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Diabetes Connections | Type 1 Diabetes

The T1D news show you've been waiting for! Long-time broadcaster, blogger and diabetes mom Stacey Simms interviews prominent advocates, authors and speakers. Stacey asks hard questions of healthcare companies and tech developers and brings on "everyday' people living with type 1. Great for parents of T1D kids, adults with type 1 and anyone who loves a person with diabetes.
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Now displaying: November, 2021
Nov 30, 2021

Is the news about diabetes better than many of us believe? A deeper look into some important studies with two leaders in the diabetes community.

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Dr. Bill Polonsky of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute and Dr. Steve Edelman, founder of TCOYD and an endocrinologist who lives with type 1, join Stacey to talk about how to go through the evidence that’s sort of hiding in plain sight.. to live well with diabetes.

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Tell me something good: a young woman’s letter to a major clothing company sparks a change – it’s all about the pockets. Thanks to Athleta for a new product!

This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider.

More about the DCCT Trial

More about the EDIC Trial

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00:00 Show open: what's on this week?

1:15 Stacey welcome: 250 shows! Check out our search page and browse by subject or keyword 

5:00 Interview with Drs. Polonsky & Edelman

48:30 TMSG: new sweatshirt from Athleta inspired by a teen with type 1

52:00 You can still pre-order Stacey's book. Available everywhere in just a few weeks!

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Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners!
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Nov 30, 2021

When you have a national lead on diabetes who really seems to listen to patients and delivers on some big ideas, you get our attention. Dr. Partha Kar is the diabetes co-lead of NHS England. We talk about access, getting more out of your doctor’s visits and what he sees in the future of diabetes tech.

Dr. Kar's announcement (after our interview was taped) that CGM or Flash Glucose Monitoring will be available to all people in England with type 1 diabetes 

This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider.

Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom!

Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group!

Sign up for our newsletter here

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Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners!
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Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go!

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Episode Transcription Below:

 

Stacey Simms  0:00

Diabetes Connections is brought to you by. Dario Health – Manage your blood glucose levels. Increase your possibilities. By Gvoke HypoPen, the first pre-mixed autoinjector for very low blood sugar. And By Dexcom. Take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom

This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.\

This week when you're a national leader on diabetes, and you really seem to listen to patients and you deliver on some big ideas, you get our attention. Dr. Partha Kar says it shouldn't be that unusual.

 

Partha Kar  0:39

And I also feel that clinicians sometimes believe that people living with type 1 diabetes won't be able to handle the truth, so to speak, oh, you can't tell them when you can. They're all adults are surrounded by adults, and they deal with tough calls in their lives all the time. You know,

 

Stacey Simms  0:57

Dr. Kar is the diabetes co-lead of NHS England. Yes, this is a US centric show. But I've followed him on social media for a long time. And I've loved what he has to say. We'll talk about access, getting more out of your doctor's visits, and what he sees in the future of diabetes tech.

This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider.

Welcome to another week of the show, I am your host, Stacey Sims, and we aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. If you're part of our mostly American audience, I hope you had a really good Thanksgiving, I hope the travel was safe. If you had to go anywhere, I hope the food was great. And I hope the family was okay to really hope you had a great holiday. If you're part of our international audience, which is still pretty big, I would expect it to be bigger this week, just because of who we're talking to. And that is Dr. Partha Kar, national specialty advisor for diabetes with NHS England. And this is one of those times where I just was interested to see what somebody had to say, as I mentioned in that the opening teaser, I followed him online for quite a while. And I thought you might be interested as well. And boy, when I put it in the Facebook group, you all were thrilled. So I hope you enjoy the interview. He didn't have a ton of time to talk to me. But that is to be expected. But I'm really happy with the questions I was able to ask. And you know, just the fact that he was able to share some information with us, even though his his health system is is markedly different than ours here in the States.

Before we jump in, I do want to take a moment this is a little self promoting. But gosh, guys, I got such exciting news recently. And that is that I won this huge book price. Yes, I know the book came out a while ago, but I won best new non fiction in the American Book fest. This was of course for the world's worst diabetes mom real life stories of raising a child with type 1 diabetes. And it kind of took me didn't kind of it really took me by surprise. I had entered it earlier this year, I had forgotten about it. When we got the email, my publisher kind of emailed me quickly and said, you know, being a finalist is really nice. And then she said no, no, wait a minute, you. That was kind of my reaction to it was laughing. But I won. So I know you're asking, Okay, the world's worst diabetes mom came out in 2019. How did we win an award in 2021. The book fest the American Book, festival boards are kind of rolling. So you're eligible for almost three years. So this year's books were from certain dates in 2120 20 in 2019. This was our first time entering the book, and it was actually our last chance to enter. So boy, I'm so excited. I'm really proud of the book. And I have some news coming in December. I have some more book news that was already planned before this award. But thank you for letting me indulgent, do a little patting myself on the back. It was not easy to write and get it out and do everything we needed to do for it. And boy, you all have been so supportive, considering I haven't been able to do any kind of book tour at all right? I mean, it came out at the end of 2019. I think I went to two or three places. And that was it. And just like everybody else in 2020. It hasn't been the same since I'm hardly alone in that.

So more book news coming up, and Dr. Partha Kar in just a moment I should probably tell you just a little bit more about him if you're not familiar. He has been a consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology on the national level there in the UK since 2008, clinical director of diabetes from 2009 to 2015. And here's the full title national specialty advisor diabetes with NHS England. And there are so many things that he's been involved with, most recently, very prominently getting the FreeStyle Libre being available across the country over there and I will talk about that specifically. Being very involved in language matters. Getting CGM available to all t one D pregnant patients. And he hinted this week that a big announcement was coming. So I will link that up in the show notes so you can find out we talked The week before Thanksgiving here in the States, so timing wise full bit tricky, but he was announcing something big and I will include that to the best of my ability.

Okay, Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Gvoke Hypopen. Almost everyone who takes insulin has experienced a low blood sugar – and that can be scary.  A very low blood sugar is really scary. And that’s where Gvoke HypoPen comes in. Gvoke is the first autoinjector to treat very low blood sugar.  Gvoke HypoPen is premixed and ready to go, with no visible needle. That means it’s easy to use. How easy is it? You pull off the red cap and push the yellow end onto bare skin – and hold it for 5 seconds. That’s it. Find out more – go to diabetes dash connections dot com and click on the Gvoke logo. Gvoke shouldn’t be used in patients with pheochromocytoma or insulinoma – visit gvoke glucagon dot com slash risk.

Partha Kar Welcome to Diabetes Connections. Thanks so much for making some time for me and my listeners. Absolute pleasure. Thank

 

Partha Kar  5:55

you for asking.

 

Stacey Simms  5:56

I gotta tell you, I'm a little nervous. I'm a huge fan. I'm just following you on social media. And then I put into my Facebook group like I always do. You know, do you have any questions for this guest? We've got a part of the car coming up. I have very few questions from the group. But I have lots of oh my gosh, I love him. Tell him we love him. Tell him. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll tell you specifically why they're thanking you in a moment. But you do have a quite a big fan club over here. So going in, I guess I'm trying to butter you up. But going in, you should know that.

 

Partha Kar  6:24

No, it's very quiet, very kind. I always see this, you know, at the end of the day, it's my job to do as well. But you know, the love and blessings you get is just makes it stronger. So yeah, no, absolutely. Thank you.

 

Stacey Simms  6:35

You're welcome. Let me just start off by asking you, you do not live with diabetes? How did you get into the position that you were in today? Why this field for you. So I think

 

Partha Kar  6:43

a lot of it was, you know, when we are when we are training, you pick your subjects as you go along. And then I sort of gravitated towards Diabetes and Endocrinology because I thought there was an opportunity here to talk to a lot of people, you know, be a part of their journey throughout life. So it was quite good. And I like talking, and then sort of more towards type one, because I think I get got to realize the more senior I got a lot of attention, quite understandably, was into type two diabetes. And that's, you know, the bigger volume number, etc. But I think what I found that there's not a lot of things being done for type one as a trade back of that. So it's been more of a, let's see what we can do in the space. Let's try and help people. And I think just being an advocate, so to speak. So yeah, that's probably how it's graduated over the course of time. One of

 

Stacey Simms  7:31

the things that we've observed, just following your social media here in the US, is the adoption and use of libre for many more people, can you talk a little bit about how that came about?

 

Partha Kar  7:41

So I think Libre, I'm in freestyle Libre first came into the market on 2014 2015. And I think it started to sort of gradually make its way into the UK setting and the sort of people would buy it funded. And I think it sort of started taking off in 2016 2017. And that's when I sort of got into the job. And for me, people are always asking why this particular device, I think it's not the device, I think it's more of a mass device. And I think there'll be more competition coming along. But to me, it's be a very good example of what self management can do. I mean, simply put, if you see more of your numbers and more of your trends, you tend to intervene more and do better. So that's been the device and it's been a battle to try and get it into people's lives as you go along. As you're the system here is slightly different. You have to justify every single thing you do, because you're saying, Well, this is why we're trying to do it. And it's a funny place to be in because you know, you're you're sort of fighting, so to speak against other conditions, that doesn't feel right, either trying to justify why you needed more compared to X or Y. And I think that's the challenge. And then people start looking at well, actually, there isn't a randomized control trial, which showed y or Zed and I can't fund it. And I try and explain to people it's not just about the RCTs, or the randomized control trials all the time. It's not just about doing one see, it's about the quality of life and what it does do so yeah, I think I think that's how it came about. And then driving it through, pick up or take up around the country sort of battling with regions. So yeah, it's it's been a journey in the half, so to speak. Can you

 

Stacey Simms  9:14

get a little bit more specific in terms of how many people now in your system do have access and do use the freestyle?

 

Partha Kar  9:20

Yeah, I mean, I think we got I mean, given round, figure wise, we've got about 200, we got a quarter of a million people with type 1 diabetes, and I think about 53% of them are on it right now across the country, and of all our cards land. Well, I think it should be available, either, you know, Libre or its equivalent should be available to everybody, everybody, very soon.

 

Stacey Simms  9:42

So yeah, I mean, the reason I wanted to ask that is because first of all, it's already such a big number comparatively speaking too much for the rest of the world. Certainly, I've got to imagine you're starting to see better outcomes too. Yeah,

 

Partha Kar  9:53

absolutely. I mean, it's coming through your h1 HB ones is a better I mean, I can tell you from my own clinical practice, people are huge changes. We're seeing it across the country and the data we're collecting and guess what admission levels are down. People feel happier your HP once he's down, it's doing what it says on the tin.

 

Stacey Simms  10:08

What would be the ultimate goal? Is it with that device? Is it then moving on to other CGM? Or do you want to kind of get as many people as possible in this one?

 

Partha Kar  10:15

Oh, no, absolutely. I've always maintained I'm a Libre or freestyle Libre is has been the tip of the spear. I think there was a lot of things there, which was about showing people the what is possible, because before that, in the world of the NHS technology has always been seen as a Okay, well, let's see what we can do. I mean, for example, insulin pumps have been around for so long. We even had nice guidance on it available since 2008. But the pickup rate really low 15% 16%. Really many reasons behind it. And CGM for isn't traditional CGM like Dexcom. Really low again, 4% 5%, or there abouts. But I think this was about showing what could be done if you really pushed on it hard. And I think it's opened up many, many doors. You know, subsequently, because of that, we're looking at competition coming along, we're looking at every single pregnancy with type 1 diabetes not having access to a Dexcom, or Medtronic device, we're doing trials and closed loop, suddenly, it has become a flagship, and due to luck, serendipity or default, it's worked out as one of the projects, which has really, really played out well in the NHS. And so a lot of people are looking at it. And for me, that was always the purpose. It's the tip of the spear. If you can show you could do it with one, there's no reason you can't. And it's definitely not the end goal never has been. I think the end goal would be that every every person with type 1 diabetes, irrespective of the age has the ability to choose whatever technology they so can, whether it's flash, whether it's traditional CGM, whether it's a pump, or whether it's a closed loop, partnership salutely.

 

Stacey Simms  11:44

And I'm just a little bit more about the Libre, I'm curious to obviously the biggest objection many people would have had would have been cost. But inside your organization or external critics, what were their objections thinking going into something like this,

 

Partha Kar  11:57

I think the NHS always is a very traditional setup. And I think they're very good when it comes to drugs to pharmaceutical products. For example, pharmaceutical companies will do massive randomized control trials to show Okay, here is the drop in HBO and see, and thereby you can calculate it. The problem is with technology company, they necessarily haven't done that. If you look at Frisco Librem, the initial studies that came out, they never showed any change in HB one C, primarily because they chose a lot of people's age 20 with the excellent to begin with. And you're sitting there going, Well, that was a mistake, I think, for companies not to take up the trials, because straightaway to a lot of policymakers, you don't have any room to maneuver, because you're banking yourself completely on the ability that will show improvement of hypos and quality of life. Now, the other problem, I suspect has been there nice, which is our governing body, so to speak, who you know, looks at evidence, they're quite slow at coming off the blocks. Sometimes it can be too late in the technology world by the time you assess, you know, right now they're assessing Libre one you are Libre 123 out. So what are you assessing? There's got to be nimble and quick. That's been that was the obstacle people saying that. So I think there were that level of obstacle Well, nice having said so so why should be, there's also a lot of people who fundamentally believed that this was just a gizmo and this was just shiny toy, and we shouldn't give it to people with diabetes, they should or for example, they had to earn it, you know, they have to either have complications to have it, or they should be testing 10 times a day to get it, which I think is pretty silly. Because you know, the whole point of doing this exercise is to target people are finding it difficult to test and find giving it to people to stop them from having complications. But there you go, it's a very traditional set of thinking, which is what has been the challenge trying to break through?

 

Stacey Simms  13:39

Yeah, do we have similar issues in the states where they're doing trials? And you always see like, well, they're a one see went from 7.3 to 6.9. And that's wonderful. But you know, we need to reach the people who's a one sees our 10.5 100%, right, because of either education or access, or whatever it is. I know, I know, you're struggling with that as well. Yeah,

 

Partha Kar  13:58

  1. So, for example, you know, we have learned from that, you know, we, when we collected the real world data with Libre, we showed exactly what he said, the higher the higher your starting age, we want to see the better your outcomes. And you're like, Well, that's obvious. So what we're doing with those with Kevin, so what you're doing with closed loops right now, so we're running a real world trial evaluation throughout the country, it's about 34, five centers around the country, adults and pediatrics doing it. And guess what we see, again, the higher your agency, the better you're a flattening of your agency. So it's not rocket science. And I always am flabbergasted when people doing trials go like, no, let's just pick the people's controller really good. And as you said, but that goes against the whole deprivation thing that we discuss about because we know people who come from very deprived backgrounds will have worse control. So if you really want to tackle deprivation, you need to control that and you need to tackle that. So the thinking needs to be far more refined than what it is at the present moment. And hopefully we're trying to show some ways of doing so.

 

Stacey Simms  14:54

So one of my listeners said, I want you to please let parked the car know how much I appreciate In his posts, she goes on to say, there's not much I appreciate more than medical professionals who treat us like real people and don't talk down to us. Where did you learn your bedside manner your style or what you know what we as as not your patients see on social media because that's one of the things I think that very much resonates with people is that you're you're very plain spoken and you don't talk down to people with diabetes

 

right back to our conversation, but first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario health. And you know, over the years, I find we manage diabetes better when we're thinking less about all the stuff of diabetes tasks. That's why I love partnering with people who take the load off things like ordering supplies, so I can really focus on Benny, the Dario diabetes success plan is all about you, all the strips and lancets you need delivered to your door, one on one coaching. So you can meet your milestones, weekly insights into your trends with suggestions for how to succeed, get the diabetes management plan that works with you. And for you. Dario is published studies demonstrate high impact clinical results, find out more go to my dario.com forward slash diabetes dash connections. Now back to Dr. Kar, talking about how he has developed a good bedside manner and respect for his patients.

