ll break it into its “parts”:

“gluco” – is pretty obvious: it’s the kind of sugar that runs our bodies, as in “glucose”. (There are other kinds, like dextrose, sucrose, fructose, cellulose, lactose, and galactose (all of which are sugars we EAT).

Then there are sugars we USE like cellulose (the sugar wood is made of); maltodextrin; ribose (the sugar part of “deoxyribonucleic acid”, usually known as DNA); trehalose (used by bacteria); ethanol (while it’s the basic component of drinking alcohol it can be used to make the polyethylene, the plastic used to make Target and CUB-style plastic bags, and plastic food containers)…there are lots of others!

“lipo” should be obvious to anyone who has ever used the word “liposuction” – it’s fat.

And finally, “toxicity” is self-explanatory. Toxic is BAD! Put them together, and now the definition makes sense: glucolipotoxicity is “a term used to describe the harmful effects of high levels of glucose and fatty acids on pancreatic beta cells.”

So…what? What’s THAT mean?

It means that when my glucose regulation circuits are haywire, then the levels of glucose in my blood are NOT BALANCED. Insulin was MADE to keep the amount of glucose in my blood level pretty much all the time. This treatment will protect your pancreas from the ravages of the assault of genes + sugars + fatty acids + lack of REGULAR exercise and keep it producing proper levels of INSULIN.

It ALSO was made to control the levels of fatty acids (which come from stuffing my face with unhealthy amounts of sugary, fatty foods. I’d be HAPPY to blame it all on my parents! I got my DNA from them, after all! It’s THEIR fault!) from destroying the pancreas.

And they would have to accept that because there IS a genetic piece of Type 2 diabetes (and Type 1 as well…), but there’s also a part of this that I AM responsible for! I absolutely admit to poor eating habits AND counting on wme being young and active and happy to eat whatever I wanted to. “But, NOBODY WARNED ME!!!!!!!” (I whine loudly…) and the fact is that while nobody grabbed me by the front of my sweaty T-shirt and shook me and said, “You should eat healthier…”, I wasn’t born stupid, either. I have always had a choice regarding what I choose to put in my mouth and exactly how much I move my legs and arms and torso and ass.

But, I was absolutely certainly NOT going to let anyone dictate ANYTHING TO ME. And now that I am firmly living with Type 2 diabetes, I am also THRILLED to see that the World Pharmaceutical Conglomerate has produced a shot I can take. And apparently, I can keep right on stuffing my face with AS MUCH BOOZE, SUGAR, FAT, and anything else I want to because I can BUY drugs that will fix it all…

And “Yes, thank you, I HAVE taken Ozempic (pills (currently offered at a 3 month supply for HORRIBLY BITTER pills for some $3200.00 dollars for a three month supply of which my health insurance covers $10,800 and I need to come up with some $2000 a year…which I don’t have: and which anyone on a lower income than MINE would find totally and completely impossible to cover…

And you know what else, I WILL lose weight. My blood sugars WILL go down and I’ll be able to eat whatever the hell I want to and live longer than anyone who can’t afford to pay for the drugs...

Are you detecting a note of bitterness in my words? Yes. You are.

Don’t be me…though I doubt that anyone young will bother to read this because, assuming they thought like I did when I was between 15 and 45…they’ll live forever because of the Miracle Of Modern First World Medicine…and no one reading this will print it off and give it to their kids or grandkids. And if they did, the wonderful kidlings and grandkidlings won’t actually believe it…‘cause because of the wonder of magic pills and shots, we can EAT whatever we want and we can take a pill or a shot or a surgery that will let us CONTINUE to EAT whatever the heck we want to and be just fine.

And worst of all, this rant will fall on mostly blind eyes…

Links: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/03/250304113808.htm Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #29: Waking Up With “normal” Blood Glucose AND How Testing Stuff WORKS...

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!

Since December 2024, I’ve been waking up with high glucose numbers ranging between a low of 160 (all-time RECENT low = 94) and (an all-time RECENT) high of 245). Web MD says that for a 67 year-old-man, it should be less than 100 after fasting (does that include or NOT include SLEEPING?); and less than 140 after eating.

Now, I’m gonna go off on a tangent here after I answer this: my blood glucose should be less than 140 AFTER eating. To be perfectly frank with you, I DON’T take my blood glucose two or three times a day for the simple reason that my prescription only gives me 90 test strips for a 3 month period. After THAT, I would have to buy more. While the dang things are basically two layers of plastic stuck together with a channel between them. 100 of them cost $139.00 at my friendly neighborhood CVS.

