The first Halloween when your child has diabetes can seem impossible, but the D-Moms are here to help! Stacey & Moira McCarthy answer listener questions and share stories about their experiences. They can help make Halloween less scary, more fun and show you that there are a lot of options for your family.
Stacey also shares some thoughts about her trip to the She Podcasts LIVE! conference last week.
(The Halloween conversation first aired in 2019)
Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom!
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Episode Transcription coming soon:
Top stories this week include: a new adjunct therapy is being tested for type 1, Dexcom and Garmin will officially work together (no more DIY needed), once weekly basal insulin study, can psychedelic drugs prevent type 2?! and Australia bets on Rugby for diabetes education
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!
Click here for iPhone Click here for Android
Episode transcription below:
Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I’m Stacey Simms and I am on location this week. I’m at the She Podcasts LIVE conference.. but the news doesn’t wait. So.. 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 – and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast.. so you can read more if you want, on your own schedule.
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In the News is brought to you by Real Good Foods! Find their breakfast line and all of their great products in your local grocery store, Target or Costco.
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Our top story.. There’s a lot of buzz these days around adjunct therapy for diabetes.. basically another treatment along with insulin. Earlier this year, a drug so far just named TTP-399 got FDA breakthrough therapy approval. A new study shows it works well to keep people with type 1 out of DKA. This was small study, 23 people. They found that TTP-399 can help lower blood glucose without increasing the risk of DKA.
It’s important because other adjunct therapy.. such as S-G-L-T-2 inhibitors do help lower blood glucose, but the FDA has said they cause too much of a risk of DKA in people with type 1. Those are brand names like Invokana and Jardiance.
Pivotal trials of TTP-399 begin later this year.
https://www.biospace.com/article/vtv-therapeutics-type-1-diabetes-drug-shows-promise/
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New partnership announced today - Dexcom and Garmin. You will still need your phone.. I knew you were going to ask.. but with the new Dexcom Connect IQ apps you can now see your Dexcom G6 info on your compatible Garmin smartwatch or cycling computer.
Jake Leach, chief technology officer at Dexcom says.. Garmin is the first partner to connect through the real-time API, which we told you about a few months back.
Basically, you’ll be seeing more connectivity without having to use a third party, community sourced work around which a lot of people do now.
The name here is interesting, right? Connect IQ, very similar to Tandem’s Control IQ. But since Dexcom owns a bit of Tandem, maybe that’s no coincidence. I’ve requested an interview with Dexcom so maybe we’ll find out.
garmin.com/newsroom, email media.relations@garmin.com, or follow us at facebook.com/garmin, twitter.com/garminnews, instagram.com/garmin, youtube.com/garmin or linkedin.com/company/garmin.
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New study about time in range, hybrid closed loop systems and faster insulins. The headline here is that using Fiasp with the Medtronic 670g system resulted in greater time in range. How much? The Fiasp group spend 82 point 3 percent time in range.. the Novolog group spent 79.6 percent time in range. This was over 17 weeks and the participants mostly bolused AT meal times, not before, no prebolusing. The researchers echo what I was going to say here, quote – “While the primary outcome demonstrated statistical significance, the clinical impact may be small, given an overall difference in time in range of 1.9%.”
So just a heads up if you see headlines screaming about how much faster Fiasp is because of this study.
https://www.endocrinologyadvisor.com/home/topics/diabetes/type-1-diabetes/fast-acting-insulin-aspart-versus-insulin-aspart-closed-loop-type-1-diabetes/
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People who have tried a psychedelic drug at least once in their lifetime have lower odds of heart disease and diabetes. This is a University of Oxford study published in Scientific Reports.
These researchers examined data from more than 375-thousand Americans who had taken part in an annual survey sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Participants reported whether they had ever used the classic psychedelic substances including LSD, mescaline, peyote or psilocybin. They also reported whether they had been diagnosed with heart disease or diabetes in the past year.
The researchers found that the prevalence of both conditions was lower among psychedelic users.
While no one is recommending you start taking mushrooms to avoid diabetes.. there’s a growing push to start serious research to investigate the link between psychedelics and cardio-metabolic health.
https://www.psypost.org/2021/10/psychedelic-use-associated-with-lower-odds-of-heart-disease-and-diabetes-study-finds-61958
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Update on the once a week basal insulin I’ve been reporting on for a while.. both Lilly and Novo Nordisk are testing their own version of this.. this most recent study looks at the Lilly version called Tirzepatide. These researchers found it to be safe and effective with lower rates of hypoglycemia and slightly lower A1Cs than daily basals like Lantus or Tresiba.
Lots of studies ongoing here, for both brands of potential once a week dosing, including a large phase 2 program that includes people with type 1.
https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20211012/novel-onceweekly-basal-insulin-safe-effective-in-type-2-diabetes
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More to come, including how rugby and diabetes education may go together.. But first, I want to tell you about one of our great sponsors who helps make Diabetes Connections possible.
Real Good Foods. Where the mission is Be Real Good
They make nutritious foods— grain free, high in protein, never added sugar and from real ingredients—we really like their breakfast line.. although Benny rarely eats the waffles or breakfast sandwiches for breakfast.. it’s usually after school or late night. Ugh.. do your teens eat breakfast? You can buy Real Good Foods online or find a store near you with their locator right on the website. I’ll put a link in the FB comments and as always at d-c dot com.
Back to the news…
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Getting out of the doctor’s office and into something that people can actually relate to.. Diabetes Australia is using rugby to teach men about the risks of type 2 diabetes.
League Fans in Training (League-FIT) is based on a Scottish initiative that used football teams to deliver exercise and nutritional advice to overweight and obese men.
The program includes education and goal setting and a rugby league-based exercise session, delivered by coaches and some of the club’s players. What I really like about this is that -from what I can tell - they’re focusing on small changes and not telling these guys to give up everything they like to eat and drink or that they have to become professional players to get a little bit more fit.
Imagine if NFL players had a clinic for fans to come and learn a little bit about fitness and nutrition? Again, not to be pros.. just to live a little better and lower risks of type 2.
https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/news
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On Diabetes Connections this week, we’re talking to a mom with type 1 who has had two children during the pandemic. One last summer and the other just a few days before our interview!
That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.
Pregnancy with type 1 is never simple, but this week's guest faced an unusual complication. Vanessa Messenger has had two babies during the COVID pandemic! Vanessa, who lives with T1D, gave birth to her daughter in the summer of 2020. She just had another baby - 15 days before our interview.
Her new book is launching this month. Called, "Teddy Talks: A Paws-itive Story About Type 1 Diabetes" it features a little dog who helps explain what kids should know about check glucose, using a CGM, taking insulin and a lot more. Teddy is modeled after Vanessa's real-life dog, who already looks like a character in a children's book.
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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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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Click here for iPhone Click here for Android
Episode Transcription coming soon
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 transcript 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 – and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast.. so you can read more if you want, on your own schedule.
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In the News is brought to you by Real Good Foods! Find their Entrée Bowls and all of their great products in your local grocery store, Target or Costco.
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Our top story this week.. Medtronic has expanded a recall of its MiniMed 600 series insulin pumps to include nearly half a million devices. This is an FDA Class One recall – the most serious type – because the pumps may deliver incorrect insulin doses.
The recall was first announced in 2019 for just two models. Medtronic now says it will replace any MiniMed 600 series insulin pump that has a clear retainer ring with one that has the updated black retainer ring at no charge. That’s even if there is no damaged and regardless of the warranty status of the pump.
