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New pill can deliver insulin

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211–220 of 260 posts

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#211

Type I diabetic here. The injections are really not a significant problem for me. A lot of people may recoil at the thought of injecting themselves often, as though it's painful. It's either not painful or maybe a little, but I just don't care much. Much worse things about being diabetic are: * Danger of low blood sugar * Trying to get the right dose * Timing the dose so it is effective at the right time * Carrying a…

Maybe better for children? The needle is probably their biggest concern.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#212
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…

and why he recommends his diet. ...which is the key. McDougall's claim to fame is fad diets and prepackaged food for the same since the 80s, and anything where his bottom line is involved is suspect. He's the vegan equivalent of Robert Atkins, basically. McDougall is not who I look to for nutritional (or really any) advice. I'm sure he's right sometimes, but his credibility is so compromised by his business that I'd…

I am mostly familiar with McDougall because of his extensive, high-quality, free youtube lectures. I have exactly the opposite impression of him than you. Instead of advocating a fad diet, he advocates a low fat, whole food, starch-based diet. He justifies it first on the grounds that every successful civilization has had this diet. Pick any civilization, country, or people group that is healthy and you will find that their diet is based on starch. His diet is the opposite of a fad diet: it's the diet that has sustained civilization.

His diet is cheap and accessible. You can follow his diet by eating locally produced wheat, potatoes, oats, rice, corn, millet, beans, etc, in all parts of the world that have an agriculture season. A feature of his diet is that starchy foods store well. Indeed, he says that the reason humans became so successful is because they were able to have a food supply that was high in energy and could be stored.

McDougall does not sell pills or supplements. He specifically counsels against them, saying that they are unnecessary with a good diet and potentially harmful.

In addition to a lot of free educational content, his website (drmcdougall.com) features different programs, including a 10 day live-in program which includes medical care plus meals and education for $6,060 for a single, full participant. You can also buy books, podcasts, and apparel. I didn't see any prepackaged food on the site.

I've considered him a source of high-quality, unbiased advice for several years. His presentations are clear and logical. He's not trying to sell me something. He is conservative in the sense that he prefers cheap, simple solutions before expensive, complex ones. For example, he would recommend that before you try medication and surgery, you should first try to change your diet. If you're not feeling well, make sure you're eating eating a low-fat, whole food, starch-based diet before trying to find a missing miracle vitamin or supplement.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#213

Type I diabetic here. The injections are really not a significant problem for me. A lot of people may recoil at the thought of injecting themselves often, as though it's painful. It's either not painful or maybe a little, but I just don't care much. Much worse things about being diabetic are: * Danger of low blood sugar * Trying to get the right dose * Timing the dose so it is effective at the right time * Carrying a…

Hey - I assume you're using a CGM - Dexcom?

Check out XDrip. Its an opensource community built collector for CGM data. They have a version that runs on Google Wear so your android watch can act as a collector. You can also still use your phone to collect and just have the data appear on your watch.

Nightscout is another good related resource

https://github.com/jamorham/xDrip-plus/blob/master/Documenta...

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#214
post #113
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The price of insulin is already rising That really is a sad state of affair, insulin is cheap to produce and we shouldn't live in a world where such a basic medicine is controlled by for profit organizations. At least in countries with a proper health system the cost isn't impacting on an individual level. https://beyondtype1.org/how-much-does-it-cost-to-produce-ins...

Generic insulin is available at $25 per vial. Guess what? Nobody wants to use it because the next generation of insulins is better.

There isn't a generic insulin available (at least in the US) - that's why there's a movement of biohackers to homebrew insulin.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#215

Type I diabetic here. The injections are really not a significant problem for me. A lot of people may recoil at the thought of injecting themselves often, as though it's painful. It's either not painful or maybe a little, but I just don't care much. Much worse things about being diabetic are: * Danger of low blood sugar * Trying to get the right dose * Timing the dose so it is effective at the right time * Carrying a…

Maybe better for children? The needle is probably their biggest concern.

