Insulin Price Spike Leaves Diabetes Patients In Crisis

Insulin price spike leaves diabetes patients in crisis

A massive spike in insulin prices is causing a health crisis for millions of diabetes patients who depend on the lifesaving drug, doctors say.
Now, after years of rapid increases having nothing to do with available supply and not matched elsewhere in the world, those in the U.S. insulin supply chain are blaming one another.
Tens of thousands of medical professionals are engaged in an intricate therapeutic ballet performed to protect the health, limbs and lives of the almost 30 million people in the U.S. suffering from diabetes.
But their efforts have been dramatically complicated by the soaring increase in the cost of insulin. They find themselves balancing the cost of the essential medication and their patients’ ability to pay.
“The manipulation of insulin cost is a medical crisis in Montana and everywhere else in this country,” said Dr. Justen Rudolph, a diabetes specialist at St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings. “My patients having trouble with their insulin availability range from teenagers to a 90-year-old man, and there’s not a day that goes by when I’m not talking to a patient about the cost of their insulin.
“They try to spread out the insulin they have to make do, and that’s not how you can control diabetes,” said Rudolph.
“Precision is needed to ensure the patient is getting the best type of insulin for their specific condition, in the right doses, at the right time to achieve the greatest benefit,” said Dr. Irl Hirsch, professor of medicine in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition at the University of Washington in Seattle.
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Screentime linked to greater diabetes risk among children

Children who are allowed more than three hours of screentime a day are at greater risk of developing diabetes, new research suggests.
The study found that children who were glued to their screens for three or more hours a day scored higher on measures of body fat and had higher levels of resistance to the hormone insulin than their peers who spent an hour or less watching TV, videos or playing computer games.
But the authors cautioned that the research does not show that increased screentime itself results in raised levels of risk factors for the disease.
“Screentime could be capturing something about your behaviours – how much sedentary time you have and how much you break that up [or] what your dietary habits [are], potentially,” said Claire Nightingale, a medical statistician at St George’s, University of London and co-author of the research.
Writing in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, Nightingale and colleagues described how they sought to probe whether for children, as is known for adults, screentime is linked to an increase in risk factors for type 2 diabetes. To do so, they analysed data from the Child Heart and Health Study in England – a survey carried out between 2004 and 2007 of almost 4,500 children, aged between nine and 10, from primary schools in three UK cities: London, Birmingham and Leicester.
Among the questions asked, data was collected on the length of time the children spent watching TV, video games or playing computer games. A host of physical measurements were also taken including measures of the children’s body fat and resis Continue reading

Are you diabetic or could you be pre diabetic – World Diabetes Day 2017

Women are the gatekeepers of household nutrition and lifestyle habits. They have the potential to drive prevention in their household and beyond. – International Diabetes Federation
Diabetes is the fastest growing health issue in Australia today.
1.2 million Australians have been diagnosed.
500,000 are estimated to be undiagnosed type 2 diabetics.
And every 5 minutes another Australian develops type 2 diabetes.
But the truly alarming fact is the number of people who are estimated to be pre–diabetic.
Diabetes Australia believes the pre-diabetic figure to be around 2,000,000 people with some medical institutions around the country reporting levels as high as 30-40% of the local population. These people are at high risk of developing diabetes type 2 if they do not take action.
What Causes Diabetes
When food is digested and enters your bloodstream, insulin moves glucose out of the blood and into cells, where it is broken down to produce energy.
However, if you have diabetes, your body cannot break down glucose into energy. This is because there is either not enough insulin to move the glucose, or the insulin produced does not work properly. Glucose builds up in the blood resulting in high blood glucose levels.
Diabetes types
There are 3 main types of diabetes
Diabetes type 1
Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease where the body’s immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. People with type 1 diabetes cannot produce insulin and require lifelong insulin replacement for survival.
The disease can occur at any age, although it mostly occurs in childre Continue reading

Invokana Linked To Increased Risk Of Leg, Foot & Toe Amputations

Current Invokana patients should watch for pain and tenderness in the feet, legs or toes, while physicians are instructed to screen prospective patients for factors that increase the risk of amputation.
Invokana Amputation Lawsuits
Hundreds of type 2 diabetes patients have already filed Invokana lawsuits against Janssen Pharmaceutical, the drug’s manufacturer and a subsidiary of global giant Johnson & Johnson. Today, more than 850 lawsuits are consolidated in the US District Court of New Jersey, claiming Invokana causes multiple severe complications, including diabetic ketoacidosis and kidney failure. With new medical evidence confirming a link between Invokana and amputations, legal observers believe that hundreds of other type 2 diabetes patients may also be able to file suit.
Increased Risk For Foot & Leg Amputations
New statistical analyses confirm that patients taking Invokana, Invokamet or Invokamet XR are around twice as likely to require leg and foot amputations than patients taking a placebo.
Alarmed by these recent findings, experts at the US Food & Drug Administration have now formally warned patients of Invokana’s newly-identified risk. On May 16, 2017, the FDA issued an urgent safety announcement, citing new data from two major clinical trials that investigated the drug’s potential dangers for eight years.
CANVAS & CANVAS-R
The risk for limb amputations, however, only became conclusive once these trials, known in medical circles as CANVAS and CANVAS-R, were completed in July 2017.
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Diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis - conditions put YOU at greater risk of THIS disease

Cardiovascular disease describes a set of conditions which affect the heart or blood vessels - which includes life-threatening problems such as heart attacks and stroke.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a long-term condition that causes pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints and mainly affects the hands feet and wrists.
The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) - has set out to help people with rheumatoid arthritis to understand why they are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease - and the impact the condition can have on the heart.
Dr Holly John, consultant rheumatologist, said: “The increased risk of CVD for RA sufferers has the same level of severity as those who suffer with type 2 diabetes.
“It’s astonishing how many people with RA don't know that their condition could be detrimental to their heart.”
The NRAS has launched a programme Love Your Heart, developed in partnership with Dr Holly John.
The organisation is making the programme widely available to everyone with this serious autoimmune condition so that they have the opportunity to lower their CVD risk.
Dr John said: “Once aware, it’s very easy to manage risk factors from home with a healthier lifestyle, so Love Your Heart will be able to significantly raise awareness of this and help to address this major co-morbidity which can shorten the lives of those with RA.”
It’s astonishing how many people with rheumatoid arthritis don't know that their condition could be detrimental to their heart
While experts said it is not clear exactly why people with rheumatoid arthritis are at increased risk, Continue reading