There’s more to this – including directions on how to check if your pump may be affected and who to call. I’ll put all of that here in the FB comments and in the show notes.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-10-05/medtronic-expands-recall-to-include-more-than-463-000-insulin-pumps
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Enrollment is under way for the first pediatric trials for Afrezza inhalable insulin. This will involve children ages 4 to 17 living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. It’s called the INHALE-1 phase three trial. They’re going to look at changes in A1C after 26 weeks.. and then changes in fasting glucose after another 26 weeks. If you’re interested, we’ve got the link for more info to this study and to learn about enrollment. Afrezza was approved for adults back in 2014.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04974528.
https://investors.mannkindcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/mannkind-announces-first-patient-enrolled-inhale-1-study
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Last week we told you about the Glucagon emergency kit recall from Lilly. Reuters is reporting that the kits were made in a factory previously cited for quality-control violations, including several involving the glucagon product.
Lilly had received a report of a patient who experienced seizures even after being injected with the drug, a sign that glucagon was not potent enough to work. The company said the product failure might be related to its manufacturing process, without elaborating.
A spokesperson declined to say whether Lilly has received other reports of adverse events related to the Glucagon kits.
Separately, Lilly is facing a federal criminal investigation into alleged manufacturing irregularities involving another of its U.S. factories in New Jersey. Reuters is following both stories and of course, we will too.
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/exclusive-eli-lillys-recalled-emergency-diabetes-drug-came-plant-cited-by-fda-2021-10-04/
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Big new report on adults with type 1.. called a forgotten population in this write up. The consensus statement covers diagnosis, goals and targets, schedule of care, self-management education and lifestyle, glucose monitoring, insulin therapy, hypoglycemia, psychosocial care and much more.
This is a joint statement from the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes Their last consensus report on type 2 diabetes has been "highly influential," these researchers say.. so they recognize the need to develop a comparable report specifically addressing type 1 diabetes in adults.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/960158
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Adults with Type 2 diabetes on statin therapy may see worsening diabetes symptoms. Important caution: the researchers are quick to say that association does not prove causation, no patient should just stop taking their statins based on this study. These are cholesterol lowering medications with brand names like Lipitor and Crestor..
Statin users had a 37% higher risk for diabetes progression, including extremely high blood sugar levels and elevated rates of disease complications. Nearly half of adults with Type 2 diabetes also have high cholesterol and many of them stop taking statins due to this kind of thing. But that may increase the risk for heart attack or stroke. So definitely talk to your doctor before making any changes.
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/10/04/statins-diabetes-progression-risk-study/7261633358483/
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More to come, But first, I want to tell you about one of our great sponsors who helps make Diabetes Connections possible.
Real Good Foods. Where the mission is Be Real Good
They make nutritious foods— grain free, high in protein, never added sugar and from real ingredients—the new Entrée bowls are great. They have a chicken burrito, a cauliflower mash and braised beef bowl.. the lemon chicken I’ve told you about and more! They keep adding to the menu line! You can buy online or find a store near you with their locator right on the website. I’ll put a link in the FB comments and as always at d-c dot com.
Back to the news…
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DreaMed Diabetes gets FDA approval to expand their platform to people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Called Advisor Pro, it’s the first decision support system that has been cleared to assist healthcare providers in the management of diabetes patients who use insulin as well as CGMs and meters. We spoke to these folks on the podcast last year. They say Advisor Pro aims to solve the massive worldwide shortage of endocrinologists by empowering primary care clinicians, to be able to provide expert level endocrinological care to diabetes patients. The company’s founder says the next step is to develop and extend the technology to cover all injectable or oral medications for diabetes.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211006005640/en/
https://diabetes-connections.com/we-treat-the-data-lifting-the-burden-of-diabetes-with-dreamed/
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Really interesting look at who’s adopting newer diabetes technology. This is from an article over at Dia Tribe where they feature a research study showing that roughly 55% of people with diabetes had positive, open attitudes toward technology. However, another 20% had negative attitudes and did not trust technology, while the remaining 25% either did not want additional data, did not want to wear a device on their body or had a very high level of diabetes distress related to using devices.
When they focused on people with type 2.. it turns out the uptake of technology was actually lowest among people aged 18 to 25. This group also had the highest levels of diabetes distress and the highest A1C levels, and many reported that they did not like having a device on their body as their main reason for refusing the devices. Others reported the frequency of alerts and alarms, feeling physically uncomfortable, and cost as reasons for rejecting devices.
These researchers say providers need to find ways to avoid making patients feel guilty about their choice of technology as well as watching out for negative judgements for those who use devices but don’t achieve near perfect glucose control.
https://diatribe.org/new-tech-and-psychological-toll-diabetes-management
Please join me wherever you get podcasts for our next episode - The episode out right now is all about the film Pay or Die an upcoming documentary about insulin access and affordability. –
That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.
There's a new documentary in the works, all about the struggle of insulin access and affordability. Rachael Dyer and Scott Ruderman, who lives with type 1, join Stacey to talk about their experience making this film and why they think it could make a difference.
Pay or Die Film provides an inside look at how the soaring price of insulin in America is threatening—and even taking—the lives of people 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
-----
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!
Episode Transcription coming soon!
Click here for iPhone Click here for Android
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.
Announcer 0:22
This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.
Stacey Simms 0:27
This week, a new documentary in the works to show people outside the diabetes community the struggle of insulin access and affordability. Rachael Dyer and Scott Ruderman had an experience in Canada that made them say, we got to do this,
Rachael Dyer 0:42
where he was paying at home in America up to $450 a vial out of pocket then to have the same vial same manufacturer same everything brought to him for $21 in Canada and to watch Scott just break down and start crying there in the pharmacy and for myself as well. I was left in shock and disbelief, and we just looked at each other as we walked out and said it's time now to make this documentary.
Stacey Simms 1:11
We'll talk to Rachael and Scott who lives with type one about their experience making this film and why they think it could make a difference. 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 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 insulin access and affordability as you heard is what this week's episode is all about. I'm your host Stacey Simms. My son Benny was diagnosed with type one right before he turned to almost 15 years ago. My husband lives with type two diabetes. I don't have diabetes. I have a background in broadcasting. And that is how you get the podcast
In our most recent in the news episode. And that's the previous podcast episode two this one, I explained Lily's new move to drop the price of insulin lispro. Between that and Walmart's deal with Novo Nordisk, which lets Walmart price Novolog, same exact Insulet Novolog. a lot lower. We're seeing some interesting action on the cash price of insulin at the pharmacy. As I've said for years, though, I think it's going to take state and federal legislation to see real systemic change, you still need to jump through a lot of hoops, you still need to know that this is out there, you still need to find coupons in many cases, or you need to, you know, have really good insurance. There's a lot going on, and my guests this week are hoping that their documentary film will help educate people and make a difference. That film is currently in production. It is called Pay or Die. Here's a clip from the teaser,
Trailer here: https://payordiefilm.com/film-teaser
Stacey Simms 3:17
If that last bit sounds familiar, that's Nicole Holt Smith, who I've had on the show her son Alec died after rationing insulin, and that audio is from her arrest at a protest at Eli Lilly headquarters in 2019. Today, you're going to hear from the filmmaker Scott Ruderman and Rachael Dyer. Scott was diagnosed with type one in 2009. He is an award-winning filmmaker. He's worked on documentaries for Netflix and Hulu in the BBC and HBO, his documentary short piano craftman won Best Director at the Madrid art film festival.
He has a long list of credits, as does my other guest Rachael Dyer. She is an award winning journalist and producer who won a Southern California journalist Award for Best International feature, as well as a Clio entertainment grand winning entry for her work on the greatest showmen live the world's first live commercial for theatrical release
the story behind Pay or Die in just a moment but first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario Health bottom line you need a plan of action with diabetes. We've been really lucky that Benny’s endo has helped us with that and that he understands the plan has to change as Benny gets older you want that kind of support. So take your diabetes management to the next level with Dario health. They're published Studies demonstrate high impact results for active users like improved in range percentage within three months reduction of a one c within three months and a 58% decrease in occurrences of severe 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 free information about the plan.