That is, in case you didn’t do the math, that’s 71 cents per test strip.

So, sounds… like the test strips are complicated. I guess if you’re a normal person, that sounds complicated.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a bachelor’s degree in biology – and I’m a BIG fan of science, too, so I love keeping up with biological developments. Mostly because I’m a geek, but it also helps me understand what the doctor has said to my parents (may they rest in peace), my kids (both of whom are long grown and in the midst of highly successful, highly educated careers), and my wife and myself.

So, given that, here’s what I found out: “The test strips work by producing a color-change reaction that scales linearly with the concentration of glucose in the blood. The color change is the result of the reaction between glucose, glucose oxidase (GOX), horseradish peroxidase (HRP), and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS).” (I PERSONALLY like to think that one of these chemicals is manufactured from HORSERADISH!, cause I like horseradish!)

PHYSICALLY speaking, “Test strips are comprised of several layers that include inside hydrophilic, adhesive, and electrode layers, as well as an outside layer that provides stability. Let's Face It. Similar to skin, the face of the test strip is responsible for sealing and protecting the inside layers from the outside world.”

OK – to summarize:

Layers of plastic are stuck together with a glue. Some of the plastic sucks up water, and some has a salt solution in it, and it’s all wrapped up in a rigid plastic that protects it. They can “go bad” (calling for an expiration date), because they suck up water just from the air. The salt water conducts electricity, acting like the +/- poles of a battery or a heart resuscitator (you know, “Three! Two! One! Clear!” and everyone steps back as they heart is “zapped” back to life)

At the best of times and when everything is working well, I touch the little notch between two clear layers of plastic to a drop of blood, which the . The monitor itself shines a light through the resulting flood of blood, which the hydrophilic layer sucks up, causing a chemical reaction, and a light inside the tester lights up, shining through the now-colored drop of blood, and “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!”, the reading comes out showing how much sugar is in my blood.

Now, we all know our diets affect our blood sugars (duh…), but WHY did my blood sugars stay “good for so long, then changed”?

My wife mentioned how hormones can affect blood sugars; also “Low blood sugar, also called hypoglycemia, happens when your body doesn’t have enough glucose to use for energy.

“People with diabetes mellitus may have low blood sugar in the morning due to too much long-acting insulin, also called background insulin and basal insulin. Insulin helps to manage blood sugar by allowing glucose to enter your cells, where it can be turned into energy…Some noninsulin medications to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus can cause hypoglycemia also.”

I’m probably not going to change what I’m doing at this point, because it’s only happened recently and was pretty minor – as in “they were down in the 120s!!!” Which, based on what they’re SUPPOSED to be, isn’t really something to worry about...

Source: https://www.healthline.com/health/low-blood-sugar-in-the-mornings#:~:text=Low%20blood%20sugar%2C%20also%20called,background%20insulin%20and%20basal%20insulin. ;
Author’s Note: Did you know that supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is ACTUALLY in the spell checker! I had the x and p switched around and IT CORRECTED IT!
Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #25: Diabetes 2050 [I have to change or die...]

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 is the FUTURE of Diabetes?

So, the study below estimated in 2020, that by 2025…today… “ The total number of people with diabetes will rise from ∼11 million in 2000 to almost 20 million in 2025. By 2050, this is projected at >29 million people—a 165% increase over the 2000 level. Note that these projections imply a steady increase in the overall prevalence of diabetes, from 3.99% in 2000 to 7.21% in 2050.”

So – what ARE the numbers today? Well, in something I think is WEIRD, but critical, and possibly even criminal:

“By 2045, International Diabetes Foundation projections show that 1 in 8 adults, approximately 783 million, will be living with diabetes, an increase of 46%. Over 90% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, which is driven by socio-economic, demographic, environmental, and genetic factors. The key contributors to the rise in type 2 diabetes include: urbanization, ageing population, decreasing levels of physical activity, increasing overweight and obesity prevalence.”

“We CAN reduce the impact of diabetes by taking preventive measures for type 2 diabetes and providing early diagnosis and proper care for all types of diabetes. These measures can help people living with the condition avoid or delay complications.”

This is both immediate and personal – 1 in 8 adults. NEARLY 1 billion OF US or ONE EIGHTH OF THE PLANETARY POPULATION will be dealing with (mostly voluntarily) messed up blood sugars.