I was diagnosed around 12. It was briefly a concern until I actually did it.

The blood checking pokes are much worse, because they have to actually draw blood. Usually fine but sometimes quite painful or difficult. Now I use a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and it's much better.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#216

Type I diabetic here. The injections are really not a significant problem for me. A lot of people may recoil at the thought of injecting themselves often, as though it's painful. It's either not painful or maybe a little, but I just don't care much. Much worse things about being diabetic are: * Danger of low blood sugar * Trying to get the right dose * Timing the dose so it is effective at the right time * Carrying a…

Hey - I assume you're using a CGM - Dexcom? Check out XDrip. Its an opensource community built collector for CGM data. They have a version that runs on Google Wear so your android watch can act as a collector. You can also still use your phone to collect and just have the data appear on your watch. Nightscout is another good related resource https://github.com/jamorham/xDrip-plus/blob/master/Documenta...

Cool! Yes, on the dexcom G6.

Thanks, I will check those out!

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#217
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.

Yep- it's in my family. Nothing to do with bodyfat. A body weight change of +/- 50 pounds makes no difference in fasting blood sugar. Hits later in life though (50s).

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#218

Type I diabetic here. The injections are really not a significant problem for me. A lot of people may recoil at the thought of injecting themselves often, as though it's painful. It's either not painful or maybe a little, but I just don't care much. Much worse things about being diabetic are: * Danger of low blood sugar * Trying to get the right dose * Timing the dose so it is effective at the right time * Carrying a…

Hey - I assume you're using a CGM - Dexcom? Check out XDrip. Its an opensource community built collector for CGM data. They have a version that runs on Google Wear so your android watch can act as a collector. You can also still use your phone to collect and just have the data appear on your watch. Nightscout is another good related resource https://github.com/jamorham/xDrip-plus/blob/master/Documenta...

xDrip is such a great piece of software that few people know about.

If you’re want to see the future of medical care using smart devices, start there.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#219

Type I diabetic here. The injections are really not a significant problem for me. A lot of people may recoil at the thought of injecting themselves often, as though it's painful. It's either not painful or maybe a little, but I just don't care much. Much worse things about being diabetic are: * Danger of low blood sugar * Trying to get the right dose * Timing the dose so it is effective at the right time * Carrying a…

Maybe better for children? The needle is probably their biggest concern.

Weirdly, it’s not age but an individual perception thing.

Many many people don’t really notice or care about the needles (me included) because as OP parent posted, we have other stuff to deal with that takes up way more mental space.

I guess this isn’t apparent because the needles are the obvious bits but then rest is all the “thinking” that invisibily surrounds the injection.

There are however many people who just can’t wrap their head around needles and can’t do it. The needles themselves are tiny so it’s not that - it’s just how they perceive the world.

Any technology that helps these people and makes their lives easier should be embraced.

Re: New pill can deliver insulin

#220
post #113
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The price of insulin is already rising That really is a sad state of affair, insulin is cheap to produce and we shouldn't live in a world where such a basic medicine is controlled by for profit organizations. At least in countries with a proper health system the cost isn't impacting on an individual level. https://beyondtype1.org/how-much-does-it-cost-to-produce-ins...

Generic insulin is available at $25 per vial. Guess what? Nobody wants to use it because the next generation of insulins is better.

As a type 1 diabetic, this isn’t remotely true for me. Novolog and its equivalents made timing impossible for peaks of insulin and food absorption. Also made low carb impossible due to the peak pattern of the insulin compared to digestion of low carb, high protein meals. Insulin pumps with combo boluses resulted in unpredictable absorption due to scar tissue from having low body fat percentage.

Ended up switching back to generic novolin R (regular) as injections which allows me to use different areas of the body, eat low carb, and dropped my a1c down 3 points. Reduced my standard deviation of blood sugars by about 45 as well.

Every diabetic is different though as others have found great success with novolog, insulin pumps, etc.

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