Scott and Rachael, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate you spending some time with me and my listeners today.
Rachael Dyer 5:14
Thank you so much for having us. Stacey. We're really great, great time and looking forward to being here.
Stacey Simms 5:19
Let me start if I could with you, Scott, could you live with type one? Just briefly, could you tell us your diagnosis story, you were diagnosed as and as an adult? That's correct.
Scott Ruderman 5:29
I was in college, and it was around 2009. And it was my first semester in college I was I was going to Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. And for about two weeks, I really wasn't feeling good. had all the symptoms, I say got very blurry, drinking a lot of fluids. I woke up one morning, and I just couldn't feel my legs from my waist down. It felt like they were being bags, I went to the school infirmary. And they they told me it sounds like type 1 diabetes are just diabetes. But they weren't. You know, they said it's probably not. But when they actually took a glucose reading, they left the room, the nurse came back in and she said, Look, I thought the meter was broken. But I checked my blood sugar and it's fine. Your blood sugar is not, it's not reading on the meter. So it's definitely going to be high, we want to send you an emergency room. So I went to Mass General, and I checked in and I was there for about a week. And then I resumed classes the week after it was it was a really hard week. But it was just one of those things. And I think a lot of type ones could relate that you just have to accept it. And the learning curve is it took a few years to really get on top of it. And then as the newer technology came in, it just got easier to manage.
Stacey Simms 6:42
So what led you all to this documentary? I assume it didn't happen as soon as you were diagnosed, Scott, but can you tell us a little bit about kind of what led you down this path, of course.
Rachael Dyer 6:53
So this has been a passion project for Scott for some time. And Scott and I actually met working together in the field. So obviously, we're both in the documentary business. And we just finished up working on a documentary together. And then I have a journalistic background. And I had done quite a few stories where I was looking at a lot of Americans traveling to Canada to get alternative medicine up there and their prescription medicine out there because it was a lot cheaper. I hadn't ever focused on insulin, but I had done other stories. So when Scott and I had met in the field and started speaking, Scott had told me that he was a type one diabetic, which I knew nothing about at the time, I knew very, very little about diabetes in general, let alone type one. And I was traveling to Canada because I'm Australian and half Canadian, and I was visiting my family. And I asked God to come with me. And I told him that I done some of these stories about, you know, Americans traveling up there. And Scott didn't believe me at first. And I thought that it was crazy what I was talking about. But we went, we went to Vancouver and we said, Look, I said why don't we just try. Let's see how we go. So he went to a few pharmacies and there and then the pharmacists were great. And we explained our situation, you know, Scott had shown brought in the insulin that he was on. And they, you know, were so generous and welcoming and kind and said to him, Look, what insulin Do you need right now for this trip? What can I help you with? And as Scott likes to explain it, he says it was like he was a kid in a candy shop, just to have that overwhelming experience with insulin that was so inaccessible, and so expensive in America to come forward and have it brought to him where he was paying at home in America up to $450 a vial out of pocket than to have the same same vial, same manufacturer, same everything brought to him for $21 in Canada, and to watch scotches break down and start crying there in the pharmacy. And for myself as well was I was left in shock and disbelief. And we just looked at each other as we walked out and said, It's time now to make this documentary. We have to do something about it. So that led us on our journey.
Scott Ruderman 9:19
I have to stay Stacy, to Rachel's point, it was a very emotional experience. It was one of those experiences where you feel joy but kind of frustration and at the same time I think I say this all the time. I really looked at my hands and for the first time I said Well, I'm feeling a little bit more accepted and cared for and thought out for then my experiences going to a pharmacy in the United States where I need more insulin and my prescription. You know, it's not it's not fully made out for the month yet and they're kind of like no, you have to come back next Tuesday and I can walk out of there and they know I could potentially die without my Insulet So it was just quite an experience. And to Rachel's point again, yes, we both said we're making a film about this.
Stacey Simms 10:07
So it seems to me that just from what you've said, it looks like it changed a bit though from Why can't we get more affordable insulin in the US? Why can't you like you can in so many other countries walk in and buy what you need to people are dying? And I'm curious, did you realize that as you started this project, or was that always part of the story all along?
Scott Ruderman 10:27
For me, when I was doing the initial research, you know, when I realized, the first thing I said, in my head, I wonder what people are doing that can't afford it, and where they're going, and upon my initial research, you know, obviously, people that can't afford to go on Facebook, you know, the clinical black market and media. But then I started reading all these stories about people rationing their insulin, and going into decay and dying just to make ends meet. And that's where things got a little bit more serious. And like, Whoa, this is not just being able to afford it, people are actually losing their life because they can't afford it. And that's kind of where the film kind of took it. It's kind of approach was that this is an issue and people are dying.
Stacey Simms 11:09
Rachel, what do you think the film is for? You know, it's very difficult, as you probably know, and as you live with type one, Scott, it's difficult to explain any of this to people who don't live with it day in and day out. I'm curious who you're producing this for, of course, and
Rachael Dyer 11:26
I think, you know, with anything, that is a huge challenge with trying to firstly explain an illness, which a lot of people do not live with. And also to, to differentiate between type one and type two, that is obviously a challenge in the beginning. But you know, there are huge differences. And there are huge differences, which we do point out in the film. Obviously, as you know, with your son living with type one as well, it is a life threatening illness, and you are insulin dependent. So you know, we explore that, but also to exploring the medical system in America, which, as anyone who lives here can understand that it is very complicated, which they love for it to be to make everyone think that this is something that we just have to live with. But for me, being an Australian and Canadian, I think, the shock factor from an international audience and not having to not only live with a debilitating illness, but also to then navigate this healthcare system is what we're trying to present throughout the film as well and show the microcosm of this healthcare system in the United States. So I would say that this film is being produced not only for the type one community or the diabetes community, but for not only also to a domestic and international audience to show what is going on in the states and how unjust it is, and how unfair it is for people just to not be able to access life saving medication and medication that in a lot of other countries around the world is affordable and accessible, and you shouldn't be dying because of it. So it's for everyone.
Stacey Simms 13:11
I'm curious, too. It's so hard to get this message to be clear, because our healthcare system is so complicated to the point where you can go on social media any day and see people within the diabetes community arguing about whether or not people can afford insulin. In other words, you know, if you start any kind of Twitter chain or Facebook conversation, you'll have everything from you know, mine's covered. 100%. I don't understand what your problem is to why don't we just get a coupon to the president lowered the price of insulin? No, the president raised the price of insulin. It's so confusing at Scott, did you focus on any of that conversation? Or is this more focusing on individual stories?
Right back to Scott answering that question, 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 that can be different for everybody. 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. This made emergency situations even more challenging and stressful. This is so much better. I'm grateful we have it on hand to 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 g vo glucagon.com slash risk.
Now back to Scott answering my question about whether the film looks at the bigger system or focuses on individual stories.
Scott Ruderman 14:56
That's a great question. This is a question that's brought up a lot as well. Let's just within our team, you know, this film is really, through, you know, the stories of people that are struggling. And we're capturing those human stories and seeing kind of the lengths, they are going to try to get access to the medication they need financially. And through their stories, we will kind of go into a little bit about the complex system, as well as politically what's happening. But the idea of the film is, this is a very character driven film. And we want people to be able to familiarize themselves with these characters and be able to, you know, say, well, that could be me, or that could be my friend's daughter who has type one or, you know, not even just type 1 diabetes. I mean, there's other medications that are so expensive, that anyone can kind of put themselves in those shoes and be like, what do I do if I can't afford medication. And that's really the shock factor we want to bring through in the film and urgency, because we can go on and on and on and talking about the complexities. But the problem is, it's never going to be solved, unless you're faced with the realities of it yourself. So bringing that to the viewer of making them feel like they are in the position of what our characters are going through is the goal to show the reality of the struggle
Rachael Dyer 16:16
to Scott's point that is very much the focus of the film, but we do have experts that we are speaking with that, breaking down the complexities behind it and showing how the system works. And with the experts that we have, they do actually show that the complicated system is being put there for a reason to make people feel like it is more complicated than what it actually is to make it so confusing that people just throw up their hands and say, I can't be bothered, this is just the way it is, which is certainly not the case. And it doesn't need to be the case. So you know, we do have the experts that have come in to break down that process and make it as simple as possible so people can understand this is not the way that it needs to be. Yeah,
Stacey Simms 17:03
that's great. Scott, what conclusion do you come from after this? I mean, I agree with Rachel, it's complicated, because it's designed that way. I do think the government will eventually get involved. We're seeing states now start making some changes. I'm not sure the federal government will ever take action. But you know, is it going to be a change in list price? Are we going to need to get rid of pbms? You know, did you draw any conclusions from this?
