Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why treating diabetes keeps getting more expensive

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 63 posts

Re: Why treating diabetes keeps getting more expensive

#11

Post by kylell »

bruxis wrote: post #10
kylell wrote: post #7

Insulin is just like when you have performance problem in a monolithic app and you throw more hardware at it, but at some point you can't upgrade your server anymore. Not sure if there's much you can do while diabetic, but cut bread-like and sugary foods, these spike your insulin the most and your body becomes insulin resistant and so you need more and more insulin, more that you can make.

As a type-1 diabetic, your body no longer produces any insulin at all. This means even without eating any carbohydrates, your blood glucose rates will elevate every hour until you eventually succumb into a coma and shortly after, perish. I use about 34 units of insulin per day, excluding any carbohydrates -- this largely depends on body type as well, some people use much more. A type-2 diabetic on the other hand, dep…

Yes, sorry, I was thinking at type-2 diabetes, I have a relative with type-2 and doctor told her to cut alcohol, sugar, carbs, etc, type-1 is entirely different, the immune system attacks the pancreas.

Re: Why treating diabetes keeps getting more expensive

#13

Post by Steve44 »

Angostura wrote: post #12

Interesting, the response in the UK has been to address this by attempting to pump money into programmes to to try and prevent type 2 diabetes or at least reduce its growth. Still too early to see how these efforts will be.

There have been a few small scale trials in the UK where type II people are put on diet of around 600 to 700 calories a day for a couple of months. Indications are for about 40% of those who took part they returned to normal levels - i.e. no longer had diabetes.

Anecdotal but a 50ish year old friend had Type2 and went to stay with relatives on a farm for a few months. He spent 10-12 hours a day helping out and when he came back he'd lost weight and also was no longer diabetic.

Re: Why treating diabetes keeps getting more expensive

#15

Post by loverofthings »

michaelmrose wrote: post #8
loverofthings wrote: post #6

Number of people suffering from diabetes has risen exponentially, demand goes up, so do the prices. It's going to stabilize as years go on.

Demand has gone up it hasn't risen exponentially. The manufacturers have colluded to raise the price. There is no reason for it to ever come down.

We live in the age of globalization and capitalism. There's bunch of cheap stuff coming from all over the world. Collusion on that scale is not possible.

There's just more people suffering from diabetes T2 than ever before. Someone is just profiting off of large demand.

Re: Why treating diabetes keeps getting more expensive

#17

Post by gaius »

Angostura wrote: post #12

Interesting, the response in the UK has been to address this by attempting to pump money into programmes to to try and prevent type 2 diabetes or at least reduce its growth. Still too early to see how these efforts will be.

The NHS spends £14Bn a year on diabetes, of which £11Bn on type 2. To put that in perspective the annual budget is £125Bn.

Re: Why treating diabetes keeps getting more expensive

#18

Post by kgwgk »

kakoni wrote: post #16

Whats up with those US prices, Humalog more than $250 per vial? In Europe (Finland) non-subsidized price is $34.

Drug pricing in the US is complicated. Humalog list price has doubled in the last few years, but the rebates have increased faster and the average net price is actually going down. The average discount is 75%!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-29/the-crazy...

Re: Why treating diabetes keeps getting more expensive

#19

Post by HarryHirsch »

Angostura wrote: post #12

Interesting, the response in the UK has been to address this by attempting to pump money into programmes to to try and prevent type 2 diabetes or at least reduce its growth. Still too early to see how these efforts will be.

The UK is the second-fattest country in Europe after Malta, and obesity (BMI > 30.0) puts you at risk for type-2 diabetes. It's a public health issue.

Interestingly, the other thing that's a risk factor is lack of sleep. Huge commutes put you at risk for type-2 diabetes. Who'd have thought?

Re: Why treating diabetes keeps getting more expensive

#20

Post by Kayou »

kylell wrote: post #11
bruxis wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a type-1 diabetic, your body no longer produces any insulin at all. This means even without eating any carbohydrates, your blood glucose rates will elevate every hour until you eventually succumb into a coma and shortly after, perish. I use about 34 units of insulin per day, excluding any carbohydrates -- this largely depends on body type as well, some people use much more. A type-2 diabetic on the other hand, dep…

Yes, sorry, I was thinking at type-2 diabetes, I have a relative with type-2 and doctor told her to cut alcohol, sugar, carbs, etc, type-1 is entirely different, the immune system attacks the pancreas.

Thanks for the apology, but you got me quite irritated with your first comment. It was like saying to a paraplegic in a wheelchair to man up and hit the gym because there is only so much you can do with a wheelchair... Dreadful.
Post reply on HN