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New pill can deliver insulin

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Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, I replace them periodically. They don’t spoil quickly, though, in the sense that insulin spoils just from being outside too long. You don’t have to curtail your physical activity to avoid hypoglycemia because glucose is portable and durable.

"You don’t have to curtail your physical activity to avoid hypoglycemia because glucose is portable and durable." Between this and your "humble-brag" on your other post, what I'm led to believe is that you're pretty ignorant on how variable insulin sensitivity and blood sugar management is from individual to individual. I've maintained an A1C of less than 6.5 for more than a decade so I'm the picture of "perfect" con…

Yes, I deal with all that besides Scuba diving (interesting!) These routines around everyday exercise are not constant worries as represented in the earlier post. After exercising a few dozen/hundred times you know what to expect and don’t need to think about what to do. I will say that inconsistently performed intense exercise can be challenging; a regular exercise schedule is less effort to manage for diabetics.

I rotate injection spots but have favorites based on convenience, sensation, etc. like anyone else. The variation in effectiveness I’m seeing is small enough that I’m not sure what’s happening yet. It’s not really a big deal because my numbers are fine.

It’s not a disease that varies so much from individual to individual that lessons can’t be learned and shared, and it’s a disservice to misrepresent the mental effort to new diabetics and people potentially lapsing into poor control.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#132
post #118

I just watched a lecture on diabetes by Dr John McDougall last night. He described type 2 diabetes as the body's natural way to limit weight gain. He points out that morbidly obese people are often not diabetic: lack of insulin resistance is what enabled them to keep growing. Viewed this way, diabetes is a sign that a person has reached maximum weight. Giving a person additional insulin at this point is like trying t…

I know several Type 2 diabetics who are not (and have never been) obese. While obesity is definitely a cause for the disease, it is not the only cause there is.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#133
post #118

I just watched a lecture on diabetes by Dr John McDougall last night. He described type 2 diabetes as the body's natural way to limit weight gain. He points out that morbidly obese people are often not diabetic: lack of insulin resistance is what enabled them to keep growing. Viewed this way, diabetes is a sign that a person has reached maximum weight. Giving a person additional insulin at this point is like trying t…

How would this be reconciled with significant weight loss often being a symptom of type 2 diabetes?

> How would this be reconciled with significant weight loss often being a symptom of type 2 diabetes?

I don't know, but here is my guess:

At the beginning of the lecture McDougall talks about there being three kinds of diabetes: type 1 (pancreas produces no insulin), type 2 (pancreas produces enough insulin, but it doesn't work because of insulin resistance), type 1.5 (not enough insulin is being produced to cover the body's needs). Significant weight loss seems to fit in the type 1 and type 1.5. McDougall will prescribe insulin if a person is in danger of losing too much weight.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#134
post #118

I just watched a lecture on diabetes by Dr John McDougall last night. He described type 2 diabetes as the body's natural way to limit weight gain. He points out that morbidly obese people are often not diabetic: lack of insulin resistance is what enabled them to keep growing. Viewed this way, diabetes is a sign that a person has reached maximum weight. Giving a person additional insulin at this point is like trying t…

Can't speak to the claims in this comment around type 2 diabetes, but worth noting this article and pill is specifically for type 1 diabetes, which is in no way related to weight or metabolism, but rather an autoimmune disease.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#135
post #118

I just watched a lecture on diabetes by Dr John McDougall last night. He described type 2 diabetes as the body's natural way to limit weight gain. He points out that morbidly obese people are often not diabetic: lack of insulin resistance is what enabled them to keep growing. Viewed this way, diabetes is a sign that a person has reached maximum weight. Giving a person additional insulin at this point is like trying t…

This is extremely myopic... Once you're diabetic, a lot of "bad things" happen. People don't take insulin then just to continue eating...

McDougall points out at one point that it's common for people to gain weight after their doctor tells them to lose weight and puts them on insulin. Insulin promotes weight gain.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#136
post #26
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What doctors and researchers get wrong about diabetes is that pin-pricks and injections are not even remotely bad. I don't know a single diabetic who cares about injections and blood sugar tests. You get used to that within the first week of diagnosis. No, the unpleasant part of being diabetic is having to live every second of your life as an act of weighing how what you're currently doing is going to affect your blo…

> I don't know a single diabetic who cares about injections and blood sugar tests. I'm diabetic and the sole reason I don't check my blood sugar (unless I think something is drastically out of whack) is that it takes me upwards of 30 minutes to do a finger prick for testing. My anxiety skyrockets and nothing I do can tell me that it's not going to be excruciating. Most of the time I end up having my wife do it, which…

Are you aware of monitors like this https://www.freestylelibre.us/? A friend of mine has it and is really happy about it.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#137
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean: there are a few things you need to do each day to manage diabetes. These are important. What you don’t need to do is worry about it between those times. If you convince someone they need to do too much to manage the disease, they’re more likely to give up on the whole thing.

More likely, as measured how? How do you know this? Spending more time thinking about my condition is a great way to improve blood glucose control, at least in my experience.

Of course. I spend plenty of time thinking about diabetes and I stay involved in the data measuring communities (Nightscout, Spike, etc.) I enjoy knowing what’s going on with my body and I try to get like-minded diabetics to look into that. I also help people figure out how to get a CGM prescription and sell them on it by loaning mine out for a few weeks (and just that much data eases worry once they see their actual operating parameters. It’s worth my going without for a bit.)

I know this because I know diabetics who have lapsed out of control, or retreated into a rather small life, because they felt the excessive personal rules they’d either self-imposed or been taught by others were burdensome. When possible, teaching them a lighter set of principles to follow has had a positive effect.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#138

Is diabetes curable with gene therapy? I'm surprised we can cure hemophilia with gene therapy but not diabetes. Is it impossible to get your pancreas to create insulin naturally because it's missing something vital? [1] https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/gene-th...

Why would that surprise you? Hemophilia is a genetic disease, while diabetes rarely is. The pancreas has the genes it needs, it's just damaged (in type 1) or ineffective (in type 2)

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#139
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is extremely myopic... Once you're diabetic, a lot of "bad things" happen. People don't take insulin then just to continue eating...

McDougall points out at one point that it's common for people to gain weight after their doctor tells them to lose weight and puts them on insulin. Insulin promotes weight gain.

It doesn't. Eating too much and exercising too little promotes weight gain.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#140
post #93
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean diabetes type 2. It's tiring to keep getting suggestions of how to change diet when my body absolutely needs insulin from an external source. Further, while people may be able to reverse type 2, they still need insulin until they actually get there. So research into insulin delivery is relevant to all diabetics. Also there are many ways of reducing carbohydrate intake. The diet you write about is just one of…

It is not just about carbohydrates.It is the healing by natural minerals vitamins from fruits and vegetables which cannot be replaced by supplements. There is a long science with research papers which cannot be explained here.

Nutrition research is a minefield of easy answers. People who speak in certainties (like you do) can be presumed to not have studied it in depth.
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