Scott Ruderman 17:28
You know, I think one of the the challenging things is the barriers of entry for just anyone trying to make a change with what's happening. And part of making this film is to kind of shine light on how complicated this system is. And no, this is this film gonna be the ultimate change? No, but it's trying to make the world a better place and down the road, do I think Insulet will be free? No. But I think just recently in the media over the last few years, this issue has been hot. And I think people are catching on and people are realizing that there needs to be more, you know, regulation on this. And prices need to be more affordable. I mean, think about when insulin, the discovery of insulin and Frederick Banting. I mean, the whole reason he sold it for $1 was so no one can make a profit of this. And I think looking at where we are today, I mean, discovery, insulin was a breakthrough discovery for the United States of America. And it's been celebrated. But if people can't afford it, and they're dying, because of it, that's going against the whole idea of making it affordable with bandings purpose to selling it. Hopefully, this is just a wake up call to say, hey, insulin was to to help people not to make profit off.
Stacey Simms 18:46
And I before Rachel jumps in, because I know she's half Canadian. Dr. Banting was Canadian, so we have to give the props. I know, I know, you meant you know, the manufacturer in the United States, and really purchasing getting all of that. But tell us a little bit if you could Scott about maybe some of the you said characters tell us a little bit about the people in this piece,
Scott Ruderman 19:05
of course. So you know, we have some principal characters, we've been following Nicole Holt Smith, who lost her son Alec, he was rushing his insulin, he couldn't afford, you know, the monthly cost. And he, he went into decay and died. And she's been fighting on the Minnesota State level to try to get access to emergency insulin in Minnesota. And we've been following her kind of battle on the state level. So that's one of our main stories. Another story. We've been following a mother and daughter who've been living out of their car because they need to make ends meet and you know, they're both type one, and they couldn't afford their insulin. So unfortunately, they were living in their car trying to survive, and they're the ones that crossed the border to find cheaper insulin in Canada. So we followed that story. And then we also have another story of a newly died This is during COVID. And the reason we brought that story in is we needed to, we want to cover all angles, we don't want all our characters to be this repetition of, I can't afford insulin, it's they're all struggling in different ways. And our COVID story of being diagnosed on COVID is, is to show the reality of what it's like and how your life just flips with type 1 diabetes, the management side, the physical side, and then again, the financial side. So it's all those aspects are in that story.
Rachael Dyer 20:29
Yeah. So just to Scott's point, I think that what we're trying to capture with all of our contributors and following their stories is it is just that it is a financial, emotional and physical burdens that, you know, everyone who is diagnosed with Type One Diabetes goes through on a daily basis. And I think that is the main emphasis that we really focus on throughout the film. And you see it through the stories, you see it through the emotional, physical and financial burden that they go through. And I think where Scott and I work well at both together, but our style as documentary filmmakers, is we are a very small footprint on the ground, a lot of the time, it is just Scott Nye traveling together. So we have a very personal relationship with the people that we film with, and they open up their world and they let us in and we become very familiar with who they are. And you see the heartbreak, you see the tears, you see the joy, and hopefully that is what is going to come across on film and and in the stories and if anyone has a daughter has a mother has a son has a child that is struggling in any capacity, whether it's with type one or something else, I feel as though that they're going to be able to relate. And that's the purpose behind these special stories that we're bringing to the screen.
Stacey Simms 21:58
Scott did anything surprise you, as you talk to these folks, when you live with type one yourself, I'm curious if anything that they said or anything they shared, took you by surprise,
Scott Ruderman 22:07
not only surprised, but as we kept going back into the fields, and filming, I think, you know, realizing that I am a type one and that this could happen to any day just kind of drop the reality perspective back to me. And I'm feeling what they're saying. Because, again, this I could be in this position. as a freelancer alone, covering my own health insurance, a bad month puts me in a bind. I'm actually the subject of my film in a way. So it's a very interesting connection. And it takes a toll on me. Every time I go and film, I need space after to just process what I'm hearing and what I'm going through, I think filming with Nicole Smith hope of being a mother of, you know, losing her son, I think my mom like what my mom would go through. If I were to pass away because of this and following Nicole. And you know, that's where you kind of see a real mother's purpose of just she's not going to stop being Alex's mother. By doing that she's going to continue to try to make an example that this is not okay, and be a voice for all the mothers out there that do have children diagnosed with type one and could be struggling because when you turn 26 years old, and you're off your parents health insurance as a type one, it's a new learning curve. It's a financial learning curve. And it could be very difficult. It could mean the job you get where you apply. It's not what you want to do in life. It's what can I do, that's going to keep me alive so I can afford, you know, for my insulin to keep me alive. It's a very scary and Nicole always says it's that number 26. And I'm only 31 years old, and I was 26. I remember that moment. It's really hard.
Stacey Simms 23:58
Before I let you go, unless each of you this question, why do you work in documentary? This is a it's such a different type of filmmaking. It's so personal. As you said, Scott, you kind of have to recover if every time you talk to somebody, why do you do it?
Rachael Dyer 24:12
I'll jump in. I think for me, as I mentioned earlier, my experience and background was as a journalist for over 10 years and you know, I dealt with some really challenging and and hard hitting stories. For the my first four years in America, I was traveling the country and working in breaking news. And for me, with the 24 hour news cycle that has just become so relentless, my personality is one of which I just had to stop being on the ground for less than 24 hours and seeing these people let's hop right and wanting to share their story more and so naturally, I just transitioned over to wanting to be in the documentary space to spend money. more time with individuals learn about who they are and share these really important stories on the world stage. Rather than just jumping in and out for a one and a half minute nice cars. Yeah, for me, it was just important to be there with the people, and spend the time sharing these really relevant stories.
Scott Ruderman 25:19
For me. I love storytelling, I think one of the greatest things about documentary is to every project, you're in a different world, you are discovering the lives of people and what they're going through, and to be able to film that and see transformation and see someone change along the way along the process is extraordinary. For me, it's also extremely challenging. And being in a room with a camera and filming people at on the moment. It's in this sense, you know, I like to say in fiction film, you know, the director is God. But when it comes to documentary and nonfiction, God is the director, and you don't know what's going to happen in front of your lens, and to be there and capture a moment that could only happen once and walk away with that and be part of that is what keeps me coming back to make more documentaries.
Stacey Simms 26:11
And in general, and maybe just for this one, too. I'm always curious, how much more do you film than you use? Right? I mean, it's got to be hours and hours and hours that you're filming that you're not going to use?
Rachael Dyer 26:24
Yeah, I think that's always the fun part. The fun part for us, but definitely not the fun part for the editor when they have hours, and hours and hours of footage to go through. But yeah, like Scott said, I think that the difference between documentary and true documentary is that you do not know a lot of the time what is going to happen, you can only prepare so much. But there is a lot that is unpredictable and doesn't happen and you you know, you want to film that you want to see the change and evolutions in these people. So again, I think it depends on the documentary, the subject matter, but and also to where you initially thought the film might go might not be how it ends up in the Edit. So we're not at that stage yet. So I think we will see but you know, there is a lot that we have filmed but a lot of special moments to within that.