 

Partha Kar  16:20

I think it's come with time, if I'm very honest, and most likely, it's not like a suddenly over a bed. And one day I decided to become like this. And I think what I've realized over the course of time is their Medical School doesn't teach us consultations, kills diseases, a lot of stuff, right? It's just teaches us what the book said, which is my Insulet physiology, how it works, doesn't really teach us a lot about interaction with human beings, which is what we did with some things like the language matters and stuff and people found language matters. Interesting. I found that just human sense, you know, common sense, human, it's not that difficult to be nice to people. And we somehow are not we somehow, and I think social media teaches me a lot of stuff. I think my patients teach me a lot. And I don't say that in a glib way, because things like, you know, I will do transitional or young adults clinic. And I remember these words from this young girl who sat there looked at me and said, If he took an exam sometimes, you know, and I want to watch that. And she said that, I don't know. It just feels like I'm going to be asked what I'm doing with judgment, what I'm doing, you know, when I sat down, but like, that's not right, that's wrong. Why are we making people feel like that way? And then we are wondering why they're not coming back to our clinics. So a lot of my consultations were very honest, not about diabetes, with my patients they're very much about could be a football or movies. I mean, yesterday, when just watch the internals and today in clinic, we were talking about one of my patients, and that was the conversation, what did you think about that paid the post credits, what was it, and I think you build a rapport with people, they trust you more, you get along more. So I like to keep it very plain. And I also feel that clinicians sometimes believe that people living with type 1 diabetes won't be able to handle the truth, so to speak. Oh, you can't tell them when you can. They're all adults and or, or in or surrounded by adults, and they deal with tough calls in their lives all the time, you know, how to get a mortgage, you know, how to get your car or dealing with ups and downs, or the Why wouldn't they be able to they live with it. So I've always benefited that by turning around and saying I can't do this for you. It's outside my expertise. And I think finally, I'm also trying with my other role trying to deconstruct the myth, and the and the whole thing that doctors are built around them so that there's some sort of, you know, material human beings here for to burn themselves to the altar, normally not, you know, we trained professionals, like a fireman or a policeman and trying to do my best. And sometimes I'll get it wrong, sometimes I'll get it right. But at least I want to portray across that I'm trying and trying my best. And we'll see where we go from there.

 

Stacey Simms  18:50

You know, it brings up an interesting point, because I consider myself a very strong advocate with my doctors, for myself and for my children. But I still hear you get intimidated, you do very much respect my doctors, any advice for patients who who want to have a difficult conversation with their physician who want to start broaching that, hey, treat me like a partner and may not know how to start?

 

Partha Kar  19:12

Yeah, I mean, I think it's really difficult. It's really difficult to do that. Because I think this is why it's a bit like I always give the example of let's say, sexism. Now. It's not the it's not just the job of women to go and solve sexism, is it. I mean, it's men have got an equal part, you will not understand nuance as a man or a woman goes through, but you know, when it's wrong, and you can turn around and say, Nah, guys don't do that. Right. So I think what I would encourage rather my clinical colleagues to say that, look, it's not tricky to sort of have that feedback and saying your approach may not be the right thing. And I think this younger generation coming through which does that. So my advice to patients who would like to do that would be to, I think doctors feel very challenged as soon as you challenge them. It's an ego thing. Don't forget that we have been taught in medical school that we are the top of the top there is no Nobody better than us, right? When you're told that for five years, seven years, eight years, 10 years of your life that there was nobody better than you, it's very difficult to then sit in a space. And if somebody challenges you to actually take that on board, so there is a bit of that complex that has happened over the course of time. So the way to approach that would be to probably do it from a slightly different angle. And rather than pointing out the mistake and say, What would you say? What do you think if we did this? Do you feel like so I think you try and do that there'll be some people who are open to the idea of saying, I don't agree with that, and you go with it. But I think the biggest advice I can give is find an ally, was also a clinician who will do that for you. So in meetings, when I go to, I always see myself as that sort of advocacy role return rentable. And now I don't agree with that. Because I know I've spoken to a lot of people who want to agree with that. So that is the sort of fine balance to strike, it will change, doctors are changing. And you know, if you've been long enough in the system, the 90s, were different to 1000s were different, and now is different, but doctors are evolving slowly takes a long time to get you got good get rid of you got complex.

 

Stacey Simms  21:02

Another question from one of my listeners who wanted to know, Brexit to will, or already has had an impact on diabetes care or supplies,

 

Partha Kar  21:11

hasn't affected supplies, because we actually knew there was going to be a problem. So we planned and we worked with the industry to make sure we had good suppliers. And there will always be teething trouble as we go along with this. But no, we don't expect, he says Fingers crossed. We have some plans in place in case of anything, but Brexit is one of those political things in life, isn't it? So we just have to ride the storm with it as we go along. So

 

Stacey Simms  21:34

this is an American based podcast, mostly because I'm American, we do have listeners all over the world, which I'm very, very grateful for. But our healthcare systems are so different. I'm curious if you have any advice, or any lessons that you think we could learn from how how you all do it?

 

Partha Kar  21:53

Yeah, I mean, so I think the debate about healthcare becomes incredibly emotive on both sides of the Atlantic. I think that's the problem. So when you turn around, people start saying, so for example, if you challenge the NHS, people go like, well, you don't like the NHS, because you want to make it privatized to you. And you will? Um, no, not really, I'm just saying that there are gaps in the prison system as we fund it, for example, we say it's equal to all well, not really, if you come from a deprived community. Right, now we've got issues with race. So as I've said, if you're a black child, your chance of getting a continuous glucose monitor is half of that of a wide shot. This isn't the NHS which professes to be equal to everybody. It's not right. So the challenge is there, even however, the funding is, I think my advice to in the US setting would be it's so vast and so big. Taking aside the politics, which is so difficult to do, obviously, I think too much attention is focused when it comes to chronic disease on the to the three parts, which I think of type 1 diabetes, I think I see it as self management, peer support, and access to train professionals. That's the three things on which good type 1 diabetes care sets. And the US system is incredibly good about doing number three, too, it makes it more and more expensive, because we don't have any trained professionals. And so you end up having to really top load that bit. If you switched a lot of the attention to one and two, self management with technology of peer support, you probably will have better outcomes, I don't think it's about the make of the system. And it's insurance based or public funded. And that's where the politics comes in. It's about the switching of that mentality where you get peer support and self management as being a main key focus and investment into but the US system, partly the UK as well. But the US system hinges heavily on number three. And that's why you the costs are so out of control. That's my view, at least

 

Stacey Simms  23:38

we've seen it in our own experiences. And people who listen to this podcast know that that peer community matters immensely with camps and communities and meetups. And it's incredible. It makes such a difference. Absolutely. You mentioned language matters. Can you speak a little bit about that for people who aren't familiar? Yeah, I

 

Partha Kar  23:55

mean, I think there's a fair few versions of that. I'm the principal of that was built in Australia in 2012. And again, it's nothing dramatic. It's not I mean, became it basically saying just be nice to people. You know, I think you've got embroiled in this whole debate for a bit of time. Because it was done in the States. There was papers out of him that we picked up in the UK, different countries have done it and people get stuck up in the Oh, is it is it about calling somebody a diabetic or a person with diabetes, it's not lots of people don't mind being called diabetic, some people do mind being called diabetic, that's not about that what the document is about. The document is very, very simply about trying to be less judgmental about people whose lives you don't leave. Right? If you're saying to somebody, or you know, I'm not sure you're you should be doing that in the morning, when you don't know what like the lead. You don't know that they're having to, you know, rush to drop off their kid to school and do this and do that. It's not easy to then go you should have a very structured breakfast and take your insulin on time. Well, that's fine for you to say, but that for that individual. They might have two kids to drop off and then go to work while trying to make sure you know their husbands had their work. It's It's not easy. So I think that's what it's about don't don't try and judge others whose lives you don't leave lid. So that that was pretty much it.

 

Stacey Simms  25:08

I think that the libre goal that you have I know you're not done with and you wouldn't call it a an ultimate success yet has been tremendous. What is next? Is it trying to get more pumps covered? Is it trying to get more equality as you've already mentioned, racial and economic lines,

 

Partha Kar  25:23

closed loops, I think I think is, is the is the next target, I think more more access to closed loops, more access to all the types of different loops that are available, and you touched upon it, irrespective of your deprivation, ethnicity, that's going to be huge for because going ahead, I want more people to have access to technology, because I think technology is an enabler sort of ticks, that box of self management, it also encourages more peer support. So if we did that, together well, and did more standardized training for healthcare professionals that I think that's the sort of ultimate goal. But I think closed loops are going to be the thing I suspect the focus and target on as we go ahead.

 

Stacey Simms  26:01

Fabulous. And I'll let you go. I know you got to run. But we are speaking during Diabetes Awareness Month, and you put out a video very plain spoken as you do, saying, basically, be nice. Don't judge, don't be an idiot. And you have a two minute long video explaining this. What was the reaction? I mean, it's a very plain statement, but at the same time, it's quite blunt. Yeah, I

 

Partha Kar  26:21

mean, I think I see the debates between and it's so silly, some of the stuff that goes on, on social media and wider and I can understand people do it because they have a book to sell, or a podcast or blog or whatever they want to do, or Twitter likes, but the simplistic narratives and never helped people, you know, we could we could turn around and say, Well, if you eat too many cakes, you will have type two diabetes, there is not a single evidence base that will support that statement. Yes, people say that right? You know, and I think that's the problem. And then that rolls into how did your child have diabetes? You give them too many cakes, and you sitting there going like what how uneducated Are you didn't come up with a statement like that. And it's so frustrating to see that. So I think the reaction has been good. I mean, I've always been known for my and I genuinely think when people don't know something, I'm very happy to explain it to them in today's day and age. If people say that, Oh, I didn't know that type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder has got nothing to do with your diet or your lifestyle, then I'm sorry, you were just uneducated. And that's my bottom line to that. So you haven't even made the simple effort to open Google. So things like that. And I think that was the that was the idea of that is Diabetes Awareness Month. Just be aware of different types. Be nice to people don't judge others and you know, at least at least do some research and you've got Google on your smartphone. So simple.

 

Stacey Simms  27:41

Okay, last question. You mentioned the eternal is no spoilers. I haven't seen it. But I know you're a big Marvel fan. How was the movie?

 

Partha Kar  27:47

Oh, it's good. I really enjoyed it. It's as a standalone, it works really well. And my only big tip also is mistake for the after credits. Very good, especially the last one. Very, very good. All right.

 

Stacey Simms  27:58

Well, thank you so much for spending so much time with me. I really appreciate you being here. Thanks very much.

Partha Kar

Pleasure.

 

You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.

More information at diabetes connections.com. Of course, there's always a transcript as well. I will link up how to follow Dr. Kar on social media, I highly recommend his Twitter feeds. And he is just very informative, very straightforward. And he's always willing to admit when he makes a mistake or something funny happens. I mean, he's just let's face it. He's just a human being online, which is why I think so many of us respond to him so well, that I liked a lot of the advice he gave there for us to take to our doctors, we really have to be straightforward with them. So many times they don't even realize what they're doing or how they're talking to us. Sometimes they do and they're they're just jerks. But most of the time, I think they want to have a good relationship with us. At least that has been my experience. There's only been one doctor, in my my experience. I'm not talking about Benny, because we've been very lucky with him. There's only been one doctor that I have fired. And I fired him from my hospital room because oh my gosh, was he talking down to me? So don't be afraid to do it. Alright,

Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. And we were watching TV the other night. My husband and I are really into the expanse now, which is a sci fi show that's been out for a while. We are totally binging it, we're going through every season. So we're watching that. And the Dexcom went off the alert on my phone and Benny was upstairs in his room. And you know, for some reason, it took me back to the days when we basically had blood sugar checks on a timer. If you're of a certain age you remember this we would check doing a finger stick the same time every day at home and at school and whenever extra we needed to. It's really amazing to think about how much our diabetes management has changed with share and follow. I didn't stop the movie to check on him. I knew what was going on. I mean, I could decide whether to text him or go up and help out for this instance. I did absolutely nothing because I didn't need to using the share and follow apps have really helped us talk less about diabetes. which I never thought would happen with a teenager. Trust me Benny loves that part too. That's what's so great about the Dexcom system. I think for the caregiver or the spouse or the friend, you can help the person with diabetes manage in the way that works for your individual situation. Internet connectivity is required to access Dexcom follow separate follow app is required. learn more, go to diabetes connections.com, click on the Dexcom logo.

If you're listening as this episode goes live, Happy Hanukkah, we will be marking night three as you're listening again, if you're listening when the episode first airs, and Paul hits early this year, that my daughter's already packing school, but that's how it goes. I hope your life because they're yummy and your Hanukkah guilt is delicious. And you're not stressing out too much about diabetes, and you're able to enjoy what the holiday has to offer. Looking ahead. I mean, what am I going to say? Here? We are December. Oh my goodness. So we've got some great shows coming up. We've got a conversation next week with the folks at convatec. They make all of the insets except for Omni pod. But if you use a Tandem Medtronic, yep, so mid, those pumps, they make your insets. So we had a really good conversation about how to make those better, some good information for the community from them. And I'm hoping that'll be an ongoing conversation. And we have a lot of good stuff in the works for the rest of this year.

Going into January, does he I would ask is if you have listened to this far and you are not signed up for our newsletter, please make sure to do that I send out an email every week along with the show. And quite often there is more information in there than just a week's episode. We do surveys, we do research opportunities that I get from companies. There's a lot of info in that. And as we move forward next year, and I'm branching off into other projects, I'm gonna be using that newsletter to communicate more and more about things, not just the podcasts that I think are of your interest, but I don't spam you or anything dumb like that. So go ahead, you go to diabetes connections.com a little pop up will come up. If you don't see it, just scroll down. There's a little newsletter thingy that'll help you sign up there.

Thank you to my editor John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. Thank you so much for listening. We are back on track for our newscast this week. So I will see you back here Wednesday on Facebook or YouTube Live for in the news. And then on Friday, we turn that into an audio, podcast whatever works better for you. Feel free to join me in whatever way is the best. I'm Stacey Simms Until then be kind to yourself.

 

Benny  32:24

Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged

Nov 23, 2021

It’s time for one of our favorite episodes of the year! Wait Wait! Don’t Poke Me, the diabetes game show! Taped this time around for the Children with Diabetes Friends for Life fall conference.

If you’re familiar with NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, a lot of this will sound familiar, just with a diabetes twist! Our panelists tackle trivia, limericks and we try to "bluff the listener" with tales of diabetes in the wild. Can you guess which Olympian with T1D really had a wildlife encounter?

Big thanks to our panelists: Nia Grant, Kyle Banks and Matt Point. They all have a connection for FFL and took time out of their busy schedules to goof off with me. There is a video version of this show over on our YouTube channel if you prefer to play along over there.

Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom!

Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group!

Sign up for our newsletter here

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Episode transcription coming soon

Nov 19, 2021
It's In the News... the only Diabetes newscast! This week learn about: The DIY #WeAreNotWaiting movement gets a medical write up in the Lancet, a big move for #T1D stem cell therapy and identifying the cause behind a common #T2D condition. We also look at coffee & gestational diabetes and find out why the molecular structure of insulin pictured on an Olympic-hopeful's skis
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Join Stacey LIVE every Wednesday at 4:30pm EDT

Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom!

Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group!

Sign up for our newsletter here

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Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners!
-----

Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go!

