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.
“Since insulin’s discovery in the 1920s, science has delivered nine classes of drugs to treat type 2 diabetes (T2D). These have improved life for many; but more than 100 years later, the disease remains widespread and progressively degenerative. An estimated 828 million adults were affected globally in 2022, up by 630 million since 1990...
“The complications of T2D are severe: blindness, organ failure, to heightened infection risk. Annual T2D-related healthcare costs reached $966 billion in 2021 and are projected to exceed $1 trillion by 2045, based on the International Diabetes Federation’s estimates.”
The sticking point here? Dorzagliatin was discovered and developed in China.
We all Americans are notably and frequently “China-phobic”. HOWEVER, while the new drug is NOT available here, there are signs that “East-West Relations” might be thawing…
In a study published in Volume 74, Issue 11 of the ADA magazine DIABETES, results are promising. “Effects of Dorzagliatin, a Glucokinase Activator, on α- and β-Cell Function in Individuals With Impaired and Normal Glucose Tolerance”
“In type 2 diabetes Dorzagliatin reduced fasting and postprandial (after-eating) glucose levels in a dose-dependent manner (depending . In phase 3 randomized controlled trials, Dorzagliatin treatment led to a −0.57% and −0.66% placebo-subtracted reduction in HbA1c (A2c levels) in drug-naïve (people who aren’t taking any diabetic drugs) and metformin-treated patients with T2D, respectively, with sustained efficacy (it had been working for…) 52 weeks. Furthermore, in an observational extension study, 65% of patients with early-stage T2D who received Dorzagliatin monotherapy had sustained drug-free remission at 52-week follow-up. These findings suggest Dorzagliatin may have a role in restoration of β-cell function in those with earlier stages of diabetes.” (see link below)
It took me a second read to catch that, people! They aren’t talking about “making you feel better but nothing really changes” – like I take 4 Metformin a day, plus Ozempic once every two weeks (a new approach to taking Ozempic supported by a small group study – and now you hear it from me: FOR ME, there was no change from weekly to biweekly use of Ozempic. I actually FELT better (after a doctor visit, where Dr. H informed me that the O-stuff PLUS big, fat, Ty.-shaped pills of M would like give me the D-stuff (too gross to even write!) and suggested I start taking a probiotic…
Now, I was NOT a pill popper until it became a matter of life and death and love of my wife! I take what I ABSOLUTELY have to in order to spend as many years with my beautiful sweetheart of 39 years as I am allotted! But “probiotics” sounded like an ad campaign invented by some dork-behind-a-desk intended to convince me that I should be taking MORE pills (OH! And ONLY “pure”, “natural”, “organic” ingredients (I should add Made-Of-MORE-Money than the evil “impure”, “unnatural”, “inorganic” (??? Like, made of ROCKS?) ingredients.)
So, on my wife’s advice, I started taking them and, as much as I hate to admit it, they seem to have made a difference…dang…
Links: https://www.nature.com/articles/d43747-025-00071-9
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 four years ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. 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. 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!
I’m on a bit of a “memory kick” right now, as I’ve been thinking about a group of adolescent boys at the church I met my wife at…in particular because the one “kid” I got the most involved with (mom divorced, dad very absent, the kid had a very soft heart…) just lost his wife of 19 years to an aggressive form of cancer they’d been treating for the past seven years. Before that, another “youth kid” from my church (we were quite a bit closer in age), became good friends and often lapsed into having deeply theological discussions. His bane was that he was Type 1 diabetic and nursed a very deep sense of hurt that God gave him the bane and did nothing to heal it. He died after suffocating in a water bed following a diabetic seizure, after the birth of his second child, a little girl…who is not LONGER a little girl…That was MY first experiencing diabetes up close and personal…
My own wife was diagnosed and beat breast cancer (the entire series on my blog about THAT shitty experience is linked to your right…but started on Saturday, April 9, 2011 with “Observations of a Breast Cancer Husband”…
Then we passed through a period leading to the death of my mother, having lived several years deeply aware that my dad had descended into the deteriorating fog of Alzheimer’s.
Fifteen years, a couple months, and a double-handful of days have passed, and our kids are successful, have married, moved out, and granted us the joy of three spouses, and four grandchildren…
Now both my wife and I are Type 2 diabetics; and living in the SECOND quarter of the 21st Century. Technology today as well as plans of treatment are no long a death sentence for Type 1 diabetics; and us Type 2, using a combination of blood sugar monitors, wise food choices, and even wiser medical supervision, have a very good chance of living long and healthy lives; for example, myself: “…because life expectancy factors in infant and early mortality, males from this birth cohort who have already reached age 65 can expect to live to approximately 78 to 80 years on average.” How about this? Same question, but adding “diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes”: “roughly 15 to 21 additional years, meaning an average life expectancy of 84 to 90 years. However, this number is an estimate. Life expectancy relies heavily on when the condition was diagnosed and how well it is managed.
Note to self: try harder (perhaps more emphatically, “JUST DO IT YOU DUMB…”) Ahem…use this fact to kick yourself in the butt when you feel like stuffing your face with sweets or lazing around the house and skipping your four mile ride around the lake…
Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2663724/