Scott Ruderman 27:22
Yeah, another challenging thing about making a documentary. And you know, I just also want to point out there this documentary, until we started actually securing funds was funded out of pocket by me. And one of the hardest things is, you know, we have characters across the nation, West Coast, mid coast, and one of the hardest things is always being there at the right moment. And you know, being able to jump on a plane with all the gear get there and be there in time to capture it. That's a huge cost factor. And you know, that's a decision you have to make. That's one of the challenges about document and you're not with people, you know, we've been filming this for a few years now we're not with our characters fully on for years. It's it's coming back and going. And there are moments where it's exhausting for subjects because we're there and we have to take a break. And then we come back and you know, new development occurs. And that's the beauty of it is following and following and following it seeing that transformation.
Stacey Simms 28:17
Well, Scott and Rachael, we really look forward to the completion of this and seeing it and spreading the word. Thank you so much for joining me and sharing your story and we look forward to the release of the movie. Thanks. Thank you watch.
You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms. More information at Diabetes connections.com. I will link up the website to Pay or Die and any other information about the timing production, that sort of thing. Of course, there's a transcription along with this episode as there is with every episode since the beginning of 2020.
Just a real quick note about our experience with insulin and coupons. And I've shared this story before and it's been about a year now I realize that we decided we had changed insurance right around this time last year, and they wanted to change us from human log to novolog. But he's been doing great. I did not want to make any changes. I mean, you know how it is when things are going well. So we decided we had a little bit of a stockpile, Lino, let's fight it. And it took me a full two weeks of spending a lot of time calling the pharmacy calling my doctor we got some coupons I went to get insulin.org and went through that process and you know, immediately printed out a coupon for human log and said this will be $35 a month. It was not that easy. I took it to the pharmacy and they said nope, it doesn't scan so we had to jump through a lot of hoops. What happened for us was we got a new prior authorization from Benny's endocrinologist and the pharmacy ranted as a new prescription. So that helped us and you know what, I'm afraid knock on wood is word As I'm looking around here, we have not had to do anything else it renewed automatically for 2021. And so far so good. I'll keep you posted. if anything changes, it was a lot of hoops to jump through. I'm grateful I had the time and the knowledge to do so I know not everybody can spend that much time and has that good of a relationship with both their pharmacist and their endo. What a mess.
Alright, more to come. But first I want to tell you about another one of our sponsors Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. You I want to talk about control IQ. This is the Dexcom G6 Tandem pump software program. And when it comes to Benny, even though I hardly expect perfection, I really do I just want him happy and healthy. I have to say control IQ the software from Dexcom. And Tandem has exceeded my expectations, Benny is able to do less checking and bolusing. And spending more time in range is a once these are the lowest they have ever been. This isn't a teenager at the time when I was really prepared for him to be struggling. And everybody’s sleep is better to with basal adjustments possible every five minutes, the system is working hard to keep him in range. And that means we hear far fewer Dexcom alerts, rural sleeping better. I'm so grateful for this, of course individual results may vary. To learn more, just go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo.
If you're listening to this episode as a first airs, it's the first episode of October of 2021. It's also the beginning of a stretch of really, really busy weeks for me, I am hoping to have an episode every week this month. But please follow me on social it is possible, especially two weeks from now, that's kind of iffy, but I'll see what I can do. I am traveling to New York this coming weekend, I was supposed to go to friends for life White Plains, that is now a virtual event that's going to happen in November. But I'm still going because I have family up there. And I have some plans. So I'm really excited. And then the phone week I'm going to shoot podcasts live, which is a female podcasting event that I've been working on. I'm working with them to help with that event. So I'm really excited about that. And then later in the month, my husband and I are going to go away to celebrate a big birthday of mine. And in between I'm trying to make room for lots of just fun local stuff where I am because yeah, I mean, I don't usually celebrate my birthday all month long. But hey, I'm turning 50 I gotta tell you, I mean, are you Is anybody excited about turning 50? I'm not thrilled right about getting older. But man, I'm thrilled about getting older. I really have mixed feelings about this, because it is a milestone. So I'll be sharing more maybe on social media, we'll see.
But I do have a couple of fun announcements coming up. They will be mostly in the Facebook group, or at least they'll be first in the Facebook group. So if you're not in Diabetes Connections, the group please make sure to jump in there. end of October, maybe mid to late October. I've got a couple of announcements. I need your help with some upcoming projects. It's going to be a lot of fun. All right, thank you as always to my editor John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. Thank you so much for listening. I will be back with in the news that's gonna happen every Wednesday at 430. Even as I'm on the road, I've done it before. I don't mind doing it again, from my friend's homes, my sister's house or from hotel rooms. I like doing those in the news episodes live. So those will continue. I'll see you back here in just a couple of days. Until then, be kind to yourself.
Benny 33:12
Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms Media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged
In the News.. this week: Lilly drops the price of some insulins, this T1D group most likely to be hospitalized if infected with COVID, insulin pumps reduce risk of retinopathy, Novo Nordisk pays investors to settle earnings claims, another through-the-skin glucose monitor and more!
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 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 – and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast.. so you can read more if you want, on your own schedule.
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In the News is brought to you by Real Good Foods! Find their Entrée Bowls and all of their great products in your local grocery store, Target or Costco.
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Our top story – Lilly announces a big price change on some insulins. Starting this January, the cash price of Insulin Lispro goes down 40%. Lispro is identical to Humalog – the price on that one isn’t changing. Lilly says one in three prescriptions for their mealtime insulin is for Insulin Lispro.
I asked Lilly why now and what about Humalog? I’ll put my Q&A in the show notes – you’ll be able to read them at diabetes dash connections dot com and in the Facebook group.. their answers were vague – although one interesting point.. they claim these programs have lowered the monthly out of pocket cost of a prescription for Lilly insulin to 28 dollars.. a decrease of 27% over the past four years.
The bottom line here is that you still have to do the work… your pharmacist can substitute lispro for humalog – or the other way around – however the prescription is written.. make sure you ask them to check which is cheaper either with your insurance, with a coupon or with the cash price. It’s a lot of work, but with all of these options, you want to figure out what’s best for you.
https://beyondtype1.org/lower-list-price-lilly-insulin-lispro/
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Adults over 40 with type 1 are 4 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID 19 than younger people. New study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. This study looked at thousands of people with type 1 from April 2020 to March of 2021 – so it’s worth noting that the recent Delta wave isn’t included here. Hospitalized here means inpatient or ICU not emergency room. This is where it gets really interesting – they adjusted for sex, A1C, race and ethnicity, insurance type and comorbidities – it was being over 40 that still increased the odds. That’s not to say A1C didn’t matter.. The likelihood for hospitalization was higher for all ages with a higher A1C. Also interesting.. there was no significant difference for adverse outcomes between the age groups. They grouped together DKA, severe hypoglycemia and death as the adverse outcomes here..
https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20210928/older-adults-with-type-1-diabetes-more-likely-to-be-hospitalized-for-covid19-than-youths
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Using an insulin pump may decrease the risk of diabetic retinopathy in younger people with type 1. These researchers looked at almost 2000 patients under the age of 21 and found - after adjusting for race and ethnicity, insurance status, diabetes duration, and A1C - patients with pumps had a 57% decreased risk for retinopathy. The thinking here is that it’s about less variability in blood glucose. However, there were disparities in access to pumps, with pump users more likely to be white and have private or commercial insurance.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/959758
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Very early on but potentially big news out of China… this is the DREAM study a phase three clinical trial of a medication called dorzagliatin (DOOR-zuh-GLY-uh-tin)– this is for people with type 2. While it was a small study it has big results.. after a year, 65% of the 69 patients were in remission – that generally means A1Cs under 6.5 with no glucose lowering medication – although the exact definition of remission was not given here. These findings were presented at a recent BioMed Conference in China.
https://www.biospace.com/article/hua-medicine-may-be-sending-type-2-diabetes-into-remission-/
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Novo Nordisk shareholders say pants on fire to the insulin maker and get a $100 million dollar settlement. What happened here? Novo allegedly told investors not to worry about insulin pricing pressures from lawmakers and patient groups - that they’d still make plenty of money. But the investors disagreed – saying other insulin makers were warning their investors that profits could fall.
This lawsuit has nothing to do with any benefit to patients – it was all about investors who were actually asking for 1.7 billion dollars. Novo agreed to the smaller deal saying they just wanted to avoid the burden of litigation, no admission of wrong doing.
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This is from last week but want to make sure you’ve seen a voluntary glucagon recall. Lilly is recalling a specific lot from their red box emergency kit. It’s lot D239382D so please check. The problem here is that someone reported the vial of glucagon was in liquid form instead of powder – which can mean the glucagon isn’t going to work well in an emergency. If you got this lot – bring it back to the pharmacy or call Lilly. Info in the link and show notes.
https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/eli-lilly-and-company-issues-voluntary-nationwide-recall-one-lot-glucagonr-emergency-kit-due-loss
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You might have seen the headline on this one: if you can’t fit into the jeans you wore at age 21 you’re at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
I dug a little deeper on this.. very small study. First. These people weren’t even overweight. They did have type 2 and as part of the study managed to lose fat and the researchers said their diabetes was put into remission. They all followed a weight loss program of a low calorie liquid diet for two weeks – 800 calories a day! They did this three times until they lost 10 to 15 percent of their body fat.
The researchers say this “demonstrate very clearly that diabetes is not caused by obesity but by being too heavy for your own body”. What does that mean?!
What does it have to do with the headline about jeans at age 21? And what happens to these poor people who were slurping 800 calories a day and are now just back to their normal lives?
I’m hoping I missed something big on this one..
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/27/people-who-cant-fit-into-jeans-they-wore-aged-21-risk-developing-diabetes
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More to come, But first, I want to tell you about one of our great sponsors who helps make Diabetes Connections possible.
Real Good Foods. Where the mission is Be Real Good
They make nutritious foods— grain free, high in protein, never added sugar and from real ingredients—the new Entrée bowls are great. They have a chicken burrito, a cauliflower mash and braised beef bowl.. the lemon chicken I’ve told you about and more! They keep adding to the menu line! You can buy online or find a store near you with their locator right on the website. I’ll put a link in the FB comments and as always at d-c dot com.
Back to the news…
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We’ve got another through the skin glucose monitor in the news. Know Labs debuted it’s Know-U device which is very small, fits in your pocket and is powered by what they call Bio R-Fid technology. It emits radio waves to measure specific molecular signatures in the blood through the skin. They’ve also got UBand.. which is a bracelet that does the same thing.
Do they work? According to a 2018 study 97% of the UBand’s readings were within 15% of the values calculated by the Abbot Libre. But that wasn’t a clinical trial – those are starting this year.
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/know-labs-unveils-pocket-sized-glucose-monitor-swaps-fingersticks-for-radiofrequency
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And finally, maybe the most glamorous photo featuring an insulin pump.. model Lila Moss – daughter of supermodel Kate Moss – walked the Fendi Versace runway at Milan’s fashion week with her Omnipod very visible. Lila Moss has type 1 and while they family has never really mentioned it, she’s been photographed with her pod on before. Lots of write ups about this – great to see the representation
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Please join me wherever you get podcasts for our next episode - The episode out right now is with Marjorie’s Fund – helping people survive diabetes in countries with few resources.. and next week we’re featuring the folks behind the upcoming Pay or Die film about insulin access..
That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.
We have some big problems in the United States in terms of access to and affordability of insulin. But when you look around the world, there are still many other countries with bigger barriers for people with diabetes. This week, we're talking to a group trying to make a difference in some of the places that need it most.
As you'll hear, Marjorie's Fund was started to honor the memory of a woman in Uganda who died from type 1 diabetes at the age of 29. Dr. Jason Baker is an endocrinologist who lives with T1D. He explains why he was in Uganda and what happened to make him take the leap to start Marjorie's Fund. You'll also hear from Sandy Narayanan, co-founder who lives with type 2.
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!
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Episode Transcription
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.
Announcer 0:21
This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.
Stacey Simms 0:27
This week what happens in countries where the most basic diabetes technology - syringes insulin test strips - is incredibly scarce. Dr. Jason Baker, who lives with type one found out when he spent part of his endocrinology studies in Uganda,
Dr. Jason Baker 0:43
and I thought to myself, man, if I would have been diagnosed somewhere else than where I was diagnosed, would I be able to be where I am free of complications, having my life not hindered, but actually enhanced by diabetes?
Stacey Simms 0:58
Dr. Baker shares how that experience led him to start Marjorie's Fund, now called M Fund. He and his colleague Sandy Narayanan explained the goals of the group and how we can help.
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 always so glad to have you here. Hi, I'm your host, Stacey Simms. And you know, we aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. Well, for the last few years. I've had a lot of people tell me you have to talk to Dr. Jason Baker. I feel like it's just one of those names here over and over in the diabetes community. Dr. Baker is Assistant Professor of clinical medicine and attending endocrinologist at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell medicine in New York, New York. He is the co founder of M Fund, the medical director and the board chair. Marjorie's fund, as you'll hear is named after a woman Dr. Baker met in Uganda. She was diagnosed as an adult and she only lived to age 29. During her short life, she was able to advocate and educate her death, it could have been prevented with better resources and she did inspire doctors and patients and many others to carry on this cause.
Dr. Baker is joined in this interview by Sandy Ryan on their board Treasurer program committee chair and she lives with type two diabetes. They have a big event coming up and I will link all of the information up at Diabetes connections.com so you can learn more if you would like to help and you've already heard me use interchangeably Marjorie's fund and M Fund. They are in the process of renaming to M Fund. Of course, the legacy of Marjorie is at the core of this organization.
So all of that coming up but first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Gvoke Hypopen, I mean you have diabetes and use insulin, low blood sugar can happen when you don't expect it. That's why most of us carry fast acting sugar and in the case of very low blood sugar, why we carry emergency glucagon, there's a new option called Gvoke Hypopen the first auto injector to treat very low blood sugar Gvoke Hypopen is premix and ready to go with no visible needle. In usability studies. 99% of people were able to give Gvoke correctly find out more go to Diabetes- Connections comm and click on the Gvoke logo Gvoke shouldn't be used in patients with pheochromocytoma or insulinoma visit gvoke glucagon.com slash risk.
Jason and Sandy, thank you so much for joining me. I'm really interested to learn more about M Fund and everything that you all are doing. Thanks for being here.
Dr. Jason Baker 3:33
Thanks for having us. We're excited to be part of the conversation.
Stacey Simms 3:36
Let me start with you, Jason, if I could just tell me a little bit about how M Fund came to be it's quite a story.
Dr. Jason Baker 3:43
Yeah, I absolutely love to because it really is a story. I think of all too many people who live with diabetes in this world of ours. And just as an anecdote, you know, I myself have type 1 diabetes and I was diagnosed as an adult I was 24 years young medical student actually, and it changed my life. But when I was diagnosed, I had everything I needed to do a good job with managing and never got any complications don't intend to knocking wood knocking side of my head here. It is a very difficult condition as we know that takes a lot of resources and and as soon after I was diagnosed I started to do some international work and had the opportunity to travel to Africa when I was actually a fellow in endocrinology, so a young trainee in endocrinology. While I was in Uganda, I met some people living with type 1 diabetes and was struck at all of the struggles that they had. And in subsequent travels, I met other people with diabetes and I thought to myself, man, if I would have been diagnosed somewhere else than where I was diagnosed, would I be able to be where I am free of applications, having my life not hindered, but actually enhanced by diabetes, really thriving with diabetes. So it really struck me What a discrepancy there was in access to care for people living with diabetes. And I really felt this huge drive and obligation to help change the narrative. For a lot of other folks who may not have been born in geographic areas or into areas with economic opportunity to get the resources they needed to thrive. On top of this, I was meeting a ton of folks who are doing work in the field of type 1 diabetes and helping kids. So there were a lot of organizations focusing on children living with diabetes, but I realized that you know, there was this rule about how old kids could be and still be part of those programs. And it entered in to my mind at the time like, well, what happens when adults are diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, or diabetes? in general? What happens when they grow up? Where do they get their resources? So these two main themes kind of emerged in my mind about what happens to adults living with diabetes, and what happens to them living in these resource poor areas, and what can I do, and a team that was built around this concept do to improve upon those lives. So the organization was born out of those ideas, basically, giving people of all ages an equal chance working to give them an equal chance to not just survive living with diabetes, but to thrive, to empower them to be able to have the tools they need to thrive? long winded way of answering questions.
Stacey Simms 6:44
I'm gonna ask you one more thing to make it even longer. Excellent. I like to talk me to what does it do? What does the fund do? Do you send money to other organizations? Do you go back to the countries you mentioned?
Dr. Jason Baker 6:57
Yeah, well, we do both. So we we have three main folks I are focuses of interest, if you will. So we've got an educational component where we focus on diabetes education for healthcare providers, and for patients, we have another component where we focus on access to health care. So we'll do things like running a clinic, helping people to be plugged into their local healthcare system to access care and the like. And then the third thing we do is we have economic empowerment projects, because we really have realized that the folks that were working to help oftentimes don't have an education to literally earn the money, they need to buy the resources locally for managing their diabetes. So we're really into economic empowerment work to give people the economic health, they need to thrive as well. You know, as part of this, we travel back and forth to country to site, do site visits, meet with partners. And unfortunately, COVID interrupted that a little bit this past year, but we're eager to get back boots on the ground.
Stacey Simms 8:02
Sandy, let me bring you on, and ask you, why are you part of eM Fund? What's your What's your story?
Sandy Narayanan 8:09
That's a good story. Good question. Actually, the story is, I grew up with a father who had diabetes, and was on intensive insulin therapy for pretty much most of the time that he had diagnosed, what had been diagnosed with diabetes. So he passed away when he was just 65. We think it was type two on insulin, it could have been type one, it could have been any other kind of diabetes. And this was an India where I grew up, and we noticed that he was able to access insulin, but there was no monitors, he would basically be on a stick once a week, or once in two weeks to find out how he was doing and to titrate insulin. And there were people you know, who were around us, there's obviously you know, as we know, there's a lot of poverty and, and there's a lot of diabetes in India. And even as I was growing up, I noticed that there were many other than my father, who had diabetes who didn't have the quote unquote, luxury, if you will, of even having insulin or even going out and getting tested once a week to see how they were doing with their glucose management. So I was always kind of interested in diabetes. And then I got diagnosed myself with type two diabetes about now almost 1314 years ago. And there I was checking my glucose at 10 times a day and I was able to do that and I was initially on insulin and initially thought that I myself might have the same type of diabetes that my dad did and that I would need to be on insulin forever. But I really was able to come off insulin within about 10 weeks or so and really within Monitoring and changing my diet and just my lifestyle habits. And so I really thought, oh my goodness, you know, how things have changed since my father's time. And what is happening in countries like India and anywhere else where the resources are not available that I have here when, you know, in America to be able to even manage type two diabetes with 10 strips a day, yeah, I could afford it. I had insurance. I actually, when Jason who was at the time, Dr. Baker to me, and who actually was the one who diagnosed me, he brought up the idea that he was going to do some create a nonprofit for people with type 1 diabetes, I immediately jumped out at I've been toying with the idea of doing something myself truly wanted to give back especially to communities in need, in underserved areas, population, women, I'm very, very interested in ensuring that women have parity in treatment, and in access to care and supplies, and especially with type 1 diabetes, the need for intensive insulin therapy, and the need for monitoring just was my became my passion. And I joined forces with Jason up until then, actually, at the time that I that Jason was starting March respond, I was in corporate human resources, and it created my own business and had been working on what zation effectiveness, etc. So it became sort of a natural complement to Jason's medical and healthcare vision.
Stacey Simms 11:33
Jason, the last couple of years, as I've done this podcast now since 2015. And you know, price access all that has been an issue, even in the United States, right, where we, some people have very, very good private health insurance. Some people have public health insurance that covers things. But I feel like the conversation of last couple of years has really shown issues here in the United States where one of the four people are rationing, insulin and that sort of thing. Absolutely. I I know it's difficult, but I have to ask you, how are you all doing? This is not a new effort for you. All right. You've been doing this for almost 10 years? Have you seen things kind of change in the conversation around this? Because so much more of the conversation in this country is about affordability and access?
Right back to Jason answering that question. But first, Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario. Health. And over the years, I find we manage diabetes better when we're thinking less, but all the stuff of diabetes tasks. That's why I love partnering with people who take the load off on things like ordering supplies, so I can really focus on Benny, the Dario diabetes success plan is all about you. All the test 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 on how to succeed, get the diabetes management plan that works with you and for you, Darrius published Studies demonstrate high impact clinical results, find out more go to my dario.com forward slash diabetes dash connections.
Now back to Jason answering my question about access to insulin and high pricing here in the US.
Dr. Jason Baker 13:17
Absolutely, I mean, I think you know, it's interesting because it's, it is different, right? So like, if you're thinking about what's happening in some of the countries who don't have national healthcare systems, for example, or who really have a truly disrupted continuous supply chain of insulin, and sometimes not reliably good quality insulin, certainly that don't have test strips, or any of the technologies we have here, you're dealing with kind of almost a warzone situation where you are bringing in opportunity, and in many cases in which there's very limited as certainly for the people who are living in poverty, it has certainly been a conversation with us and all of our partners, as we have done our work largely overseas to help to fill in these gaps of care, to say, Well, what the heck are we doing in our own backyard? And why is it not working? Well here in the United States to you know, what are the problems here in the US? And it's very interesting, Stacey, you asked this because internally, we've been asking ourselves, what more can we do in the US? Well, and we're working on some, yeah, we're working on some projects on that end, but in my opinion, right now, in the US on the US side, we have challenges with number one, using resources that actually we might have access to correctly. And in many cases, those resources may not be used as well because of perhaps underlying depression, anxiety, diabetes, burnout. All of those things that plague all of us living with diabetes at some point or another, unfortunately, it really hinders the ability to do good self care and self management. But then on the opposite end, or not on the opposite, but but complimentary, you definitely have people who don't have access, their co pays are too high, they're in this gray zone in between not having Medicaid seeking care through the emergency room, maybe they're undocumented, lots of reasons that might lead to either rationing or simply not having the supplies. I've had seniors, for example, living with Type One Diabetes, coming into my office crying to me about being in the doughnut hole and not being able to afford their insulin, and being completely overwhelmed by the complexity of some of the insulin assistance programs here that might be intermittently available to people. So there is definitely an issue, definitely an issue in the US with resources being inadequate, or sometimes resources also not being used correctly. But again, you kind of take that particular situation that absolutely exists here, and you pour some kerosene on it, and then you find the situation that we oftentimes deal with that our sites overseas. Does. Does that make sense?