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Episode transcription below:

Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I’m Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. As always, I’m going to link up my sources in the Facebook comments – where we are live – we are also Live on YouTube and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast..
XX
In the News is brought to you by The World’s Worst Diabetes Mom, Real life stories of raising a child with diabetes. Bit of breaking news here.. we just found out today we won a pretty big deal prize. American Book Fest announced The World’s Worst Diabetes Mom is the winner of their Best New Non-Fiction category! Huge thanks to the judges and to Spark Publications. How about that? You can find the book – it’s my book if that’s not clear - in paperback, on Kindle or as an audio book – all at Amazon.com.
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XX
Our top story.. a stamp of professional approval for the do it yourself #WeAreNotWaiting movement. Over 40 doctors, legal experts, and other healthcare professionals published a consensus statement in The Lancet, one of the most prestigious and respected medical journals.
The authors conclude: “Although we do not suggest that open-source AID systems be universally recommended over commercial options, strong ethical reasons support the use of open-source AID systems, with safety and effectiveness data derived from real-world evidence."
Essentially, they say it’s time for the medical industry to take these methods seriously, and to establish some standards and protocols to help further access and safe use.
https://mashable.com/article/doctors-approve-diy-diabetes-tech-treatments
XX
Stem cell therapy for type 1 moves forward. CRISPR therapeutics and Viactye announce approval for a clinical trial application. We’ve covered this before and talked to ViaCyte on the podcast. They’ve been moving forward with stem cell research and you may know Crispr as a gene editing platform. The idea is that together these companies could find a functional cure for type 1. This is a Phase 1 clinical trial designed to look at safety and efficacy. They expect to start enrolling patients by the end of the year.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crispr-therapeutics-viacyte-inc-start-133000366.html
XX
A new study suggests a lack of a specific molecule in red blood cells may be the root cause of vascular problems in people with type 2. Red blood cells are important for many reasons, one of which is maintaining what’s called cardiovascular equilibrium. This is partly achieved through the production of nitric oxide. This is a problem in people with type 2 and these researchers speculate it’s because they have much less of something called micro-RNA-210 than those without diabetes. Interestingly, blood sugar control through medication appeared to cause no major improvement here – it didn’t affect the red blood cells.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/scientists-identify-new-cause-of-vascular-injury-in-type-2-diabetes
XX
Good news for pregnant coffee lovers: Consuming a low amount of caffeine during pregnancy could help to reduce gestational diabetes. This is one of those confusing health issues that seem to change every year.. right? Drink more coffee, drink less coffee.. this study says if you’re already drinking coffee or any caffeine, about two cups a day is just fine and may reduce your risk of gestational diabetes. If you’re not already a coffee drinker, there’s really no reason to start.
There were no statistically significant differences in blood pressure, preeclampsia, or hypertension between those who did and did not drink caffeine during pregnancy.
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20211111/Low-amount-of-caffeine-intake-during-pregnancy-may-help-reduce-gestational-diabetes-risk.aspx
XX
The government of Japan announced this week that a company there has developed quote - the world's first blood glucose level sensor that requires no blood sampling. The sensor uses cutting-edge laser technology for a much brighter infrared laser, enabling anyone to hold a fingertip over its light for about 5 seconds to easily measure their blood glucose levels. The company is now working on mass production. Not a lot of info here but the website says 2023 is their goal for launch.
http://www.light-tt.co.jp/?lang=en&fbclid=IwAR0h6rlJKXwxEuUDQ8O0_KFYLCg885_pITiVE9xPjgsIXLPCaK9cuJntjSo
XX
Scotland has become the world’s first country to begin routine testing of C-peptide levels in patients with type 1 diabetes. Couple of goals here they say… first to identify people who have retained robust natural insulin production and second.. to see some who might not have type 1 at all.
C-peptide is a substance that is created as a byproduct of natural insulin production.
A preliminary study looked at 850 people with type 1 and found that about 13% had more than what’s thought to be the usual expectation of insulin production. They also found that 5.1% were reclassified to type 2 diabetes and 1.6% were reclassified to monogenic diabetes. Many of those people didn’t need to take insulin any more.
One quick note – I’ve seen this article floating around which says that half of the people in this study did NOT have type one. That’s not the case at all. The only thing I can think is that someone misread the 5.1% reclassified to type 2 and misread it as 51%? But it’s a tiny number. Many more people are misdiagnosed as type 2 when they have LADA or type 1.

https://www.diabetesdaily.com/blog/why-scotland-is-now-testing-the-c-peptide-levels-of-everyone-with-type-1-diabetes-691720/
XX
Finally Something really unique for Diabetes Month. A ski company has created a custom set – with the pattern of the chemical composition of insulin. I’ll show it here and in the FB group for those listening.. Lauren Salko is a cross racer who lives with type 1. Elan Skis worked with her to design the skis and they’re donating all the profits to Children with Diabetes.. It’s the Limited edition Ripstick 94 W ski. Lauren Salko has an eye on next year’s Olympics.. we’ll be watching.
https://elanskis.com/lauren-salko
quick reminder that the podcast this week is all about less stress for the holidays. It’s an ask the D-Moms and guys.. I got an amazing message from a mom who said she quote – cried tears of relief listening to it. I remember how tough it is at first.. but really, we can make great memories and worry less. Let the Dmoms help!
you can listen to wherever you get your podcasts or if you’re listening to this as on a podcast app, just go back an episode.
That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.

Nov 16, 2021

With Thanksgiving almost here and the winter holidays around the corner, we know that diabetes stress is about to ratchet way up. The D-Moms are here to help! Moira McCarthy joins Stacey to talk about everything from holiday travel, long car rides, well meaning relatives and holiday gifts centered on T1D. And of course, FOOD!

Get advice to keep your children with T1D safe and happy so you can make terrific memories without freaking out about "perfect" blood sugars.

Previous D-Mom Holiday advice here

Adults with T1D give their take on the holidays: 

This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider.

Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom!

Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group!

Sign up for our newsletter here

-----

Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners!
-----

Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go!

Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android

Episode Transcription below: 

Stacey Simms  0:00

Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario health. Manage your blood glucose levels increase your possibilities by Gvoke Hypopen the first pre mixed auto injector for very low blood sugar, and by Dexcom, take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom.

 

Announcer  0:20

This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.

 

Stacey Simms  0:26

This week, Thanksgiving is almost here and many holidays just around the corner. Ask the D moms is here to help more McCarthy and I answer your questions and share our own stories to help you make more wonderful memories with less stress, even if that means doing things differently for a special occasion.

 

Moira McCarthy  0:44

And the reality is in this long, long, long, long, long lifetime marathon diabetes, you need to just chill a mile here and there. And by doing this and saying to your children, we're going to turn this off. This is okay. Don't worry about it. You're fine. You're modeling that for them and you're giving them the confidence and the courage to know that they can be okay. Yeah,

 

Stacey Simms  1:06

she said turn this off. She's talking about something I dare to say and do about Benny's CGM. We also talk about long car rides well-meaning relatives and holiday gifts centered on diabetes.

This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider.

Welcome to another week of the show. I'm your host Stacey Simms always so glad to have you here. You know, we aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. And yes, this time of year. I mean, it's the holidays are stressful without diabetes, right. But I'm already seeing in my local group, the stress ratcheting up, somebody said to me the other day that they feel like even though they're not necessarily doing more than they did before the pandemic as more people are venturing out and traveling. They feel like they're really busy. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we haven't been very busy for the last year and a half, really. So there's gonna be more pressure on this holiday season. There's going to be more travel, there's going to be I don't know, it'll feel like higher stakes and especially if you are new to type one, that first year those first holidays, those first milestones are incredibly stressful. So Moira and I are here to help you out you probably already know. But just in case Moira McCarthy is a dear friend of mine. She is the author of many books about raising kids with diabetes, including the amazing raising teens with diabetes, which has that fabulous photo of a teen rolling her eyes right on the cover. I love that cover. You'll hear how long her daughter Lauren has lived with type one. She's a very successful adult now living on her own. And if you are brand new, my son Ben, he was diagnosed almost 15 years ago. He is almost 17, which is really hard to believe so most of my stories have to do with the early years. We're not out of the teens yet, and Moira will help kind of pick it up from there. And I always look to her for guidance as well.

One funny thing about Thanksgiving this year, we have a set menu, right? We have our traditions. My husband is the cook in the family and we've always hosted Thanksgiving. He does something a little different every year, but it's really up to him. But Benny has been working in a grocery store for the past six or seven months now. And he is really jonesing for a sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, which we don't usually do nothing do with diabetes. It's just not our style. We generally save the marshmallows for dessert. But my mom who makes our sweet potato casserole every year has valiantly stepped up and says she will make one for him. Because at the grocery store. He has been seeing the display and he's like Mom, it's just sweet potatoes, brown sugar, sweet potatoes, marshmallows, sweet potatoes, brown sugar, like they have this. And he took a picture that I saw the last time I was there. I mean, it's one whole side of a produce display. So this poor kid, he is really dying for that that marketing worked on him. He wants those marshmallows. My daughter is the canned cranberry sauce person, right. You know you make that beautiful, homemade cranberry sauce with the whole cranberries. Are you you boil it down? No, we have to have it in the can with the jelly lines on it. I prefer that as well. I have to admit. Alright, Moira and I talking about real stuff just a moment.

But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Gvoke Hypopen. Our endo always told us that if you use insulin, you need to have emergency glucagon on hand as well. Low blood sugars are one thing – we’re usually able to treat those with fact acting glucose tabs or juice. But a very low blood sugar can be very frightening – which is why I’m so glad there’s a different option for emergency glucagon. It’s Gvoke Hypopen. Gvoke HypoPen is premixed and ready to go, with no visible needle. You pull off the red cap and push the yellow end onto bare skin – and hold it for 5 seconds. That’s it. Find out more – go to diabetes dash connections dot com and click on the Gvoke logo. Gvoke shouldn’t be used in patients with pheochromocytoma or insulinoma – visit gvoke glucagon dot com slash risk.

 

Moira, welcome back. I am so excited to talk to you What a week. I didn't even think about this when we planned. This is a big week for you and Lauren,

 

Moira McCarthy  5:04

it is yesterday, October 28. At 2:35pm was exactly her 24th diaversary. My daughter has had type 1 diabetes for 24 years. I can't even believe it. It's crazy.

 

Stacey Simms  5:22

But I have to ask you the time had you know the time.

 

Moira McCarthy  5:25

So I don't know why I know the time. We were at a doctor's appointment, and I know what time the appointment was. And I know what happened when I got there. So I don't know. It's just drilled into my head. And then there's people I meet that are like, I can't even tell you what day my kid was diagnosed. But for some reason, it just stuck with me. And as a little kid Lauren, like celebrating every year, so I sent her flowers yesterday. No, I don't care. 24 hours or so give us Do you

 

Stacey Simms  5:51

mind, maybe just a little bit of how she's doing maybe a little update. If this is someone's first time joining us for Deimos.

 

Moira McCarthy  5:57

I'd be happy to so my daughter Lauren was diagnosed. Well, I just said the date. So basically the beginning of kindergarten when she was six years old, right after her sixth birthday. I can remember feeling like the world was gonna end. But we had a really great medical team from the beginning who were saying to us, you are going to live the life you lived before. We're just going to add steps to it. And Lauren at six years old was saying I'm gonna lead you're not gonna, you know, let this hold me down. Now has it been all rainbows and butterflies? Absolutely not. We have had challenging days. We've had challenging weeks, we've had challenging years in her teen years. But right now, I think, well, first of all, what everybody cares about most is her physical health. She is 100% healthy. She has the labs that a person without diabetes would have if you checked, you know, her kidney and her eyes and everything else. Emotionally, she's really doing great. She has a long struggle with burnout. But I think she really has figured out a way to deal with that when she recognizes it coming up. And the most important lab of all I always say is she's incredibly happy. She has an amazing career and lives in the middle of Washington, DC all by herself, and I don't follow her on share. And I never worry about her. She has 8 million friends and I couldn't be prouder of her and the life that she is building as a young adult. So that's where she's at pretty good. Right? Despite diabetes, that's fine.

 

Stacey Simms  7:28

I love hearing that, as you know. And as you listen, you may know, I have followed Moira and Lauren story for many, many, many years since before more and I knew each other. So I always kind of look ahead. It's like my time machine of what could happen with us. Where could he go? And of course, he's never leaving our hometown, going to a scary place far away like DC he's gonna He's going to live here. And

 

Moira McCarthy  7:51

Sunday dinner every week

 

Stacey Simms  7:53

is nice. That's so nice. So I'm glad she's doing so well. Like you're doing so well. And you know, gosh, I heard something recently about diversity that made me smile. Instead of the diversity you're you're on the new level. So Lauren has reached level 24.

 

Moira McCarthy  8:08

I like that. That's really funny. And her boyfriend is a big video gamer so he'll like that.

 

Stacey Simms  8:13

Oh, that's good. Yeah, Benny's approaching level 15. And I am one of those people who I always have to look up the date. I just know it's the first weekend of December, but I never. Yeah. Alright, so we are in that time of year where it's not just our kids diver series. It is holiday time. And after I rewound the Halloween episode that we did a couple of years ago and I got a lot of questions and people asked us to do a follow up for Thanksgiving and looking ahead to the winter holidays. And I got some great questions. So I was wondering more if you wouldn't mind sharing though, you know, the first holiday season that you and Laura and your whole family had to address this you guys want a very different routine? Yeah, we can be a little more difficult but would you mind sharing what that was like that first year?

 

Moira McCarthy  8:59

I will and and I think it's good to hear because it can help people see how far we have come daily care for this disease. We may not have a cure yet, but what it looks like on a day to day basis is completely different. So Lauren was diagnosed in October so Thanksgiving was our first big holiday and I remember we were going to my in laws and back then you took a moderate acting or we called it long acting, but it was really middle acting insulin called NPH that peaked a bunch of times during the day and then you took regular which you had to take it wait 30 minutes and then eat exactly what you had dose for it exactly 30 minutes which was super fun with a six year old child I will tell you and no waiting in between. So I had reached out to my in laws ahead of time and asked them if they could work the meal around the time that it would work best for her to eat and they said yes and I I move some things around with A doctor to kind of compromise with them, you know, so we changed what time we gave everything starting, like two days before to be ready for Thanksgiving. And then we showed up and they were like, oh, yeah, we decided on a different time. Oh my gosh, the world is ending. But the world didn't end. You know, we figured it out. We got through it. What I will say for these holidays, for people who are new to it, it's not always going to feel this scary and confusing and daunting. I think the first 12 months, you go through every holiday, every special event, every family tradition for first time. And then the second year, you're like, Oh, I remember this from last year, and it gets a little better. And then the third year, you're, you're sailing. That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

 

Stacey Simms  10:43

I would absolutely agree with that. I also kind of suffered and I'll say suffered from this feeling out of the box, that it had to be perfect. Because I remember one just show everybody that we were okay. Especially my mom, I wanted her to not worry. And know that we were we were just fine. And for some reason that got tangled up in my brain by thinking this has to go perfectly and I can't make a mistake. And of course that lasted about three

 

Moira McCarthy  11:06

seconds. Yeah, we're really with a toddler with type one, and you want to put together a perfect Thanksgiving. Why don't we do that to ourselves, though, you know, but feelings of control at a time when you feel like you've lost control?

 

Stacey Simms  11:21

Night? Exactly. Alright, so let's get to some of the questions that came in. I got one in my local group. And this was about travel. And the question was, we're driving along distance. And I guess we could talk a little bit about flying or other modes of transportation. But this particular case, we're driving along distance, you know, six or seven hours to a relative's house. Any ideas or tips for helping me and the question here was about stable blood sugars. But I'm also going to kind of throw in there. How do I make this trip? easier on the whole family? Yeah, I'm I have a lot of ideas that maybe you do too.

 

Moira McCarthy  11:56

Well. So I guess my first idea would be for special occasions and events, stable blood sugars aren't the most important thing ever. I don't think there's anything wrong with trying, of course, we want to try but the first thing I'd say is if it doesn't go perfectly, that's perfectly fine. I am quite sure if you ask your medical team to help you with the plan. That is one of the things they will say to you. That's the first thing. So I mean, what did you do on long car rides? For us it I don't remember it impacting her blood sugar that much, you definitely have to have snacks in the car and like more than you ever think you're going to need in your life, because you never know when you're going to get stuck in a traffic jam from a car accident or something like that. You know what it is be prepared, and then you don't need it. We tend as a family, not just for the person with diabetes, but for everyone to try to stop every 60 minutes and get out of the car and stretch and move around and breathe fresh air and then get back in. I think that helps

 

Stacey Simms  12:56

us How about depressive we don't my husband would have fit? No. So in my

 

Moira McCarthy  13:01

father, he would never do that. That's probably why I do it. I grew up driving from Minnesota to Massachusetts and like never being allowed to get out of the car. So

 

Stacey Simms  13:10

I would say for us we actually did struggle a lot with long car rides, because we did a lot of trips, especially to my parents in Florida, which is like a nine or 10 hour road trip. And we found that Benny's blood sugar would go very high. Just you know, an hour or two in the car and looking back, it's probably because toddlers never stopped moving. So his insulin dosage was all based on constant activity. So when he was sitting still, just looking back that's my assumption. Also, as you mentioned, you know everybody's eating in the car

 

Right back to our conversation, but first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario health. And, you know, we first noticed Dario, a couple of years ago, we were at a diabetes conference, and many thought being able to turn your smartphone into a meter. It's pretty amazing. I'm excited to tell you that Dario offers even more now, the Dario diabetes success plan gets you all the supplies and support you need to succeed, you'll get a glucometer that fits in your pocket unlimited test strips and lancets delivered to your door and a mobile app with a complete view of your data. The plan is tailored for you with coaching when and how you need it. And personalized reports based on your activity. Find out more go to my dario.com forward slash diabetes dash connections.