Instead of focusing on reducing a PLANETARY EPIDEMIC, we insist on worrying about “tiny bits of plastic”, and CLIMATE CHANGE (of course we won’t talk about diabetes because it can’t be BLAMED for most of US on something so far away as “climate change”, rather on our deliberately and with total abandon ignoring our own behavior – type two diabetes can be FIXED if we stop acting like human swine, eating whatever we want and then clamoring for INJECTABLES or PILLS we can take to FIX IT while we continue to EAT OURSELVES TO DEATH from an ALMOST completely avoidable disease.

“But, it’s just diabetes! My doctor keeps trying to scare me with stuff but I feel perfectly fine! I’m doing good!”

The RESULTS of living without personal control and a dependence of doctors and scientists coming up with pills and shots that absolve us from responsibility is as follows.

PLEASE NOTE I AM SPEAKING TO MYSELF AS WELL! I am NOT better than any of you who have taken this fatalist view of their health. I am TRYING, but not very hard:

High blood sugar
MORE and worse infections
You have to pee a LOT more than everyone else
You have to DRINK a lot more water (which of course makes you pee more)
Diabetic Ketoacidosis (= “If I can’t say it, it doesn’t exist.”) Let’s try and make it understandable:


THE FINAL EFFECT OF TYPE 2 DIABETES IN LITTLE WORDS: “Ketones (say: “key tones”) are made by your wonky body. Your blood starts to turn acidic, kinda like vinegar or orange juice. You get dizzy; you wanna barf, so you do; you have no idea where you are or who you’re giving your cash card to; you get major cramps; your breath smells like you just chugged a half gallon of orange juice; you pass out; and if no one gets you to a hospital, you die.”

THE FINAL EFFECT OF TYPE 2 DIABETES IN SCIENCE WORDS: Ketones are a byproduct of this diabetes process. As they accumulate in the blood, they can make it too acidic. Symptoms of Diabetic Keto-acidosis include: dizziness; nausea and vomiting; confusion; abdominal pain; fruity-smelling breath; a loss of consciousness and possibly a diabetic coma.”

Do we GET THIS? Yes, we will.

Do we UNDERSTAND THIS? I hope so. It seems clearer to me now.

Our Type 2 is NOT going to go away. My Type 2 is NOT going to go away if I just sit on my fat…buttocks…and not do anything about it. Everything up above (in either LITTLE WORDS or SCIENTIFICALLY) is going to happen.

Do you get it?

DO I GET IT???? I’m going to stop hoping someone’s gonna rush right over and gonna save my sorry butt with a pill I can take that will let me keep on living the way I have been for a long, long time.

So. I need to get going. I have kids, grandkids, and friends I'd like to be with as much as possible before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

Links: CURRENT STATISTICS: https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/24/11/1936/24758/Projection-of-Diabetes-Burden-Through-2050Impact ; https://www.ajmc.com/view/diabetes-prevalence-expected-to-double-globally-by-2050

Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg 

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #28: Don’t Routinely Recommend Daily Home Glucose Monitoring For Patients Who Have Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus And Are Not Using Insulin.

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!

OK – this is sort of a weird research project for me…

I just got done wearing a CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) for two weeks, along with a heart monitor that was “glued over me heart”; part of a health study my father started in, my sister and brothers and I became part of, and then were invited to be part of a Generation 2 extension of the original study.

My wife has been wearing a CGM for a couple years now.

In prepping for my by-weekly post, I ran across this headline: “Don’t routinely recommend daily home glucose monitoring for patients who have type 2 diabetes mellitus and are not using insulin.”

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

There’s no date on THIS particular article, but it appeared on the website of the AAFP Publications American Family Physician Collections Choosing Wisely 369

Choosing Wisely Recommendations; Topic Collections CME Quiz Blog Multimedia Subscribe Search

So, let me see if I’m reading this right: THERE IS NO BENEFIT TO WEARING A CONSTANT GLUCOSE MONITOR if you’re not taking insulin? Pardon my French, but WTF are we wearing them for? It doesn’t lower your regular blood sugar levels, and as far as I can tell, the article is pretty clear when it writes:

“Self-monitoring of blood glucose is an integral part of patient self-management in maintaining safe and target-driven glucose control in type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, daily finger glucose testing has no benefit in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who are not on insulin or medications associated with hypoglycemia, and small, but significant, patient harms are associated with daily glucose testing. [THEY MENTION THIS AND THEN DON’T EXPLAIN IT?] Self-monitoring of blood glucose should be reserved for patients during the titration of their medication doses or during periods of changes in patients’ diet and exercise routines.”

There’s no link to where this study is published NOR does it mention who did the research or where it came from!

