From The Ask D'Mine Mailbag: Expiration Dates, Insulin Freezing, Diabetes Donations

From the Ask D'Mine Mailbag: Expiration Dates, Insulin Freezing, Diabetes Donations

If it isn't one thing with diabetes, it's another — from trying to figure out our dosing needs to cross-over with other ailments to how we feel about sharing our D-issues with others in our lives.
We at the 'Mine have got your back, especially each Saturday with our weekly in-depth advice column, Ask D'Mine, hosted by veteran type 1 and diabetes author Wil Dubois from New Mexico.
This week, Wil's addressing a smattering of questions about expiration dates, insulin freezing, and diabetes supply donations. We thank you all for keeping our mailbag full of great queries!
{Got your questions about navigating life with diabetes? Email us at [email protected]}
Shannon, 'diabetes curious' from New York, writes: Hi. I have a question regarding the expiration of diabetes checking equipment. The one I have is OneTouch Ultra 2. The expiration date on it is on 11/2016. My question is, is it safe to use this equipment after the expiration date? I tried to research, but I couldn’t get a proper answer. Kindly help me with this. And I’m not diabetic, I just thought I’d check my diabetes level.
[email protected] D’Mine answers: Safe? You betcha. Accurate? Hell, no. Test strips can be stretched a bit and still work OK, but almost a year is too much of a stretch. The results you’d get from test strips that far out of date will be wrong. They might be artificially high or artificially low. Either way, you won’t get the information you need.
The best way to “check your diabetes level” is to get screened for diabetes at your doctor’s office or county health office. And that’s Continue reading

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GST impact: Medicines for diabetes, cancer to get cheaper under new tax system

Ahead of the GST rollout on July 1, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) on Tuesday announced provisional ceiling prices of 761 medicines which includes a list of antibiotics and drugs for treating cancer, HIV, diabetes. "To facilitate smooth implementation of GST for companies, we have worked out the provisional ceiling prices of 761 formulations," said NPPA chairman Bhupendra Singh.
NPPA has asked pharmaceutical firms to go through the list and inform it by June 29 if any correction has to be made.
However, the drug price regulator said, the prices will be notified after GST comes into effect. The actual price change after the rollout of the new indirect tax regime is expected to be in the range of 2-3 per cent, depending on the states, NPPA said. Ceiling price of various anti-cancer drugs like Bortezomib, Docetaxel and Gemcitabine have been reduced in the provisional list.
The cap for Bortezomib has been fixed at Rs 11,160.08 per pack, down from Rs 11,636.60. The ceiling price for a pack of Docetaxel has been fixed at Rs 10,326.94 from Rs 10,767.88 at present.
Similarly, Gemcitabine price will come down to Rs 4,813.94 per pack from Rs 5,019.49. Also, breast cancer treatment medicine Trastuzumab injection pack has been fixed at Rs 54,582.25 after July 1, down from Rs 56,912.83 earlier.
Ceiling price of HIV combination drug of Tenofovir (300mg), Lamivudine (300mg) and Efavirenz (600mg) has been fixed at Rs 89.69 per tablet, down from Rs 93.52 per tablet earlier.
The price of a tablet of HIV treatment drug Darunavir has been fixed at Rs 151.4, down from Rs 1 Continue reading

Five rupee herbal pill to treat diabetes

Hyderabad: An anti-diabetes herbal drug that costs Rs.5 per pill, developed by two Lucknow-based Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratories, has been launched in parts of north India.
The drug, branded BGR-34, is a combination of natural extracts derived from four plant species mentioned in ancient Ayurveda texts. The drug available in the form of a 500 milligram (mg) pill is a twice-a-day treatment for patients suffering from type-2 diabetes.
The drug was jointly developed by two CSIR laboratories, the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) and Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), and was licensed to Delhi-based Aimil Pharamaceuticals Pvt. Ltd for commercialization.
Aimil will pay royalty on the drug’s sales to CSIR.
BGR-34 was approved by AYUSH—the ministry that deals with traditional Indian medicine—after testing on 1,000 patients over a period of 18 months across five states—Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Karnataka—with 67% patients showing normal blood sugar levels within 3-4 days of drug usage.
The drug, to be taken as an add-on or adjuvant to existing diabetes treatment, helps in maintaining normal blood glucose levels, in addition to improving the immune system, releasing antioxidants and checking free radicals.
“The modern diabetic drugs are known for side-effects and toxicity while BGR-34 works by controlling blood sugar and limiting the harmful effects of other drugs,” said A.K.S. Rawat, senior principal scientist at NBRI, in a telephone interview from Lucknow.
To be sure, BGR-34 isn Continue reading

Are Beets Good for Diabetes?

Use of the word "superfood" has grown in recent years. Many a vegetable has been given this title, often despite little evidence for the health benefits claimed for such foods.
Could the humble beet qualify as a superfood? If the potential health benefits identified in a number of studies are confirmed in further research, the answer could be yes.
Contents of this article:
What are beets?
Beets, also called beetroot, table beet, garden beet, and red beet, are one of several varieties of Beta vulgaris. Beets are grown for their edible root and leaves. Other cultivated varieties include the sugar beet, which has white flesh, and a leafy vegetable called chard.
Beets are most often deep red in color. It is possible to obtain golden, white, and stripy red and white versions of the vegetable, however.
They have been cultivated since the beginning of recorded history and were often used for medicinal purposes as well as for food. Medicinal uses included treating fevers, constipation, and skin complaints. The vegetable was also commonly used by the Romans as an aphrodisiac.
Are beets good for people with diabetes?
Lowering blood pressure
Research has suggested that eating beets, or drinking beet juice, may benefit people with high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a common condition among people with diabetes, and particularly those with type 2 diabetes.
The blood pressure-lowering effect is thought to be caused by the presence of nitrates in beet juice. These nitrates improve the ability of blood vessels to widen, improving blood flow.
In a recent study published in the jour Continue reading

Girl With Diabetes and Insulin Allergy to Receive Pancreas Transplant

A 12-year old South Carolina girl with Type 1 diabetes and what her parents describe as an intense allergy to insulin therapy is set to undergo a rarely performed whole pancreas transplant at the University of Minnesota.
Jack and Tiffanie Reeves, parents of Emmy, say they will take her on a cross country trip to diabetes camp in California, including a stop at Universal Studios in Orlando to “build memories,” and then move her temporarily to Minnesota with her mother as they wait for a pancreas to become available.
The surgeon who will perform the transplant, Dr. Raja Kandaswamy, Director of the Pancreas and Intestinal Transplant Program at the University of Minnesota , says Emmy’s transplant will be the first one done at his center in the past 15 to perhaps 20 years. And while Kandaswamy points to Emmy’s situation as unique, he also says he feels that pancreas transplantation is an option too few pediatric endocrinologists consider for patients. “There is not as much enthusiasm as there should be,” Kandaswamy said. “The diabetes community is told [with a transplant] they are just trading off one set of risks for another.”
In some cases, he disagrees. “I think it can be a viable choice,” he said.
Kandaswamy said that in recent years, steroid use in transplant patients has been cut down to near zero, meaning less harsh medications after a transplant. “We are looking at a new era of transplant,” he said. “The nature of it has changed.” He added that when islet cell transplantation is approved for minors, he foresees transplantation becoming more po Continue reading