Now back to the D mom's and I'm talking about what we did when we realized Benny's blood sugar would always go pretty high in the car.

What we did was talk to our endocrinologist about adjusting doses giving more insulin when he was in the car, giving more insulin for food when he was in the car. And that was a real trial and error for us because, you know we have to be really conservative about that you're not going to be changing basal rates by enormous amounts and so it may not quote unquote work the first time you do it, but I think you know we're doing Talking about stable blood sugars, I hope that this person means is like maybe kind of sort of in range. You know, when I see somebody talking about stable blood sugars, I usually think like, it's not going to be a steady line at 95, right? We're just trying to keep them from skyrocketing and staying there. And even if that happens, which happened to us a ton, it's fine, and you fix it. When the baby was younger, and the kids were younger, I was much more mindful about healthy eating. You know, they're 19 and 16. And it's like, they buy half their own food. Now anyway, I don't know what they're eating. But we used to get coolers the big cooler, and fill it with, you know, healthy fruits and veggies and hard boiled eggs and carrot sticks. And you know, and then of course, everybody would want to stop for fast food and ruin everything. Right?

 

Moira McCarthy  15:39

So I made the assumption, and perhaps I shouldn't have that by stable, she meant within that range. If this mom is suggesting that her child should have a straight line across my answers quite different. I have no idea going on the assumption that what she means is within their range. And my answer was based on that what I meant was, if you go above your range, or below your range, I think it's okay. I don't think that if you're going to celebrate with a family, the most important thing is, is staying in your blood sugar range, I think the most important thing is enjoying the time and loving your cousin's and running around and having fun and staying within a an area that is safe. And by safe. I mean, you're not you don't need to get in an ambulance, I guess. And maybe my advice would be talk to your medical team, take some ideas that we have on your idea, I think that's a great idea. My only caveat would be the doctors probably going to want you to err on the side of your child being hired. The first time you do this, as you mentioned, you did it after some trial and error, I'm not sure a new parent to diabetes should just, you know dial way up on their kids insulin because they're going to be in the car for nine hours, I think you should take it slowly and go a time or two or three and see what happens. And then make decisions like that after that. But for now talk to your team. They're they're going to say what I said, and they're going to support you and say, Don't worry about going out of range. You know how to do corrections, here's when and here's why to do a correction and then take it from there.

 

Stacey Simms  17:12

And like you said, some kids sit in the car and nothing happens. Right? They don't go super high. That's why can't do

 

Moira McCarthy  17:17

assumption, right. That's why you have to wait and see what happens. One quick

 

Stacey Simms  17:22

thing about the car that I learned the hard way you mentioned about you know, be prepared for traffic be prepared for you know, delays, if you have and we all do I think have a you know a diabetes kit. Make sure it's where you can reach it, especially if your child is very young, right? I mean, there's a lot of kids, they're older, they can have it the backseat with them. I'll never forget packing everything we needed and leaving it in the trunk or like the way back of the minivan. And then we were delayed. And I'm like I need a new inset like says it was leaking, or we'd like crawl through the car.

 

Moira McCarthy  17:54

That's a really good tip. So put it

 

Stacey Simms  17:57

up to the front seat with your pack, even if you just pack a couple of things. And we had so many car adventures. Okay, the next question, I loved this one, because this just I could picture this one I know you can do more. So Deborah said we are in the first year of diagnosis, I just realized I don't know what to do about our Christmas cookie tradition. We make a bunch and give them to relatives we usually eat as we go. Can we still do this with diabetes child is eight and is on multiple daily injections, so no insulin pump yet.

 

Moira McCarthy  18:26

So my answer is eat all the cookies, bake all the cookies, visit all the friends have all the fun, click your fingers if you want to. But then wash your hands, have all the fun and check in with your child's doctor. And what they're going to say is go do all that check at the end of all the fun. If you need a correction, here's what we'd like you to correct. And here's what we'd like you not to correct for they may not want you to correct because sometimes these things involve a little adrenaline high. And again, first times you have to see what's going on. But just have all the fun. Fix it later. If your child gets high during it, it's no big deal. If they get low, you've got cookies. There's an old saying it started with Kelly crewneck, who's a very well known person on the diabetes world on the internet. And she said people with diabetes can't have cookies, dot dot dot with poison in them. Right? The only cookies you can't have.

 

Stacey Simms  19:26

I think that's fantastic. And it took me back listening to that about we know we don't have a Christmas cookie tradition. But we certainly you know, I think most people with little kids love to bake. And it's just such a fun activity to do with them. And in the first couple of weeks with shots, it was so difficult. You know, Binney ran away from us. He didn't want anything to do with it. But after a little while, he didn't really care as long as we didn't make a big deal and make him stop what he was doing. So and we bought after, which I know is like bananas that people admit to bolusing after these days, but I think it's so much less

 

Moira McCarthy  20:00

Streisand gets really super smart, particularly with a small child.

 

Stacey Simms  20:04

And so for something like this, like we would bake, and then I would kind of try to estimate like, what did he licked the spoon? Did he eat the crumbs? You know, when you do a guess? And in my case, I would always get a little less because he was teeny tiny. And then we would eat the cookie, and a couple hours later, we would correct and move on. Now. I don't know, I feel like the fun as you said, the memories of that time, you know, outweighed the quote, unquote, out of range blood sugar, I'm sure his blood sugar went out of range. And he might have been low, because they sometimes they just get really excited. And you know, he might have been high, but he's, they're healthy.

 

Moira McCarthy  20:39

You know what, I think this, this mom, and anyone who's considering these kind of questions over the holidays should think about too, when I look back on Lauren's life, these 24 years with type one included, I don't remember that her blood sugar went higher low. I don't remember what her diabetes did one day, I remember that the cookie swap was fun. And so that's why I think it's important to focus on the fun, within reason with a kid with diabetes, you know,

 

Stacey Simms  21:12

oh, yeah, that's a great way to put it. And I'm realizing as he gets older, I have a lot of those same feelings. I'm so glad it didn't stop us. I'm sure at the time. My heart was pounding, right, especially at first, I'm sure I was worried. I'm sure I was thinking, Am I doing this the right way. But look, you know, you have those fabulous pictures and those great memories. So that's a great way to put it. Alright, so let's talk about well meaning relatives. More Hi, Moira. And Stacy. My aunt thinks she knows everything about diabetes. She has type two and is always lecturing me about not letting my second grader eat, quote, bad foods. Holidays are the worst. I'm sorry to laugh, because she wants us to have sugar free desserts. There's so much going on. In that question.

 

Moira McCarthy  21:59

Bless her heart, right. You know, I mean, what do you do? It would depend on what kind of person she is. And if they have, if they have a relationship that she could, I would call her ahead of time and say, Look, we're working on adjusting Stevie's life, whatever the child is, and, and there's a lot of things he's dealing with right now. So I'm just asking you, if you have anything you want to say about it? Could you say it to me now over the phone before we go, and let's just avoid talking about diabetes other than Hey, how you feeling? I'm really glad you're doing well at the holiday because I don't want him to feel sad when he has all this on his mind. That's a great way to put it. Who knows what she'll do. Right, right.

 

Stacey Simms  22:45

I mean, you have you have well meaning relatives who want to help you have nosy relatives who think they're helping, it all depends on my mother for the first year or two she wants to make she makes one of those sweet potato casseroles, not always with marshmallows, but it's got a ton of sugar in it. And so she made it sugar free. And I didn't really notice but it's not something Vinnie was going to eat much of anyway. Yeah, when he was he was three at his first Thanksgiving with diabetes. But she meant well, but what I found worked over the years, and I still use this, even though he's his own advocate. Now, I really found that saying, Our doctor says, which I made up, but our doctor says helped everything. So I would say to somebody like this. Oh, you know, thank you so much for thinking about my son. I really appreciate it. I gotta tell you things with diabetes have changed so much now. And our doctor says that he can eat these foods and as long as we can dose with insulin, you know, we know what we're doing. He's helping us or our doctor says that Thanksgiving should be a date, like every other day or whatever it is. But people would never listen to me. Listen to what my doctor

 

Moira McCarthy  23:46

says my my words for that was always her medical team. Yeah. sound very official, our medical team is me. But they don't need to know that. The one thing I'll say, though, is it's also okay, if it's not super aggressive, and really out of line. I think it's also okay to teach our children to show some people a little grace. And sometimes and all this even when people are wrong, maybe at the family thanksgiving, or Hanukkah, or whatever party isn't the time to say, Do you know what I mean? Great. And so if someone makes a sugar free thing, and your kid hates sugar free, you say to your kid, please just put a tiny slice of that on your plate and then push a couple pieces around under something. And it'll be fine. They met Well, yeah, you know, yeah, say and then afterwards, you can say hey, he really liked that. But FYI, next time, you don't even need to do that make the same delicious pie, but you don't need to make it sugar free. Right

 

Stacey Simms  24:41

on everything. And that's a good point. Because we're so in our society today, we're so ready to fight. We're so ready to be on the defensive. And so I think that that's a great point just to be able to say we really appreciate it. We know how you meant it, you know, just thanks and then have the discussion later on. Yeah,

 

Moira McCarthy  24:57

but if they're over the top aggressive about about telling your child what they do wrong with their diabetes, then you need to have a conversation ahead of time. That's right.

 

Stacey Simms  25:04

Or you know, even in the moment if this sometimes you see, you know, I made this for these kids who don't have diabetes and look at this wonderful vegetable plate I made for your child like they're having cupcakes, but you could have the carrot that it's okay.

 

Moira McCarthy  25:17

It just jello Jaguars. My daughter was locked up. I always have to bring a tray of jello jugglers This is before acting. And

 

Stacey Simms  25:25

that is so funny. I'm so sorry for sugary jello. jigglers Woohoo. Oh, my gosh. Okay, another question. How do I dose for all of the grazing that goes on during Thanksgiving and holiday gatherings? This is kind of similar to the Christmas cookies, or I would think our answer is going to be but in some homes, right? It's not just one set meal. It's we showed up and we're starting to eat and we don't stop for seven hours. Oh, yeah.

 

Moira McCarthy  25:51

My house isn't that yours?

 

Stacey Simms  25:53

Isn't? No, no, no.

 

Moira McCarthy  25:57

Not every house was like that on a holiday. Seriously, this is interesting. All right, well, I guess I'll answer this first, then talk to your medical team. Ask them about planning different times during the day for check ins. And then just let your child have what they're going to have. And at the check in times that you agree with your doctor, it may be every two hours, it may be every three hours, it may be twice I don't know. They'll they'll help you decide. You see where they're at. You look at what's going on what they're going to be doing next. And then you do a correction of corrections needed. That's it.

 

Stacey Simms  26:31

Go, I'm going to add a layer to that. Yes, please do. For those who are addicted. I don't know anyone like this. I certainly have never been like this anyone who's addicted to their Dexcom. So if you're listening to more thinking, how am I supposed to check every two hours when the Dexcom or wherever three hours, whatever the most no more thinking how am I gonna check at those intervals, when my Dexcom is blaring every five minutes, okay, stay with me, people consider turning your Dexcom high alarm off, and then look at your child's Dexcom High Alert off, and then only looking at it as recommended by your care team. It will take away an enormous amount of stress. Even if your child goes high. And you bolus it's not going to happen right away. You know this, it takes a long time for insulin to work, right. So you're not really doing yourself any favors by checking it every five minutes. I know it's hard. Ask your doctor. But that has helped me more than the years when I was glued to it listening for this a lot.

 

Moira McCarthy  27:34

And you know, I think that's really wonderful advice. Because there's nothing wrong with freeing up the family to enjoy a good time. If it's so important to you that you keep them in a certain range and you want to watch it all day, then go ahead. But I think what you suggested and what you just said you do is such a good model for your child, because as you care for your child, you're modeling how they should care for themselves later. And the reality is in this long, long, long, long, long lifetime marathon diabetes, you need to just chill a mile here and there. And by doing this and saying to your children, we're going to turn this off, this is okay. Don't worry about it, you're fine. You're modeling that for them. And you're giving them the confidence and the courage to know that they can be okay. If they're not doing, you know, 150%. So I love that answer. Stacy, you get a gold star. Yeah,

 

Stacey Simms  28:34

it's funny to think about, but that's actually how we use Dexcom. And how everyone use Dexcom intil. Gosh, I'll probably get the year wrong. But until, let's say 2015 Because Dexcom share did not exist, right? So at school, our child would like many others basically used his Dexcom receiver as a no finger stick monitor. Right. So at the time of day were Benny would normally have done a finger stick, he just looked at the receiver showed it to his teacher. And that was it. We started using it like that. So I think it makes it a little easier if you come home from the hospital, like a lot of families do attuned to every alarm. These things may seem like an astronomical ask, but you really can do it. And I would also add with the grazing, we you know, we were grazing experts, because I had a two year old with type one who was diagnosed. I mean, a few years after Lauren, so you know, was not on that very regimented timing. So Benny could pretty much eat all day, like a normal two year old. I mean, obviously not all day, but you know what I mean? Several times a day, and we just had to give them fast acting. So it makes it it does make it a little more difficult, right? It's not but it's not something you do every single day, either. So I think that you know, you've got to kind of let go a little bit, but it's not harmful and it can make these ladies have these wonderful memories. Alright, and finally, this question, I'm a little stymied by this one. What's the Christmas present for a child with die? beedis

 

Moira McCarthy  30:01

Okay, a good Christmas present for a child with diabetes is what they put on their Christmas list. If you want to give diabetes related gifts for Christmas, that's all good and fine. I knew someone who gave their child quote unquote, their insulin pump for Christmas and like, their heart was in the right place, and the child felt great, but it just made me a little sad. I guess if your child puts insulin pump on their Christmas list, though, that's different. But even then I think I'd say no, Santa doesn't need to bring you medical stuff, we can just get that went whenever you need it. There are toys and animals and things like that. If someone's interested in actually, diabetesMine is having me do a list of them that's going to run in late November, early December. We can link that on this after Oh, that would be great. Like

 

Stacey Simms  30:54

the American Girl doll stuff and road kid kits. Fabulous.

 

Moira McCarthy  30:59

And then I don't mean that there's anything wrong with that stuff. I just think that you should give your child gifts that they want as a child, not as a child with diabetes. Yeah,

 

Stacey Simms  31:09

I think a lot of that depends on how your family celebrates and what gifts you're giving. We are We joked in our family for Hanukkah, when I was growing up, you would get everything from the toy that you really, really wanted to the dictionary that you did not ask for to the socks that you need it right so if your gift giving is like that mixed up, and it's you know, if your family expectation is that kids will get super useful stuff in all the kids not just the kid with diabetes, then I guess I could see it. But I'm with you, I think unless it's something really fun like one of those add on what your list is going to be made up but like, what are those stuffed pancreas like? silly things like that. And yeah, accessories for dolls and fun stuff. It's just like a useful medical thing. I think you've got to be very careful and know, the child like especially a parent to a kid is one thing but if you're like the fun and or you're the family friend thinking this will be a big hit. I just be a little careful. One of the things I saw in another group was you know, there's a newly diagnosed child which they get the family and the most popular response was don't get them anything quote diabetes related, get them fuzzy slippers, and a gift certificate for babysitting or you know a trip to the movies and get them something fun and engaging.