After a long search, I FINALLY came to this article: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10954850/

“Its headline reads: Continuous glucose monitoring in adults with type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis”

Diabetologia. 2024 Feb 16;67(5):798–810. doi: 10.1007/s00125-024-06107-6

Milena Jancev 1, Tessa A C M Vissers 1, Frank L J Visseren 1, Arianne C van Bon 2, Erik H Serné 3, J Hans DeVries 3, Harold W de Valk 1, Thomas T van Sloten

Copyright and License information; PMCID: PMC10954850 PMID: 38363342

Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10954850/,
"Continuous glucose monitoring in adults with type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis"

https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/collections/choosing-wisely/369.html#:~:text=Self%2Dmonitoring%20of%20blood%20glucose,patients'%20diet%20and%20exercise%20routines.; "Don’t routinely recommend daily home glucose monitoring for patients who have type 2 diabetes mellitus and are not using insulin."

Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #24: All Type 2 Diabetes Diagnoses Are NOT Revealing the Same Things!

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: Researchers using Artificial Intelligence to help identify at least two SUBTYPES of Type 2 diabetes from Constant Glucose Monitoring devices! (January 7, 2025)

My wife has used a Constant Glucose Monitor (CGM) for several years. I’ve been using it for the past week. Hers was a prescription at the time so she could keep a good bead on her blood sugars. I’m part of the “The ARIC study, which stands for ‘Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities’. It’s looking at the causes and progression of atherosclerosis, as well as variations in cardiovascular risk factors across different demographics like race, gender, and location, by following a cohort of individuals from multiple U.S. communities over time; essentially aiming to understand the factors contributing to heart disease and stroke through detailed examinations and follow-ups.” The goal is to better understand atherosclerosis – which is “a common disorder that occurs when plaque builds up in the walls of arteries, causing them to harden and thicken”. They used to just say, “Hardening of the arteries.” They want to be able to better identify and learn to effectively treat it.

NOW Stanford Medicine researchers have discovered that where diabetes “has long been lumped into two categories — Type 1, often starting in childhood; and Type 2, which occurs in adulthood and is associated with obesity. But it seems that not all Type 2 diabetics have the same problems. It seems that variations in body weight, age of onset, and other characteristics have created a greater numbers of TYPES of Type 2. Stanford Medicine has developed an artificial intelligence-based algorithm that uses data from CGM devices to identify not ONE Type 2, but FOUR. They can now discover three of the four most common Type 2 diabetes subtypes.”

This could be HUGE because over 98 million AMERICANS alone are pre-diabetic; another 40 million are actively dealing with Type 2 diabetes, and I’m one of them.

So, what? We’ve found MORE types of Type 2? Do I have to take MORE pills than I’m taking right now???

Where my Type 2 was diagnosed with a blood draw, the use of the CGM might doctors MORE DATA and give them a chance to make a BETTER DIAGNOSIS.

While at the moment people who have been identified as being Type 2 receive a treatment that is pretty much the same for everyone. But there isn’t ONLY ONE Type 2!

First is the one most Type 2’s are familiar with – “insulin resistant” – which means that my “cells don’t respond to the cues from insulin that results in a buildup of blood glucose.” Another Type 2 results in the liver not making ENOUGH insulin. A third Type 2 appears to be “the result of a defect in the production of incretin, a hormone released by the gut after eating that stimulates insulin secretion from the pancreas.” And a FOURTH Type 2 is “insulin resistance in the liver.”

How they will be differently treated may take some time to devise interventions and plans, but still, the most significant aspect of this discovery, “In addition to higher-resolution data for people with diabetes or prediabetes, using the monitor has other perks. ‘Even if a person with insulin resistance doesn’t develop diabetes, it’s still important to know,’ McLaughlin said. ‘Insulin resistance is a risk factor for a variety of other health conditions, like heart disease and fatty-liver disease.’”

“McLaughlin and Snyder plan to continue testing the algorithm with people who have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and hope that the technology’s broad availability will boost access to care, even when patients aren’t able to make it to a doctor’s appointment.

“We also see this technology as valuable health care tool for people who are economically challenged or geographically isolated and can’t access a health care system,” McLaughlin said.”

Who knows, by the time my kids might begin to exhibit the symptoms of Type 2, their doctors might have a new and more effective plan of intervention?

Links: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/01/type-2-diabetes.html
Links: If you want to know ALL about the ARIC study (my dad was part of the initial study, which included his kids (one of whom was ME); and just began a secondary study following THEIR children as they enter their 50s and beyond). Here’s the link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735109721047884 Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg