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A $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes

bloomberg.com

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Re: A $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes

#61

Post by virtuallynathan »

tomp wrote: post #42
mtgx wrote: post #38

Or you could "hack" your body by eating keto-friendly foods: https://blog.virtahealth.com/with-sustained-type-2-diabetes-... https://medium.com/@drjasonfung/type-2-diabetes-reversal-the...

Can you please stop spamming idiotic comments all over this thread?! And read the article! It’s about diabetes Type I, which cannot be cured by diet, as it’s caused by too little insulin in the body, not too much as with Type II.

There do seem to be a decent number of T1D patients who use keto diets to keep their blood sugar flat and reduce insulin requirements.

Re: A $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes

#62

Post by LeonM »

femto wrote: post #21
jimrandomh wrote: post #16

The article, strangely, leaves out the name of the project it's reporting on. It's OpenAPS, http://openaps.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ . I use it and have worked on the code. It's a massive health and quality of life improvement over anything that exists which is FDA approved. The core problem is that the FDA-approved devices are optimized not for getting the best result, but for ensuring the manufacturer can't be blam…

From the docs: "One of the most frequently asked questions is “I have a 723 pump but it has version 2.5B software version. Has anyone figured out a way to make newer model Medronic pumps compatible? Like flash older version of software onto my 723 2.5B pump?” The answer is “No. The ability to downgrade software versions in the pumps does not exist. It has been investigated and nobody has made any successful progress…

Judging by the PCB photo's, that device is much more complitcated than I'd expected.

Anyway, I would love to help the community with some reverse engineering.

Re: A $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes

#63

Post by kamaal »

tomp wrote: post #42
mtgx wrote: post #38

Or you could "hack" your body by eating keto-friendly foods: https://blog.virtahealth.com/with-sustained-type-2-diabetes-... https://medium.com/@drjasonfung/type-2-diabetes-reversal-the...

Can you please stop spamming idiotic comments all over this thread?! And read the article! It’s about diabetes Type I, which cannot be cured by diet, as it’s caused by too little insulin in the body, not too much as with Type II.

Your parent is trying to imply a way to survive on less insulin. Which is basically eating less to no sugar.

Though insulin is important for your body. The need for insulin is largely related to glucose metabolism.

In short eat less sugar.

Re: A $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes

#64

Post by sametmax »

ThJ wrote: post #3
ThJ wrote: post #2

I have type 2 diabetes and I've always been a bit envious of insulin pumps, not because I love having a machine plugged into my body (I don't), but because they offer better control of blood glucose peaks, since they use fast-acting insulin exclusively. The pancreas secretes insulin in pulses and pumps can mimic that. What has turned me off from pumps (apart from doctors generally not recommending them for type 2 dia…

Why don't doctors recommend them for type 2 diabetes? Well, my general impression is that doctors live under this illusion that patients will somehow succeed in making lifestyle changes that will cause the disease to go into regression or disappear altogether. Also, they prefer to try medications like glucophage before they resort to insulin. There just seems to be less eagerness to finely manage type 2 diabetics, ma…

> will somehow succeed in making lifestyle changes that will cause the disease to go into regression or disappear altogether

Well, isn't that a sane first approach ?

I mean, yes, if it fails, find a workaround. But I don't see how __healing__ is a bad objective for a doctor.

Re: A $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes

#65

Post by nhebb »

jimrandomh wrote: post #16

The article, strangely, leaves out the name of the project it's reporting on. It's OpenAPS, http://openaps.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ . I use it and have worked on the code. It's a massive health and quality of life improvement over anything that exists which is FDA approved. The core problem is that the FDA-approved devices are optimized not for getting the best result, but for ensuring the manufacturer can't be blam…

For anyone interested, Scott Hanselman wrote about the open diabetes ecosystem (including OpenAPS) a few years ago:

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/ThePromisingStateOfDiabetesTe...

Re: A $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes

#66

Post by hamilyon2 »

jimrandomh wrote: post #16

The article, strangely, leaves out the name of the project it's reporting on. It's OpenAPS, http://openaps.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ . I use it and have worked on the code. It's a massive health and quality of life improvement over anything that exists which is FDA approved. The core problem is that the FDA-approved devices are optimized not for getting the best result, but for ensuring the manufacturer can't be blam…

This comment finally explains what article is about. Thank you.

Re: A $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes

#67

Post by taksintikk »

kamaal wrote: post #57
sfifs wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Well, my general impression is that doctors live under this illusion that patients will somehow succeed in making lifestyle changes that will cause the disease to go into regression or disappear altogether. Well in the last 3 months, I DID learn new eating habits, lost 15 kilos and had my meds cut from 6.5 tablets per day to 0.5 tablets a day working with a doctor and having good control on blood sugar. The big AHA…

My mom has diabetes. I am interested in knowing what diet changes did you make. Only asking as it would be helpful for others.

keep it simple..Start with cutting out processed sugars and carbs/bread/rice.

Maybe sub with alcohol sugars if needed.

Re: A $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes

#68

Post by zaroth »

parrellel wrote: post #26
mkrecny wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you looked into, or have any thoughts on Virta Health as a potential for your kids? https://www.virtahealth.com/

This looks to be a treatment for Type 2, the parent comment's talking about multiple children, so, probably Type 1. At least, I hope so.

Yes, kids have T1D. A T2D treatment would be entirely useless if not harmful.

Re: A $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes

#69

Post by exDM69 »

trampypizza wrote: post #56
exDM69 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My SO has a continuous glucose monitoring, and as you say, the reading lags behind by 15-30 minutes compared to measurement from blood. But the blood measurement is a single, instantaneous value while the GCM meter shows the last 8 hour glucose levels plotted and the current upward/downward trend. While it takes a bit of cross-referencing between blood and tissue glucose levels to get used to the readings, it actuall…

> it actually provides better information to base decisions on (fast acting) insulin dosage Would you say that's because you can get a better idea of trends once you have enough data? My understanding has always been that the true value in a CGM is revealing those trends and patterns that are really unique to the person and that are hard to spot with regular glucose testing. EDIT: I realise that this is basically wha…

Yes, exactly. When you wake up in the morning, you can get a plot of the last night's glucose levels which you normally don't know about with discrete blood measurements. This allowed my SO to adjust evening eating and insulin dose and their timing so that the glucose levels stay within the "good zone" all night (the GCM reader unit has a helpful graph with the good levels highlighted).

If you can't get the NHS to give you one, it might be worth it to get it for at least some period (say 3-6 months) out of pocket. By that time it should have given you insights on your treatment and allow you to better assess if an insulin pump is the right thing for you.

Re: A $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life with Diabetes

#70

Post by dekhn »

jimrandomh wrote: post #16

The article, strangely, leaves out the name of the project it's reporting on. It's OpenAPS, http://openaps.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ . I use it and have worked on the code. It's a massive health and quality of life improvement over anything that exists which is FDA approved. The core problem is that the FDA-approved devices are optimized not for getting the best result, but for ensuring the manufacturer can't be blam…

Hi- I used to work in regulated pharma and I want to be clear: " The core problem is that the FDA-approved devices are optimized not for getting the best result, but for ensuring the manufacturer can't be blamed if something goes wrong" is a misleading statement. The reason everything is regulated is that sometimes things do go wrong, and it's necessary to have root cause attribution so the problem can be remedied and a fix deployed, and, if somebody did something illegal or dumb, they can be sanctioned.

I wish your project success, but I think (and I've got a bit of experience) if you can't accept that regulation of health products is almost certainly necessary, and that not producing the "best" results is a reasonable if conservative approach, I will never trust your product.

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