 

Moira McCarthy  32:22

Get them something normal and and pushing back on what you said I still even if my family did that stuff, I still wouldn't give my child like a box of syringes. So core. I like if you're giving your kids toothpaste for Christmas, because that's what you do, then give your kid with diabetes toothpaste for Christmas treats the same way you treat your other kids when it comes to gifts.

 

Stacey Simms  32:42

That's a good point. I think if anybody ever gave Benny any diabetes related gifts, and no one would ever mind my family would have ever done that. But

 

Moira McCarthy  32:49

one time in our family Yankee swap, I used a syringe box, like for the gift and whoever opened it thought it was syringes and we're like, I don't get it. And I'm like, Oh, for goodness sake. It's just a box.

 

Stacey Simms  33:03

Open it up. Is a Yankee swap like a Secret Santa.

 

Moira McCarthy  33:07

Yeah, kind of but you you could take gifts away from like a one white elephant. I don't know. I'm sorry. That's a white Jewish lady. It's like we're from different worlds, Stacy.

 

Stacey Simms  33:21

Oh, you New Englanders.

 

Moira McCarthy  33:24

Bless my heart.

 

Stacey Simms  33:26

We do have one funny story. So on Christmas day in Gosh, I'm looking back already. This was this is eight years ago. So on Christmas Day, we started the Dexcom. The very first time we ever used the G four platinum. Vinnie was nine. Oh no, the g4 Platinum pediatric. So Vinnie was nine years old. And we were sitting around a Christmas day at my mom's house like you do. And we said, let's start the Dexcom. Why don't we will put it on we had been instructed on how to do it. Of course, again, I don't know if I can emphasize this enough. We do not celebrate Christmas. I don't think I would do this. Christmas. So but we put it on and I will never forget because that was you know, Christmas Day. Gosh, so yeah. Merry Christmas kid. That was the big horrible insert or two.

 

Moira McCarthy  34:14

But then it could have Chinese food before the movie, right?

 

Stacey Simms  34:18

Really my house.

 

Moira McCarthy  34:21

I know you.

 

Stacey Simms  34:23

That's great. So normally at the end here, we talk about where we're going in the diabetes community. Of course, you know, there's no diabetes events going on now. And I'm really, really hoping they come back next year. But I mean, I'm doing some virtual events. I'm reaching out, but I cannot wait to be in person again more.

 

Moira McCarthy  34:39

I feel you. I can't believe I was just thinking about this the other day because my Facebook memory was, I guess right before the pandemic I was in Buffalo, New York speaking at a big diabetes event at this time and they were all these pictures and people posting about interesting things they learned and how happy they were going to be and I was like, oh, I want to go back somewhere. I think we're We're gonna see things start bubbling up I do believe friends for life is going on this summer I'm hoping I'll be there I haven't heard yet but um I know that's probably happening and I think JDRF is going to start doing some smaller half day programs in the near future knock on wood so I hope we're in the same place to Stacey that's what I hope not only we get out and speak but you and I are in the same place.

 

Stacey Simms  35:22

Yeah. Oh my god,

 

Moira McCarthy  35:23

it's all about us.

 

Stacey Simms  35:26

Why not? I was kind of pausing because I don't remember when we saw each other live to look that up. At the end of the show.

 

Moira McCarthy  35:33

I think it's been at least two years Stacy that's really weird.

 

Stacey Simms  35:37

It has to be it has to ah, I miss you.

 

Moira McCarthy  35:40

Me too. We talk every day practically. I miss you as a as a human life form.

 

Stacey Simms  35:50

Well, the next time we get together we can we can do a Yankee swap.

 

Moira McCarthy  35:52

Yeah. And and a white elephant, white elephant.

 

Stacey Simms  35:57

Well, if I don't speak to you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, enjoy your family and your adorable grandchildren. And give Lauren my best and tell everybody we said hi. Same here

 

Moira McCarthy  36:07

and make sure those kids yours know that I still think they're awesome.

 

Announcer  36:16

You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.

 

Stacey Simms  36:21

I will link up some information, including to an episode we did with adults with type one and their take on Thanksgiving. I'll put that in the show notes along with the transcription for this episode, you can always go to diabetes connections.com. Every episode starting in January of 2020 has a transcription. And there's lots more information there. I got to tell you more. And I make it sound pretty easy now, right? But those first couple of years, it's so stressful because you're trying to have a nice holiday. You're trying to project confidence, you know, we're doing great. Diabetes won't stop us. And then you're freaking out, you know, what did you eat? Should we pre bolus what's gonna happen now? Am I gonna be up all night? You know, it's, well, you know, who's got the carb count? Is it accurate? Spoiler, the carb count is never accurate. It's never accurate. I hope you know that. We're estimating everything, even packaged foods. Even somebody who weighs in measures, everything is a total guess, on carbohydrates. So just do the best you can. And it's you got to get through that I think you've just got to get through that experience. There is no other teacher like experience and diabetes, you've got to make mistakes, you've got to kind of be upset, you gotta be worried you got to get through it.

But if you let yourself I think as a parent, you really can get to a place where you're like sure marshmallows on sweet potatoes, we can figure that out and go from there. And if you hated my advice to turn the Dexcom off, let me know I would love to hear from you. You can yell at me all you want. Let me know if you try it though. And if it works for you, I don't want to cause more stress. I promise.

Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. And hey, listen, I'm all about using the technology in a way that helps you thrive with diabetes. So when I say turn it off, it's not a knock on Dexcom. It's sharing how we use it to help us make great choices. Live well and be happy. I stand by that you know we have been using the Dexcom system since he was nine years old. We started back in December of 2013. And the system just keeps getting better. The Dexcom G six is FDA permitted for no finger sticks for calibration and diabetes treatment decisions, you can share with up to 10 people from your smart device. The G six has 10 Day sensor where the applicator is so easy. I have not done one insertion since we got it but he does them all himself, which is a huge change from the previous iteration. He's a busy kid, knowing that he can just take a quick glance at his blood glucose to make better treatment decisions is reassuring. Of course we still love the alerts and alarms and that we can set them and turn them off how we want. If your glucose alerts and readings for the G six do not match symptoms or expectations use a blood glucose meter to make diabetes treatment decisions. To learn more, go to diabetes connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo.

A couple of quick housekeeping notes we will have a regular episode next week. Our regular episodes are on Tuesdays. So we will have one for you next week. We will not have an in the news edition of Diabetes Connections. Thanksgiving week though. I will not be doing that live on Wednesday and there will not be an episode Friday the 26th I will say if anything really big happens if we get an FDA approval, you know something like that. I'll probably pop on and give you an update. I you know, I know we're all waiting for something so I can't promise I won't do it. It's not it's like the news person in me I was in you know, I've been doing this since I was 19. So if something breaks, I'm gonna have to jump on. Even if Slade is like, you know, making turkey behind me. We'll figure it out. But right now again this week, the week of the 16th. We will have the regular in the news on Wednesday, which will become an audio only podcast on Friday. The following week. We will have a regular episode, but there will be no in the News episode Thanksgiving week. All right. With that thank you to my editor John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. Thank you so much for listening I’m Stacey Simms I will see you back here for in the news this week until then be kind to yourself Diabetes.

Benny  40:10

Connections is a production of Stacey Simms media All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged

Nov 12, 2021
It's "In the News..." the only diabetes newscast. This week we find out about: SGLT2 inhibitors, more evidence this T2D med works for T1D, Tandem & Insulet earning calls: what you need to know, Which kids with T1D did even better during COVID? How you sleep could increase risk of gestational diabetes, what's going on for Diabetes Awareness Month and lots more! Have 5 minutes? Give it a listen!
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Episode transcription below:
 

Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I’m Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. As always, I’m going to link up my sources in the Facebook comments – where we are live – we are also Live on YouTube and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast..

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In the News is brought to you by The World’s Worst Diabetes Mom, Real life stories of raising a child with diabetes. Available in paperback, on Kindle or as an audio book – all at Amazon.com

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Our top story, evidence that SGLT-2 inhibitors can help kidney and heart health in people with type 1. These are diabetes drugs that are already shown to lower blood sugar levels – they have brand names like Invokana and Jardiance – but they are not approved for T1D in the United States. The problem is that they can lead to DKA even with normal glucose levels. However, they are approved in Europe and many advocates say they can be used safely if people no to monitor closely.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20211107/Study-examines-benefits-of-SGLT2-inhibitors-in-individuals-with-type-1-diabetes.aspx

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Some tidbits in Tandem’s third quarter investment call last week. CEO John Sheridan says they plan to ask the US FDA this year to approve Control IQ down to age 2 – right now it’s only approved to age six. Also asking for expanded labeling for people with type 2. Mobile bolus or bolus by phone still out there waiting for approval – Sheridan says the FDA last asked them any questions in August. He says they have three initiatives for 2022: filing for the Tsport pump, integrating the upcoming Dexcom G7 and moving ahead with their partnership with Abbott’s Libre. Sheridan thinks it’ll be a matter of a few months before Tandem pumps integrate the G7 saying, “When it comes to Dexcom, we've integrated three generations of their sensors already. We're on the fourth. We know how to do this”

I hadn’t heard this, but Sheridan says the Libre had a bit of a hiccup with the FDA approving it as an iCGM, that’s a newer designation… because taking vitamin C can throw the readings off.. but he believes they’ve addressed that. We’ll follow up.

https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/11/03/tandem-diabetes-care-inc-tndm-q3-2021-earnings-cal/

XX

Insulet also had their quarterly call – CEO Shacey Petrovic says she’s still optimistic about Omnipod 5 being approved this year.. she says they’ve had a lot of back and forth with the FDA in the last few months and that’s what makes her more confident. Other tidbits.. Omnipod reports that 80% of their customers were previously on multiple daily injections only .. no prior pump experience. They think when Omnipod 5 comes out there will be more competitive switchers from other pumps. They reiterated that it will be a limited release when approval comes with a gradual rollout in the US.

https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/11/04/insulet-corporation-podd-q3-2021-earnings-call-tra/

XX

Really interesting news about some children in the US with type 1 during the pandemic – they had more time in range and lower A1Cs during the first year of the pandemic compared to the year before.  They also saw their doctors more, even though 90-percents of the visits were virtual. This was a group of kids ages 1-17 all of whom use a CGM. The researchers say they want to take a closer look to try to figure out why this was the case: speculation ranges from more oversight from parents to flexibility in schedules. I can say this definitely happened in my house.. however I’ll also throw in that my son started on his first hybrid closed loop system in Jan 2020 just before the pandemic– Tandem’s CIQ - and that made a huge difference, especially when we were stuck at home and he was eating at 2am. They don’t mention the insulin delivery system here.. just that every kid had a CGM.

https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20211108/metrics-improve-for-us-children-with-type-1-diabetes-using-cgm-in-first-year-of-covid19

XX

Something called sleep-disordered breathing may play a role in gestational diabetes and insulin resistance. There isn’t a lot of research here.. This study looked at women who had risk factors for obstructive sleep apnea, a form of sleep disordered breathing that has been linked with high blood pressure, heart disease, and Alzheimers. The data suggests those with it may enter pregnancy at higher risk for gestational diabetes and recommend more screening. They added further investigation is needed to see if treating the breathing issue in early pregnancy could improve glucose levels.

https://www.contemporaryobgyn.net/view/women-with-sleep-disordered-breathing-linked-to-insulin-resistance-and-gestational-diabetes-risk

XX

Fun story in football this week: Mark Andrews and Blake Ferguson will face each other in the big Thursday night NFL game. Andrews is with the Baltimore Ravens, Ferguson plays for the Miami Dolphins. They both live with type 1.  It’s thought this is the first time two NFL players with T1D have faced each other. They each use Tandem pumps, btw, so expect to see some posts from that company promoting the game.

XX

Big grant for Beyond Type 1’s DKA Awareness Campaign. The Helmsley Charitable Trust is giving them more than $300-thousand dollars for their grassroots messaging movement. This provides posters to schools and communities and sends literature to pediatricians. Almost 50%  patients under the age of 18 in the U.S. are in DKA when diagnosed with Type 1.

https://beyondtype1.org/beyond-type-1-receives-300985-helmsley-charitable-trust-grant-for-dka-awareness-campaign/

XX

Lots of good stuff happening for Diabetes Awareness Month.. Dexcom is partnering with Nick Jonas and Patti LaBelle… they say to help the diabetes community feel seen and heard, while  advocating for improved access to diabetes care. Nick Jonas has been sharing people living with diabetes on Instagram and that’s been really fun to see. Patti LaBelle lives with type 2.  She spoke to Congress earlier this month to talk about better access for people with Type 2 diabetes, especially in communities of color.

XX

Great round up of this kind of stuff – what the big organizations are doing for Diabetes Awareness Month over at Diabetes Mine.. I’ll link that up in the show notes;

https://www.healthline.com/diabetesmine/diabetes-awareness-month-2021#dexcom

XX

quick reminder that the podcast this week is our first ever tech roundtable. Really great discussion with two guys who follow this stuff very closely – Kamil Armacki better known as Nerdabetic and Chris Wilson. We go through everything in front of the USA FDA, some stuff that’s approved in Europe and talk about what’s coming next.

you can listen to wherever you get your podcasts or if you’re listening to this as on a podcast app, just go back an episode. Next week: holiday help – ask the Dmoms is back to help you through what can be a stressful time of year.

That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.

 

Nov 9, 2021

At this point in 2021, we thought there would be several new pieces of diabetes technology on the market. COVID delayed several FDA submissions and approvals so where do we stand? Stacey sits down with Kamil Armacki, AKA Nerdabetic, and Chris Wilson to talk tech. Both Kamil and Chris keep a close eye on everything from filings to clinical trials to investor calls and neither is affiliated with any diabetes company.

There is also video of this if you prefer to watch over on the YouTube channel.

Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom!

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Episode transcription below

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Stacey Simms  0:00

Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario Health. Manage your blood glucose levels increase your possibilities by Gvoke Hypopen the first premixed auto injector for very low blood sugar, and by Dexcom, take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom.

This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.

This week, I wanted to try something a little different as we enter the end of 2021. And look ahead to next year, I thought it would be a good time to sort of take stock of diabetes Technology. Welcome to another week of Diabetes Connections. I'm your host, Stacey Simms. And we aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. And while this community likes to say we are not waiting, frankly, there was a lot of stuff that we are waiting for right now, I asked a couple of friends who really have their finger on the pulse of this stuff to come on and share their thoughts. The only problem we really like to talk. So this is a longer episode than I expected. And frankly, it's not just that we'd like to talk there's just a lot of technology that we are waiting for. So to that end, I'm just going to jump right in, we'll do the quick add that we always do at the top and then we'll get to the panel. There is also video if you prefer to watch our conversation that's over on the YouTube channel. I'll link it up in the show notes but we are not showing any product. So it's really just about whether you prefer audio or video.

Alright, Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario health. And the bottom line is you need a plan of action with diabetes. We've been lucky that Benny’s endocrinologist has helped us with that and that he understands the plan has to change as Benny my son gets older, he wants that kind of support. So take your diabetes management to the next level with Dario health. Their published studies demonstrate high impact results for active users like improved in range percentage within three hypoglycemic events. Try Dario’s diabetes success plan and make a difference in your diabetes management. Go to my dario.com forward slash diabetes dash connections for more proven results and for information about the plan. And as always, this podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider.

All right, welcome. We're trying something new on Diabetes Connections. And that is the first of its kind kind of tech panel. And I am joined in this conversation by Chris Wilson and Kamil Armacki . And these are two guys that I'm gonna let them introduce themselves a little bit, but that I follow for technology news, as well as for some analysis. So thank you both for jumping on with me. You're not industry people. But let me ask you to kind of describe yourselves first, Chris, you are somebody that I always turn to for the insight and information about technology. But this is not what you do for a living?

 

Chris Wilson  3:00

No, not really. I sort of jumped into the online diabetes online community when I reached a point where I had access to insurance and could actually look at diabetes technology because it became affordable. And at that point sort of started jumping into a lot of the groups and online discussions tried to figure out what I was interested in for myself at the time. And then over time, I wound up being asked to join the admin team of a couple of the bigger Facebook groups getting involved on Twitter and other platforms. And so now i is part of that role. I sort of find and analyze listen to the investor calls that the companies do, you know, sort of keep an ear to the ground here what people's sales reps and endos are whispering about to to their patient populations and glean some information from that. I've also been a frequent participant in research, especially in clinical trials. I was in the clinical trial for the G6 that prove that acetaminophen didn't interfere with it. I was in the clinical trial for the Xeris Gvoke. I was in the clinical trial for the Ilet, which is still apparently ongoing. I've got a fair amount of experience for playing with stuff that isn't necessarily out yet. And sort of seeing things from a different perspective than just the end product that people see when they finally get a prescribe from their doctors.

 

Stacey Simms  4:23

That's great and comedic view or better known as Nerdabetic. On social media, many people probably recognize your Omnipod. Those are Omnipod pods lit up right behind you.

 

Kamil Armacki  4:34

That is absolutely right. That is 550 inch LED Omnipods. Most of them this is very DIY. Most of them actually placed with LED lights and painted and we saved them on a temporary wall kind of thing and we glued them off. So we had this is one of the proudest things I've ever done as Nerdabetic I also can't really take credit my dad that 95% I only paid a couple of walls, and I feel like I'm taking all the credit. So massive shout out to him.

 

Stacey Simms  5:07

I love it. I love it. And as Nerdabetic, you are known for interviewing CEOs getting all sorts of tech information out there. And we'll probably mentioned this at least once later on, you do a lot of both, you do some 3D printing, right to see what the items might look like. Yeah, so

 

Kamil Armacki 5:23

I've been running my YouTube channel for I think four years at this point, just when I started university, and I just graduated this summer. So it kind of it was over four years ago. So you just been trying out different things within within that channel. One of them was 3D printing. I'm absolutely fascinated by that technology. I don't own a 3D printer. But I think it is a very interesting way of giving an idea, a bit of a tangible feel to it. So for doing that, and all of those things they mentioned. And most recently, I had the honor of speaking to some pretty pretty important people in the industry to see what's been happening over there as well.

 

Stacey Simms  6:01

Cool. All right. And Kamil is in the UK, obviously, you sound like you're based in the UK, but you are there now, which means some of this discussion will include information from the US FDA, or at least we're gonna speculate about that same thing, European CE mark, but some differentiation of products there. But I just thought it'd be fun to talk to you guys. So all right, we've got it out there. And I'm a diabetes mom, I read stuff, I listen to stuff, I don't think quite as much as Chris, or Kamil, but that's my knowledge base. So just to be clear, nobody who works for the FDA, nobody who works for diabetes company, we are just observing and birth speculating, which I think would be some pretty fun and interesting conversation we'll see. So let's start by talking about what is in front of the FDA right now, because this year, and last year had seen some big delays due to COVID. So we're waiting. I mean, it's been a long time. Let's start with Omnipod 5. And that is, of course, still as we are speaking, I mean, who knows what will happen today or tomorrow, but it is still in front of the FDA. But what's interesting is when they submitted and Phil, I know you talked to their CEO recently I talked to her I believe right before they submitted, it was going to be very different from the other commercial hybrid close loops in that the range was going to be lower. In other words, your blood sugar range, initially, I believe, was supposed to be able to get below 100 As a set point, but now it's 110. And they do have all sorts of really interesting other features. What did Shacey Petrovic, the CEO of Omnipod share with you recently, when you talk to her anything changed, or anything that stood out to you?

 

Kamil Armacki 7:36

Yeah, so I've spoken to her a couple of weeks ago at this point. And the product that they've submitted to the FDA, for my understanding, has a target glucose, which goes as low as 110, and can be customized up to 150 milligrams per deciliter. In terms of the actual product, I think I'm very excited about Omnipod 5, because it will be the first product, the first pump, which actually talks directly to the Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitor. So there'll be no need to carry a physical controller, which obviously, I think makes sense for a product like Omnipod because you know, you wear it on your body. And so it will connect directly in terms of actual updates to submission as of a couple of weeks ago, she said they still expect an A by the end of the year, with a limited release in the US. And during that interview, which was slightly kind of European focused. We talked about many things including Omnipod on the runway during Italy's Fashion Week in Milan. But she also mentioned that they are hoping to bring that technology to their to Europe to the UK, once they get their FDA approval.

 

Stacey Simms  8:48

When you said the first one or the only one do you mean in the UK? Because we've got Dexcom talking to Tandem, at least here in the States.

 

Kamil Armacki 8:55

First one where you don't need so where the pod talks wearable talks throughout behind okay. Yeah, I thought directly to the G 610.

 

Stacey Simms  9:05

Is control IQ approved in the

 

Kamil Armacki 9:06

UK stupid question. Yes, we have. So at the moment, we have control IQ and seven ATG which we will I'm sure mentioned Oh, yeah. Okay. I didn't come EPS actually. So we have three other countries across Europe. They have other systems like dialup as well, France, Germany, but we don't have that one here. Yeah. Hashtag Brexit.

 

Stacey Simms  9:28

I was gonna say show off, but then right. It's not in the UK. Lots of and there's other systems coming to that we may get to, Chris, anything that you have heard over the last year in terms of Omnipod? Five. I mean, I just feel like we're kind of waiting.

 

Chris Wilson  9:40

I mean, just from my view on the outside. I think that insolence estimates of hopefully getting it before the end of the year, probably right. I know that it did qualify as a breakthrough device. So it's supposed to have a faster review at the FDA, but we're still dealing with the COVID backlog with all kinds of stuff. For me, there's things that we probably expected six months ago, there's still pending. And I know there's always rumors circulating that this got approved, but it hasn't been released yet. And so half the time I'm going and checking the FDA database for what approvals were announced in the last week.

 

Kamil Armacki 10:16

Only Chris does this kind of stuff.

 

Stacey Simms  10:20

I did have an interesting question from a listener who was talking about Okay, so as we're taping, Dexcom g7 has not yet been submitted to the US FDA, it has been submitted in Europe. And her her thought was like, Oh, my gosh, if Omnipod has been sitting there all this time, and Dexcom hasn't even submitted, how much longer is it going to take? And my point to her was, it's not as though Omnipod and these other submissions are just sitting in a file cabinet. Right? I mean, they are actively being looked at. You're both nodding. Can you tell me a little bit about what we know I mean, these submissions again, they don't just land on a desk and then one day someone opens them and rubber stamps them.

Back to our conversation in just a moment, but first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Gvoke Hypopen and you know, low blood sugar feels horrible. You can get shaky and sweaty or even feel like you're going to pass out there are a lot of symptoms and they can be different for everyone. I am so glad we have a different option to treat very low blood sugar. Gvoke Hypopen is the first auto injector to treat very low blood sugar. Gvoke Hypopen is pre mixed and ready to go with no visible needle before Gvoke people needed to go through a lot of steps to get glucagon treatments ready to be used. And this made emergency situations even more challenging and stressful. This is so much better. And I'm grateful we have it on hand, find out more go to diabetes connections.com and click on the Gvoke logo. Gvoke shouldn't be used in patients with pheochromocytoma or insulinoma visit Gvoke glucagon.com/risk.

Now back to Chris answering my question about FDA submissions.

 

Kamil Armacki 12:00

Yeah, so for the pandemic, the main reason as to as to why we have a backlog is that regulators that used to regulate that were in charge of regulating medical devices like continuous glucose monitors, hybrid closed loop systems. And this is across actually Europe and US it's very similar, simply because of the pandemic, they were actually responsible for overseeing all of the medical queries related to the pandemic from, you know, vaccines emergency authorizations. So that's what we call when a product is used in a slightly different way to kind of simplify it. And so using a CGM and hospital was a good example of that we seen an emergency authorization of that, so they've kind of, you know, dos thinks took priority. So too, you know, that's where we have a backlog, but now they from my understanding, kind of back on on track, and, you know, four hands on that backlog, working their way through it.

 

Chris Wilson  12:57

There's just only so many people to do the work. And I mean, even when stuffs in development, there's always a lot of back and forth between the company that's developing it and the FDA, what are you going to require us to do, and so then they alter the product design sometimes to make it fit what the FDA wants, and that can even go into is as deep as the training modules. And the other information that gets given to patients when the product is prescribed, they're looking at all of that they're looking at human factors testing are people you know, able to follow the directions and use it the way that it's intended to be used, are they going to do something stupid and mess it up? They're looking at all of that. And then they're going through all of that data on all the different aspects of the devices and needing to decide, okay, is this safe enough to actually be effective? And there are different standards in Europe versus in the US? The FDA has much higher safety thresholds, whereas the European standard is basically does it do what it says it's going to do?

 

Kamil Armacki 13:58

And just to close up Omnipod 5, I think FDA has added it Chrissie would agree this is just my personal opinion. I think FDA has been pretty scared of going to full control. And the biggest today there isn't an insulin pump, which offers, you know, remote bolus capabilities. And that's part of Omnipod 5, you know, that's what they've submitted to them. So, you know, my speculation would be that if actually they didn't submit full control within that first submission, maybe we already you know, maybe it would be here already. You know, it is an area that FDA has been very cautious about. So I guess that's a significant factor contributing to to the to the backlog as well to the delight.

 

Stacey Simms  14:40

Well, and that brings us to our next item that's in front of the FDA. Thank you for setting that up. So Tandem has also submitted in the last year and is waiting for bolus by phone. You know, that's not the official name of it. But I agree with you. I think the FDA is really taking a very, very careful look at that bit of technology. And Tandem, you know, I believe, to your point, Chris, there has been some back and forth. You know, they don't issue press releases. Every time they asked for that, but it is happening, I think, to me, you know, as a mom of a kid who takes his phone everywhere, you know, this is something that I cannot wait for. I mean, bullets by phone just seems like such a basic capability in 2021. But of course, it's a medical device, and it's your phone. Chris, are you hearing anything? Or do you have any opinion on that?

 

Chris Wilson  15:29

I mean, at least as far as Tandem goes, I think there's less of a risk because you still actually have the physical pump that can be used to do something if for some reason, there's a problem with the phone. If you're relying exclusively on the phone, you've got to worry about what happens if it gets lost. What happens if they're dead batteries? What happens if you unlock it and hand it to your kid to play a game and the kid goes into your bolus app and accidentally gives you 15 or 20 units of bolus while they're chatting around? I mean, all of those things need to need to be taken into consideration and mitigated as much as possible.

 

Stacey Simms  16:01

I wonder Kamil, it's interesting to think about Omnipod because they've when I've talked to them, I've always asked like, why can't you put some buttons on the pod. And their point was, and I think this leads to Chris's point from the phone, their point has always been well, it's for safety with the pediatric patients, they don't want the kids touching the pod pressing buttons, this makes perfect sense. I was a parent of two small children, they're gonna touch everything. But it's kind of the flip side now on the phone, right. So it's an interesting look to see what you trade off in a way.

 

Kamil Armacki 16:31

So actually, to that point, in the UK, we do have an insulin pump from rush called accucheck. Solo. And on the high level, it's kind of like a nominal pot, where the pot like device that you put on your body and actually has two buttons on it. So you can actually bolus from the patch itself. And the way they've actually engineered it is that you need to press both buttons at the same time, ensure that you don't kind of you know, lean on the you know, you could very easily lean on a button and just press it, you know, other companies have gone down that route as an Omnipod. To use that I do use a monopod. So I use Dexcom and Omnipod in a DIY setting. And yeah, I love the simplicity of it. So yeah, massive, massive fan.

 

Stacey Simms  17:14

I think it's just all trade offs. Right. I mean, there's no perfect system, I don't think but people want to perfect. Exactly. Right. Exactly. Chris, what do you use? If you don't mind me asking?

 

Chris Wilson  17:25

I am on a Tandem with control IQ, although I don't use it exactly as designed. I've been working with better bullet strategies and playing with the modes that have put that it gets put in be an exercise or sleep that change some of the the targets that it's trying to hit to get it to behave a little bit more like I think it should.

 

Stacey Simms  17:47

So you're using Ctrl Q and Kamil, you're using

 

Kamil Armacki 17:50

loop? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. on any iPhone. Yeah.

 

Stacey Simms  17:53

All right. I don't want to move on from Tandem quite yet. But I want to talk about loop in a moment. So we've got bolus by phone in front of the FDA, which we also think could come approval could come by the end of the year, but Tandem moved their submission for TSport. Right. They were going to submit that in 2021. Chris, they are moving that to 2022. Right.

 

Chris Wilson  18:12

That was the last that I heard. Yes. To me.

 

Stacey Simms  18:16

I see you nodding.

 

Kamil Armacki 18:17

Yeah, I agree that that's what my understanding of the T sport is, I think they had some communication with FDA with the phone control, which obviously plays into T sports as well. Like the point Chris was making, you know, there's no display I don't think on the although, you know, it's a patch, you know, it's kind of moving into that kind of tubeless to pipe bridge mode kind of pump. So yeah, I'm pretty sure they've decided it's pushed back further.

 

Stacey Simms  18:48

And I should have set that up better if you're not familiar with a tee sport is a very tiny version of the T slim it is been to me it looks kind of like a beefed up cartridge and it sticks somehow to your body. There is still a tube and there is still an inset, but it kind of I don't know if it dangles off, or it sticks some I don't know. So they haven't they haven't released that I've asked a bunch of people when Lily a while ago was coming up with its own pump and it was supposed to be inset and sticky. I'm still trying to figure out how it supposed to stick to your body with an inset and they haven't really explained that. So maybe at some point, but clearly you made a 3D version of this yourself right? Didn't you like mock up a Teesport at one point and freak everybody out? Because we thought you had one?

 

Kamil Armacki 19:27

I did. So just on that entire idea in general, there's actually a pump in it's been kind of out here in Europe and has been taken off the market and I think it's coming back at some point called collider which uses a similar idea of where three colors bright colors. Yeah, so So that's kind of it's an interesting concept because you have an infusion set and like a sticky dye upon your body. And I think it that's what Tandem has gone off as well. But yeah, I did. It's very interesting how people often will look at especially on YouTube because it's a very visual form, they will look at a picture without watching the video. And yeah, a lot of people thought I had some insider info on the T spot, which was a very interesting experiment and a lot of comments about that go like, where did you get this? And I'm like, I didn't Freeview print hello, it's 2020.

 

Kamil Armacki 20:19

Be careful, be careful, hey,

 

Chris Wilson  20:21

I need to take some of the blame, actually, I think for potential delays on the other Teesport, I was involved in some of the Human Factors testing. And based on some of the questions that I got asked afterwards, I think I may have done some things that they weren't expecting it some stupid things or something that was not dissipated. So that may actually be the source of some of the

 

Stacey Simms  20:45

Alright, well, if you can't answer I understand what the heck could you have done? What

 

Chris Wilson  20:52

I think it was, it was just in case of directions weren't necessarily clear. Or I was expecting, you know, think about this, rather than actually do it. I obviously can't go into specifics. But needless to say, I clearly wasn't doing everything that they expected as part of the tasks in the testing. So who knows that may be part of the the reason that things got delayed, but hey, if it prevents somebody else from doing the stupid things that I did, and having a problem later on, then that's actually a good thing. And actually,

 

Kamil Armacki 21:24

I'm so glad that you did, Chris, because so many companies have tried this idea of you know, having a patch and in a short tube. So novo, they went out of business Kaleido also really struggling, we don't really know if they're gonna come back. And Tandem is now trying, they're kind of stab at it. No one has really made this idea work. So

 

Stacey Simms  21:43

yeah, it's a good point. But one thing I do like, again, I don't have diabetes, I don't wear the devices. But the idea I like is that with an inset, you do have a choice of how it connects angled or what the cannula length is, or steel, you know, with Omnipod, or you don't have as many options in terms of how it connects. Now, many people will say to counter that, well, you have many more options of where you can put it, you know, so it really just depends on how you wear it where you're comfortable with. But I think that's why they keep trying cumulus because there's that different kind of inset that people can use. So who knows? But I think that's a really good point.

 

Chris Wilson  22:18

Well, it's a great example of how your diabetes may vary. Yeah, no one solution is going to work for everyone. So that's why it's important that we have these options.

 

Stacey Simms  22:27

Alright, so let's talk about loop. One of the other submissions. This is such a laundry list in front of the FDA is tide pool loop. And that was submitted earlier in 2021. It's been very quiet, but it is it's hanging out there. Anybody here anything? Anybody know anything? Any comments?

 

Chris Wilson  22:45

I really haven't heard anything. I mean, it's so pure speculation. Obviously, this coming from the open source community is going to be subject to a lot probably more scrutiny than if it's coming from an established player. And I was not entirely clear on exactly what the trials for approval looked like. It sounded like some of the DIY data from DIY loot may have actually been used as part of the submission. So I would imagine that that's probably at least one of the things that may be taking a little bit extra time because I'm feeling the FDA is probably going to look a little bit more closely at that than they would if it was coming directly from Insulet. Or someone else.

 

Stacey Simms  23:28

That's a good point and was used I believe, that's what they told me earlier this year was a lot of that open source a lot of that DIY community data was put in so you wonder what then the FDA came back and asked for no, no, what we really need is or no, that is enough. I mean, we'll find out later, but it's very interesting stuff.

 

Kamil Armacki 23:46

And in some ways, it is a perfect storm, because it is using, you know, using that DIY technology, which is just absolutely amazing. I mean, the whole title team has been so tremendous in this project. So it's you know, taking that DIY, but then also the phone control point that we mentioned earlier, where it's an Omnipod. So actually, you know if your battery dies, I'm sure everybody's asking those questions. You know, if your iPhone dies, how is the child going to bolus? I'm sure that those are the questions that you know regulated system has to they need to have that usually answers for that. So I'm sure they face in similar scrutiny on the phone point just like Omnipod 5 does with eventually

 

Stacey Simms  24:26

this just occurred to me and again, I don't use the system so that's probably way to think about it, but these DIY systems that already use the phone can you use your watch to control them to Kamil, I wonder if that's something that's done? Yes.

 

Kamil Armacki 24:39

It's it's just like with Dexcom you still need your phone. So phones like the the house the home of the of the whole system, you can remotely you know, bolus and enter carbohydrates and Al's meals etc. Using your Apple Watch. Bought a phone is still required to actually do all of the calculations the brain behind all of it on Omnipod, five doc, this all happened on the pod both title loop that's all happening on the phone just like with a DIY system. Oh, yeah, that's a really good point. So you really need that to to make this system work. And there are all of those you know, your phone die in, you know, someone's stealing your phone cases that you know, I'm sure FDA is wants answers for

 

Stacey Simms  25:22

it to be clear, because a lot a lot of information there. I think this is a good point Omnipod 5, as you said, controlled by the pod. So you lose your phone, it keeps on trucking, it's going to deliver basil, the loop will continue a tide pool loop and loop DIY, whatever it's called right now is all controlled by the phone. So if your phone dies, the system won't continue.

 

Kamil Armacki 25:40

Well, so by design, it will always deliver background insulin in the way that it's intended. I mean, my phone dies, sometimes you know, it's live, right? I'm a 23 year old. Me because it is difficult to keep it charged in the pub. So you know it does happen. So and those are kind of a real world cases that you know, I'm sure FDA is also asking about. So with the DIY system, and I would assume with Title loop as well. But that is just my speculation. When your phone dies with the DIY system, it automatically goes to the default background rates for you kind of bolus because you need your phone to do that. And I would assume it would be relatively similar of tide pool loop, because I don't think there would be making a separate backup device like Omnipod just doing with Omnipod 5. Okay,

 

Stacey Simms  26:31

thanks. Alright, last item that is in front of the FDA, I think is the Medtronic 780, which is already available in Europe.

 

Right back to our conversation, but first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. And if you're a veteran, the Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitoring system is now available at Veterans Affairs pharmacies in the United States. qualified veterans with type one and type two diabetes may be covered and pick it up your Dexcom supplies at the VA pharmacy may save you a lot of time to connect with your doctor for more information. Dexcom even has a discussion guide you can bring with you I know it can be hard to know what questions to ask, get that guide, find out more about eligibility at dexcom.com/veterans.

Now back to Kamil answering my question about whether the Medtronic 780 is available in Europe?

 

Kamil Armacki 27:34

That's right. Okay. So 780 G has been here for it's been approved last summer. So kind of just as COVID was kind of a couple of months in, and it's been rolled out across various countries in Europe. I think we got it in the UK earlier this year. Well, I think the 770 G's, the newest version that you guys have in the US. So the 700 pumps, they all have Bluetooth built in. So you can have your pump alarms, all of that on your phone, no control. But you can view everything by the 780s, kind of the newest pump in that line, which has a new brain new algorithm. In my view, it is completely different. Because actually, it's not really made by Medtronic. It's made by an Israeli company called Dream met.

 

Stacey Simms  28:23

So that's free. That's right. The algorithm is from Dream Med, I've interviewed them, I forgot to actually

 

Kamil Armacki 28:28

said that in one of my videos, and Medtronic wasn't really happy with me. So

 

Stacey Simms  28:32

I feel like we have it's ours. Now. It's been,

 

Kamil Armacki 28:35

they officially said something like it's built by a dream met with Medtronic engineers. So you know, it is a partnership. And that's apparently true. You know, I have no reason to deny that. So I'm sure they work together on it. But you know, the the foundation of seven ATG is actually completely different. It's not like they took 670 and added a couple of capabilities. You know, it's a great we design I mean, on the outside, it looks the same, but actually the the actual brain inside is completely different. And I guess one of the one of the key things that we mentioned is actually the ability to have your glucose set as low as 100. You know, people have diabetes across Europe, they've they've been really kind of enjoying that. And it has automatic corrections as well. So a lot of people listening to this might not be as techie as we are. So just in simple terms, it kind of matches control IQ, I would kind of say in terms of the feature set, maybe slightly better, because you can reduce your target to 100, which I know a lot of people have been asking about. I don't know if you agree, Chris, without saying it's kind of at the same level as control like you

 

Chris Wilson  29:37

from a tech perspective. Yeah, they both the the key difference or the key feature there is the automated correction boluses, which is what differentiates what they call an advanced hybrid closed loop from just a standard hybrid closed loop, which is what the 670 and 770 were, it's nice to see more high tech options coming to the market from more players. says it gives people more options.

 

Stacey Simms  30:01

That's interesting, though about any kind of criticism for mentioning dream, Ed, because I mean, control IQ was developed by type zero technology, right? Wasn't it like a University of Virginia thing that then Tandem bought? Yeah, well,

 

Chris Wilson  30:14

it got bought by Dexcom Dexcom, bought type zero and then license the tech to Tandem. So

 

Stacey Simms  30:22

interesting times. And we should also mention that all the Medtronic systems use their sensors. This is not yet a mix and match world, I believe the Medtronic sensors, and I keep hearing that they're much better, but still need to be calibrated. So even the latest version No, your shake your head, Kamil tell Oh, that's right. We're waiting for that approval in the US.

 

Kamil Armacki 30:42

Well, so. So guardian for has been approved in three guardians. And so that's the no calibration version. And it's I know, like one person who's using it. So it's not I think they slowly roll in and out. They haven't really started shipping it yet. But it's basically what we all know, as guardian free just with with no calibrations. As far as I'm understanding the accuracy is not improved. It's kind of the same, if not slightly worse, from a margin perspective with Guardian four, compared to Guardian three. And yeah, I think it's in the FDA backlog as well. I'm gonna go ahead and

 

Stacey Simms  31:21

just double check that on my end only because it'll be good to know the actual mark from their studies and things like that. So we'll pop that into the show notes. But I think you're exactly right, because I was just doing the time. It'll be interesting to see what the time shift is, in terms of episodes being released, because we were just doing our game show. Wait, wait, don't poke me for friends for life. And I actually I can't believe I forgot I asked this question about Guardian four. Because the codename for it or at least the in house name for it was Zeus. So we had been talking about Zeus for Medtronic for a long time, no calibrations I know this is the I get in the weeds of the trivia and then I forget what I know. So thanks for correcting me. Alright, and then Alright, let's talk about Dexcom. Because Dexcom g7, as we're taping g7 has not been submitted to the US FDA, but it has been submitted for European approval. Kamil, you had Dexcom CEO on your show, wearing and showing off the device. I was so jealous when I saw that I'm gonna yell at Kevin Sayer. Next time I talked to him. But yeah, tell us what that was like and what you thought of it when you saw it.

 

Kamil Armacki 32:27

You know, I've been the massive Dexcom advocate, I pay for my own decks because I'm not an ambassador, I just genuinely it's been a life changing product for me. And yeah, it's been it's been an honor speaking to him. So you've spoken to him a couple of weeks after they announced that they submitted for the for the European European approval. I mean, it looks tiny, as I'm sure you've seen, if you've seen the video, I'm incredibly excited to see kind of how that one develops, and from literally a couple of days. So they kind of in the investors call, like Chris was saying, I also sometimes tune into those, and they confirmed that the expecting to get that approved in Europe by the end of the year.

 

Stacey Simms  33:07

It's interesting. And Chris, maybe you could speak to this, for people who might not be that familiar, the Dexcom technology, while it is very different from the G6, the speed at which it might get approval, Europe is one thing, right us is another this is not like an insulin pump, we don't expect it at least to take quite as long as insulin pumps are different systems because it's not putting insulin into your body, right? It's just measuring,

 

Chris Wilson  33:28

but it is being used to calculate doses of a high risk medication, which is insulin, there's definitely still some concern as far as how accurate it is. And if it's off it, how off? Is it? Is it going to cause a problem? But I'm really excited with the clinical data that they presented. I think it was at EASD Earlier this year, showing that the g7 the marred the that measure of accuracy that they use is actually now under 8%. With the g7 which I mean we're getting into how much more accurate can we reasonably get just because there's so much variation in human body that I mean, you can take six fingerprints from six different fingers and get six different answers from his standard meter. The fact that we're really dialing in the accuracy is as tight as we can and actually ever since is almost in the same boat with their new Wow, what any product they had. I think two versions I recall, but that's coming as well. And the the 180 day version as long as we're talking CGM. Yeah, there is no absolute answer for anything. This is actually I was in a study last Thursday, where they were seeing how long I could go without insulin. But as part of it, they're they're monitoring it with a y si, which is this reference grade laboratory meter that they actually do a blood draw and they centrifuge it down. And then they measured the glucose level in the plasma without any of the blood cells in it. And that device in the lab was actually not putting out the correct numbers, there was some sort of hiccup, they had to restart it to get it to come up. But my Dexcom was matching, and then they compared it to multiple Ultra accurate fingerstick meters and set to figure out what was going on. But, you know, nothing's perfect. This was, you know, elaborate reference glucometer. That's the most accurate one that you can get. And they don't even make them anymore.

 

Stacey Simms  35:23

I will never forget, when Betty was little like poking the same finger, you said six different fingers, who put the same finger three times in a row because it was confusing or something. And it was always three different numbers. It's crazy.

 

Chris Wilson  35:33

I just think it's important that people keep in mind that you know, nothing is ever going to be perfect. whatever device you're wearing, however, you're measuring your stuff, there's always going to be variation, it's never going to be exactly the same number every time on every device

 

Stacey Simms  35:46

you mentioned ever since that's the CGM that goes under your skin. And then the transmitter goes on top. And Kamil, you are you've got a little bit are you using the libre as well like to test it out? Or did you? What did you show us earlier,

 

Kamil Armacki 36:00

I am trying the free celebrate free, which is like the newest version. It's not available in the UK, I should make it very clear. But someone bought it for me in Germany. And they imported it over to the UK is actually it's actually been a very interesting over here. Because obviously it's it's not available in the UK. So I had to enter freestyling briefly, there was no physical receipt, but you need to get an app. So only use your phone, you can only use your phone, there's no physical reader, there's no physical device, which I don't know how that's going to work with, you know, children going to school and you know, having to carry phones, but anyway, but it's not available in the British App Store. So I had to create a German Apple ID. And everything on my phone is German. So I gem Apple Music, German podcasts, everything is in German, it's still English. But other than that I have been enjoying my German lifestyle over the last I've had it for four days now. So it's been it's been fun.

 

Stacey Simms  37:03

What are the different features like what's I'm not as familiar with the Libre system. So what is new with the three,

 

Kamil Armacki 37:08

it's much smaller, it's much smaller compared to the first two. And on a high level, it works exactly like you would expect a CGM to work like Dexcom web, no scan and it just always shows the value and the glucose your trends alarms ever found on your phone. So they kind of made it work in exactly the same way as at the center of Dexcom. But most importantly for me, they keep them the same price. And I think that's very important for a lot of people have diabetes here in Europe because I mean, Libra has been a giant success in the UK for example, just because actually, because of its price point it is accessible to the National Health Service. So it is you know reimbursed to you know, vast majority pretty much every single person of type one who wants it to get can get it. And libre two is the same price point is libre one and now libre free. In Germany, when they did launch, it's also the same price. So they keeping it the same, which is which is very reassuring

 

Stacey Simms  38:08

process, we'll see what happens in the US. But that is very reassuring for our friends in Europe. I went device I meant to ask about and didn't but I don't think it's been submitted. And that is beta bionics and the iLet. And Chris, you kind of alluded to this much earlier in our talk, because you were I believe in one of those trials,

 

Chris Wilson  38:25

I was at least told that I was patient number one at the trial site that I was at.

 

Stacey Simms  38:33

But we don't think we don't know for sure they have not submitted down or have they?

 

Chris Wilson  38:38

Well, I keep hearing parents and other patients still people diabetes, still saying, you know, I just finished my time in the primary phase of the trial for the eyelids, or now my kid is going into the extension phase, things like that. So if the trial is ongoing, clearly, I don't think they've they've submitted yet. It's definitely more hands off. I won't lie my time and range did go down a little bit when I was on it.

 

Stacey Simms  39:03

But your your time and range we should specify is extremely high.

 

Chris Wilson  39:06

Right? My 90 day average right now is 94% a week going into the current trial, the arm of the trial that I just finished was actually 97.

 

Stacey Simms  39:20

So it's all relative, but otherwise. Yeah. But it's a good point in that, you know, the eyelid is much more hands off, as you mentioned,

 

Chris Wilson  39:32

right? It's you know, no correction boluses there's not even mechanism to do it. All you can really do is tell it when you're eating and give it a rough guesstimate as to the meal size. So I would imagine especially for people who want to be more hands off with their diabetes and have good control because of the control wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, that it'll be a very good option for a lot of people once it does get approved. And this is the Insulet only version. We've still got The version with insulin and glucagon having both a gas and a brake will definitely make it easier to drive the car going forward in the next version. So we're looking forward to, to them starting the trials on that as well.

 

Stacey Simms  40:13

Yeah, it is all relative. I mean, I just think about my son, you know, he misses a couple of meal boluses a week for sure. And I think he would happily trade off control, you know, to just have that kind of stuff be taken care of. It's so interesting to see how I mean, I'm, I'm, I know, we're gonna get somebody questions as Chris gets so much time and range, what is he doing with control IQ? So that'll be another episode tips and tricks from Chris to or maybe the maybe the tips and tricks, Kamil is just spent a lot of your time in diabetes trials? Yeah. I mean, I kidding. I know. That's not it. But

 

Kamil Armacki 40:48

well, you're my time and ranges, but it's knowing me about? Very, very happy with it. I like to say that my time and happiness, though is 98. If not 100%?

 

Kamil Armacki 41:00

Go? And that's what matters. Yeah, right.

 

Stacey Simms  41:04

Absolutely.

 

Chris Wilson  41:05

I mean, that we joke about doable, do a lot of trials. And it helps. But there is definitely some truth to that. I mean, I get to talk to and interact with some of the top endocrinologist in the world, right? Sometimes, you know, on a weekly basis. So I'm going into the clinic to have an injection of something that they're testing out or to check in and let them download the data from the device that I'm testing in half the time we're chatting while they're doing other stuff. And you know, discussing the theories that underlie a lot of this stuff. And it definitely deepens your understanding, if you want to really understand diabetes, more and more like an endocrinologist does that say, it's a great way to gain some experience?

 

Stacey Simms  41:49

Let's talk a little bit. We've talked about what's happening and what we're waiting for. So let's talk a little bit about what we're excited for. And not just the products that we mentioned. But if there's anything else that's on your mind, I'm curious what you guys who live with diabetes, you use these devices, you follow this tech? Chris, what are you looking forward to? And I mean, it could be something that we talked about, or something that's like maybe 10 years from now,

 

Chris Wilson  42:10

I think probably the thing that that's most interesting, I mean, to a certain extent, the tech we even if it's not there yet, we know where it's going. Yeah, where it's sort of the end point is the point is you were a sensor, you were a pump, and it does everything for you, and you don't need to worry about it. But beyond that, I think one of the things that I'm most excited about is seeing the medications that were originally designed for type twos being used in more type ones. Yeah, since most type ones do have some insulin resistance, it's actually you know, a known thing that happens, it's partly just due to the fact that normally, insulin gets made on in the middle and spreads out to the edges, and we're infusing it from the edges and having it go into the middle of the circulation. But things like I know, Stacy, you've mentioned in the past the SDLT, two drugs that help us her pee out the excess sugar from your blood, those have shown really great improvements in kidney health, cardiovascular outcomes, and making those safer for type ones, since it can cause an issue with going into DKA even though your blood sugar's stay relatively normal. That was actually the the test that I was last Thursday was checking a new drug that as an add on to help reduce the chance of that happening if you're a type one on one of these medications, but there's lots of different classes of medications that are coming out things that not only enhance the function of insulin, but potentially block some of the functions of glucagon to help improve things since they've documented that. A lot of type ones the the sort of regulation and counter regulation in insulin, the insulin glucagon axis, I guess, it does happen with a fair amount of frequency in people with type one. So that may be something moving forward. And actually, it's not even necessarily just diabetes. They're testing this medication that they were trying to lay on me as an enhancement for cancer immunotherapy. Wow. In North Carolina, I somebody was asking me about something. And so I went on the clinical trials website, it was digging into what said he's looking at this drug and found a study that they were looking at it to see if it'll enhance the ability of some immunotherapies for breast cancer. So I mean, a lot of this stuff may even have ripple effects outside of diabetes.

 

Stacey Simms  44:33

That's really amazing. All right. That's a great point. I love that. All right. You know, you don't have to go outside of technology. I mean, that is still technology gets medication, but can we what are you looking forward to? Are you looking at down the line? I'm

 

Kamil Armacki 44:46

going to keep this one very, very simple. I'm just looking forward to seeing more access to all of this. I feel like in terms of getting incredible technology. I feel like we could summarize all of this all of today's talking Massive tech, right? We have incredible continuous glucose monitors even better on the market. And even better versions of them are common over the next year or so with g7, libre free etc. Same with pumps, that technology so sadly, isn't really accessible to so many people. And this applies to so many regions, so many countries in the UK, we now have an a trial of 1000 people with diabetes trial in closed loop technology to hopefully have our national proof that it does work is self restraint and actually seeing all of this because, you know, it's like every single country wants their own proof even though you know, there are so many trials from all over the world proven that yes, actually, it does help people. But you know, it is a very bureaucratic process. So I'm just looking forward to actually see in 1000s, if not millions of people have access to CGM. And then if they choose to hypertrophic therapy.

 

Stacey Simms  45:55

That's wonderful. All right. Before I let you go, this last question, it's not really a great follow up to our discussion about access. But this is one that it just honestly, it drives me bananas, and I want to get your opinion on and that is this every other day, I feel like someone is asking me when the Apple Watch is going to monitor blood glucose with non invasively. Right, that I know, right? You're gonna get the watch, it's gonna read your blood glucose and then move on. And I get these questions all the time by people outside the diabetes community, frankly, who read about it or hear about it. What's your take? I mean, I know what's coming. I hope it's coming. I don't want to I feel like I'm the hope killer. I go on these threads. And I'm like, unless you see a clinical trial, right. It's not going to happen. But I feel like it is coming it will be useful to some people sometime, right?

 

Chris Wilson  46:44

I think, absolutely. I think there's a couple of companies that are pretty far along. In the process of actually doing non invasive glucose monitoring. I think you had an episode recently, where you mentioned one where they look at the eye, yeah, within the eye, which is cool. I've heard of a couple of different texts that are technologies that are being introduced, using either heat at low levels infrared, to potentially sense it, or radio signals, believe there's a company in Israel that's working on that as well. Yeah, they're probably not good enough to necessarily dose insulin from yet, but they're getting there and the tech keeps getting smaller and more portable and stuff, I think there's a company in Germany that's got the tabletop scale right now, where you can just basically put a finger into on the sensor and it will give you an estimate of your blood sugar in there hoping to scale that down to being a portable device that will be non invasive, and then eventually a wearable device that will be non invasive. So it's, it's definitely coming, but the stuff takes time, there's so figuring out serve a lot of the ways that the various sensing technologies interact with the body and figuring out exactly how best to estimate your blood sugar from the readings that they get back. So it's coming. I've seen presentations with actually impressive accuracy, especially considering that it's non invasive, but I don't see it any time at least probably not in the next couple of years, but especially integrated into a consumer device like an Apple Watch.

 

Kamil Armacki 48:13

I completely agree with Chris I think especially as someone living with diabetes we tend to look at this from a you know, kind of a medical point of view but if this ever were to happen, it's really a health companion and I think that entire trend have actually seen a lot of what I would consider mainstream technology companies you know, Apple Samsung, you know, those kinds of players becoming more involved in health is a good thing because I think you know, we've heard of so many stories of you know, people using you know, Apple watches and you know being alerted that actually your heart rate is too low or too high and actually you know, if you deploy that kind of capability on you know, a population scale you know, with with millions of people using Apple Watches, it really drives you know, big changes and cold drives colossal impact on you know, general population you know, how we live our lives for if ever does happen I mean, we hear about this all the time and literally this year I think it was six or seven days after Apple Watch Series seven came out there was already a rumor saying the Apple Watch Series eight Yes. Well habit and I saw on Twitter and I just went I just did this emoji six days, six days the longest amount of time we can have without any rumors about Apple Watch.

 

Stacey Simms  49:39

It just shows you how much money is in it

 

Kamil Armacki 49:43

It’s click bait, interesting topic because you know it is the next frontier that you know everyone is trying to tackle. Yeah, so I understand the excitement bore and sometimes I'm probably causing it because I have talked about as well. In my in my printer diabetic days, I I was excited about it. I've been excited about as Nerdabetic, and we can't not be excited.

 

Stacey Simms  50:05

Well, even this episode, someone could clip out what Chris said it's coming.

 

Kamil Armacki 50:09

Yeah. But we do need to be realistic about it that even when it comes in, you know, 1015 years, it probably won't really have any tangible impact on any buyer lives.

 

Chris Wilson  50:21

Maintaining being realistic, that's a very good point. Because it reminds me of the vertex announcement a couple of weeks ago, with the the first patient of their trial, got infusion of stem cell derived Ilet cells, and is, you know, 90% reduction in insulin use. And everybody went nuts over that. And I wound up posting a big, long thread on Twitter explaining that really like this isn't the hard part yet. It's great that they're this far, it's awesome that people are pursuing different avenues, I hope they succeed. But this isn't going to be something that people are going to have in the next couple of years to just go in and get your eyelid infusion. And then you don't need to worry about measuring your blood glucose or worrying your pump or taking injections anymore.

 

Stacey Simms  51:10

I heard a great point on that, which was if they've sent a press release, it's quite different than if they've submitted a for publication in a clinical journal. It was a little bit, I'll say a little meaner than that. I think the quote was something like, you know, if it's a press release, they're looking for money, if it's a journal they're looking for, you know, approval. There's some truth to that, though. And I think that that's a good thing for us to keep in mind as we stay very hopeful is a very hopeful crowd. And as we stay realistic, as well, I think we've run the gamut. There's always so much more to talk about. So I hope you'll come back on when these things maybe we hear more, they start to get approved, or we just talk about different things. But this was great. Thank you both so much for jumping on.

 

Chris Wilson  51:50

It's always fun to talk to you, Stacey.

 

Stacey Simms  51:51

Oh, thank you, thank you. It's always great to get caught up on this stuff and kind of speculate and talk about it. So thanks so much. I appreciate you guys both being here. And we will put lots of links in the show notes and everywhere else we can find them so that people can find you on social and follow your musings and your thoughts, but I really appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon.

 

You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms. Lots of information there. I'm going to link up a couple of articles some things we referenced at diabetes connections.com. At the homepage for this episode, there is a transcription as well as always, what do you think? I mean, I know it was long, and there were a lot of things to get through. But I'd like to do that on a more regular basis, maybe with some different people in the community. Love to hear feedback from you what questions you have, what topics you'd like us to tackle. But man, those guys, really they know the ins and outs of all of this, they really keep their finger on the pulse. So we'll follow up. We'll do more on that. This was taped, as I said the very first week of November 2021. So in a couple of days between now and when the episode comes out, maybe something else was approved. If it happened, we will follow up on it here.

All right, thank you, as always to my editor John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. We've got in the News Live every Wednesday now 4:30pm Eastern Time, on YouTube and on Facebook Live on both channels, and then we turn it around into an audio podcast episode that airs Fridays. So I hope to see you back here for that until then be kind to yourself.

Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged

Nov 5, 2021

This week, the top diabetes stories and headlines in the news include: the popular Sugarmate app loses Dexcom connection, interesting study about internal clocks and type 2 diabetes, the FDA approves new "POGO" BG meter, T2D remission might be more common than thought, Type 1 college scholarships and lots more.
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Episode transcription below:

Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android

Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I’m Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. As always, I’m going to link up my sources in the Facebook comments – where we are live – we are also Live on YouTube and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast..
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In the News is brought to you by The World’s Worst Diabetes Mom, Real life stories of raising a child with diabetes. Available in paperback, on Kindle or as an audio book – all at Amazon.com
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Top story this week.. Big issue for a popular app – users of Sugarmate have been told as of this week – November 4th to be precise – customers in the US will lose connection. Those outside the US have seen issues since October. This is because of a change Dexcom made to its servers. Sugarmate says Dexcom is working with them to fix the issue – basically they’re going to join the Dexcom Partner API – we’ve told you about that, it’s how third party apps can talk with Dexcom.. In the meantime, Nightscout is probably the best alternative if you use Sugarmate. Quick note: Tandem acquired Sugarmate last year. And you’ll recall that Dexcom does own a small piece of Tandem. So it looks like this will all probably work out.. but exactly how in the long run will be interesting to watch. --
https://help.sugarmate.io/en/articles/5678010-faqs-sugarmate-and-dexcom-connection?mkt_tok=MzQ4LVJYVi03MDUAAAGAgZ5w-m8YKeY90ybxznIKZ4b4XWStjdvSjf7vH3dNx8PMDzDa9sJP0En6odZtM-Z4UthLL9z7MNV86wnQ4R9o61-islyzvtyvg13By4FB5A&fbclid=IwAR39j2vxjr3JuUbcQdruIAttCSuRl5dD1jVbdNKrm1b5JQpuyYlQiwH1xXs
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A study of “dented” internal clocks seems to build evidence for a theory that people who work late or irregular hours are more at risk for diabetes. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania created a timing mismatch by altering the function of a molecule within the brains of mice.. shortened their circadian rhythms from 24 to 21 hours. These mice gained more weight, had higher blood sugar, and fattier livers. This all corrected when the researchers changed their environment – sleep and meals – to match that shorter, 21 hour day. They say it might be a good idea for shift workers to try to do the same – eating meals and going to bed in a cycle that works better for them.
https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2021/october/a-dented-internal-clock-provides-insight-into-shift-workers-weight-gain-and-diabetes
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New Blood glucose meter gets FDA approval. This is the POGO … with 10-test cartridge technology. The strips and lancers are loaded inside already, so you don’t carry anything separate. You just put your finger down and press the button. They’re calling this automatic blood glucose monitoring or ABGM. On the inside it’s still a basic finger stick and blood collection. But you don’t see any of that on the outside. Of course, there’s a Bluetooth connected app for you and your healthcare team to use. The product is called POGO. the app is Patterns.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pogo-automatic-one-step-blood-113000135.html
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New numbers out for diabetes around the world and the International Diabetes Federation says it’s a pandemic of unprecedented magnitude. The IDF says more than 10-percent of adults worldwide live with diabetes.. by 2045 that number will be one in eight. The report also says that one in two people with diabetes across the world who need insulin cannot access or afford it. The theme of World Diabetes Day this November 14th is Access to Diabetes Care.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/diabetes-is-a-pandemic-of-unprecedented-magnitude-now-affecting-one-in-10-adults-worldwide-reveals-the-international-diabetes-federation-301413238.html
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Good news for people with type 1.. when more intensive glucose management starts early, it greatly reduces the future risk of heart and kidney issues. This info comes from a look back at the DCCT and EDIC trials – which are 100% worth looking into if you aren’t familiar with them. By the way, in these trials “intensive” glucose control was pegged at an A1C of 7 and the riskier group had an A1C of 9 or above. The earlier the A1C was brought down to 7, the less risk of complications.
https://www.endocrinologyadvisor.com/home/topics/diabetes/type-1-diabetes/earlier-intensive-type-1-diabetes-treatment-reduces-long-term-cardiovascular-and-kidney-complications/
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How common is type 2 remission? It’s hard to say but a new study from Scotland suggests it’s more common than we might think. These University of Edinburgh scientists say in Scotland, it’s one in 20. They looked at everyone in the country over the age of 30 with type 2, based on A1C levels -that’s about 160-thousand people. Then they said during the study year, 77-hundred people went into remission, which means their A1Cs dropped to 6.5 without medication. Those people were older, had lost weight since their diagnosis, had no history of glucose lowering therapy or bariatric surgery, and generally had healthier blood readings at the time of their diagnosis.
https://www.sciencealert.com/reversing-type-2-diabetes-seems-to-be-more-common-than-scientists-realized
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College scholarship contest to tell you about. Senita (sen-EE-tuh) Athletics is partnering with Insulet to award four $5,000 scholarships to people with type 1 diabetes. In honor of National Diabetes Awareness Month, the athletic fashion wear maker is looking for 'Senita Scholars.” The co-founders have a younger brother with type 1 and their fitness gear is known for really good pockets.
To be eligible, students across the U.S. must be either a graduating senior in high school or a current undergraduate and have type 1 diabetes. Applications close on Nov. 30.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/senita-athletics-partners-insulet-corporation-150000801.html
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Lots of events happening around the diabetes community for this awareness month. Friends for Life virtual starts next week as does Together T1D. I mention this because it’s got a powerful lineup, with Olympian Charlotte Drury, Pietro Marsala, the first person with T1D to get a commercial pilot’s license in the US and more…
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And finally, a big happy diaversary to a previous guest of the podcast – Yerachmiel Altman is marking 60 years with type 1 on November 8th. I’ll link up my episode with him.. he worked on early insulin pumps and has worn every bit of tech you can think of.. Wishing you continued good health and thank you for sharing your experience and wisdom with us.
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quick reminder that the podcast this week is with Ken Rodenheiser – a diabetes educator who now works with Dexcom. He explains how he went from angry and lonely as a teen, to helping others start off on the right foot at diagnosis.
It’s a great story you can listen to wherever you get your podcasts or if you’re listening to this as on a podcast app, just go back an episode.
That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.

 

Nov 2, 2021

Kenny Rodenheiser is a diabetes educator, and a big part of the Children with Diabetes community. But when he was diagnosed as a young teenager, he felt angry and isolated and wanted nothing to do with anything like a diabetes conference. Kenny talks about what changed his mind, his road to becoming an educator and his current role at Dexcom.

This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider.

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