Stacey Simms 16:26
Yeah, and I don't want you to misunderstand that. I don't think you did. But you know, I'm certainly not saying that we have to put Americans first and full of solve this before we can help anybody else. I mean, the problems are vast, and they are different. As you've said, Can you give us a little bit of insight into how M Fund has helped?
Dr. Jason Baker 16:45
Absolutely. And I can take a first stab at this. And Sandy would love to hear you chime in too. But one of the things that we are extremely proud about is the center that we have opened and have been running for the past five years in a remote region of Uganda kasay, which is bordering the Congo a very, very remote region, which we had become a partner of a few years ago and have subsequently helped to renovate a physical building, which is now housing a diabetes organization in which we are now running a twice weekly medical clinic, along with an Eye Clinic, none of which existed before and which is really serving about 350. folks living in the region with diabetes, who otherwise were unable to get care, due to transportation issues due to monetary issues are due to, again, hospitals being too far from where they live. So we are so proud of this center. And we're also so proud because it's created a system of peer education by which it is our partners are a group of diabetes patients on the ground who, who came together to survive, partner with us and are really helping their compatriots to learn how to better manage their diabetes with pushing educational components, helping with access to healthcare and taking the lead in various economic empowerment projects through this centers. So you know, we have folks who are making art and selling it abroad and locally in the monies come back and help them to have the resources to buy their there and take care of their diabetes and buy their supplies, we have a piece of land that we grow cash crops on there, and the resources go back to the group to help care for themselves with diabetes related costs. Lots of layers of this. And we are very proud of this center that we want to replicate in other locations. So that is kind of where our biggest champion work is right now. I'm helping this group in a remote area of Uganda. And by the way, they're all adults, they're all older, and unable to access other existing programs of aid. So we really feel that this is serving an acute need in that area. And we're we're just really, really proud of it. And again, it always breaks my heart a little bit though, Stacey because when we're asked this question, I think, well, it's great. We're doing these things and other locations doing similar work, but it always strikes me that we need to be doing more in to do so we have to continue to grow as an organization and we have to continue to get more person power to the table in order to do greater outreach to other folks because the more we dig on this in, the more we people we help the more it's uncovered, that there are more people to help and in other ways than we are currently doing. So that's the tricky thing. I think about foreign aid work when it comes to diabetes. It's such a complex and unruly beast, that the more work you do in helping folks, the more you realize you need to do to kind of take it to the next level, you can't go in and just cure something, right? It's like a socio economic project of unknown duration. Right? And we are really excited about the progress we've made so far and helping this group mean, because as a fan, did
Stacey Simms 20:29
you want to jump in?
Sandy Narayanan 20:30
Yeah, I want to say also, as Jason mentioned, the primary work is in Uganda right now, the biggest number of beneficiaries are there. We also have a very thriving program in Rwanda, originally, the Rwanda Diabetes Association, had a program where they had a group of patients with type 1 diabetes, come to a center, and spend six months there, and actually learn a trade and get diabetes, self education, and self management education. And they had the opportunity to spend time with other patients with type one. So they could have a lot of back and forth and peer support. And we really, in some ways, wanted to lift and shift that model, which we thought was great. But of course, to get other places where you can have a group of people come and spend six months, I mean, six months diabetes camp, if you think about it, would be quite the challenge. So we really, though, took the concept of making sure that that the patients had some form of vocational training or some ability to be economically empowered when they went out back into their communities to live with, with diabetes, and to take away a little bit of the stigma as well, that they might feel, because they see that there are others who have the same condition. Sometimes they're isolated, and they believe it's something that has been sort of there, they're smitten by some curse. Oh, no, yes, way, they can be with other people and get that sense of togetherness and say, Okay, this is something manageable. And this is something I can do. And there is a support system available outside of even the my peers, because they can see that there are organizations helping. So we have helped nearly 120 students graduate from that center. And then when that center moved, we would we have to take a little bit of a break. But we're again sponsoring some people back into they've got a new center now at a different location. And they're starting to get people coming back in learning trades. And we've also established a conduit for people to get tailoring training, for instance. And we set up a tailoring cooperative, where we have people making beautiful backpacks and things like that which have sold on the US market very well through your thrift shop, which is our partner. You know, that is another piece of some of the work we do. Where again, those same three aspects of our work of healthcare, access, health, diabetes, education, and economic empowerment. It's really about motivating and empowering our beneficiaries to thrive
Stacey Simms 23:23
in just listening to you talk. It's amazing to me where we are, and people through this podcast, we're so fortunate, we are very technologically advanced, even for the United States. You know, many people who listen to this show are very much do it yourself. They have hybrid closed loops or closed loops that they've made themselves, you know, they have basically the best technology. And to know that there are still people 100 years after the discovery of insulin that are, you know, I know, we have issues here, we've talked about them, but that, you know, think about this as a curse or think about this as a literal curse. Not just you know, Darren, I hate diabetes, it's really kind of hard to listen to. And it's hard to think about it that way. When week after week, I'm saying, well, when is the Dexcom g seven coming out? Why can't it connect to my watch? Right? So Jason and Sandy, what do you need from us?
Dr. Jason Baker 24:14
Well, we need support. First of all, we as you as we had mentioned earlier, we want to do more. But we ourselves as an organization, you know, we need more resources, we need person power, we also need financial help. So anybody who's interested in any of our programs, wants to hear more about them, wants to participate in them reach out to us, if you want to support them, we need your support because as an organization, Stacey we work 90% of our funds are private donations. And it is because of all those supporters that we can actually do the work that we do, and COVID has only made our work more expensive and more complicated. So all the more assistance we can get on the financial side. I mean, I hate to always talk money, but to be frank, we need it. You know, we, for example, have a gala coming up on October 12. Unfortunately, it will be virtual. But fortunately given that it's virtual, any of you can attend. So watch for our email, sign up for our emails, attend our gala, hear more about our work, support us. It is because of you that all of us can come together and help our brothers and sisters overseas or even right here in the us who don't have as much as we do.
Stacey Simms 25:35
I'm also curious, I know that you're not here to talk about yourself. But you know, you mentioned you were diagnosed as a third year medical student, I think you've lived with type one for close to 20 years now. Yeah, bless
Dr. Jason Baker 25:47
your heart. I thought you're gonna say 30. I was in school when I was 10. Yes, exactly.
Stacey Simms 25:53
Weren't we all. But as you look back, I'm curious what that was like. I mean, you were learning about medicine, you were learning, I assume how to be a doctor. And then you had to learn how to be a person with type 1 diabetes. What was that like?
Dr. Jason Baker 26:05
Well, it's looking back it's actually just slightly embarrassing because truth be told, I was a terrible self diagnostician. You know, medical students are famous for saying they have everything except what they actually have, or making up things. I explained away, Paul a year, you know, having to urinate all the time losing weight to working hard, and having excessive drinking, because of stress, you know, above water. So it's funny. And finally, finally, when I was diagnosed, I had to, you know, I thought, diabetes, me diabetes, no way. And it wasn't in my family, as is the case for most folks. But quickly thereafter, a sitting there in the hospital, being the patient after having taken care of so many patients, I had this experience of being vulnerable and being scared, and for the first time in my young life, having a sense of mortality. And I thought, Man, this really sucks. And then before I left the hospital, I thought, well, what am I going to do with it, it's a sink or swim situation, Baker, so sink or swim, and I said, You know what, I'm going to swim. So I decided that I was going to apply my own personal experience. And I was going to go into endocrinology. So in work in the field of diabetes, and so you know, honestly, I haven't looked back I, I like to think that my self management personal experience in sharing that with patients might set home some cases hopefully help them. But it was scary. It was eye opening to what it's like, being a patient as a medical provider, and definitely changed the trajectory of my career, no doubt about it.
Stacey Simms 27:38
Have your fears from that time come true, or you know how I hate to always this this, like big reflection with type one type question. But I am curious, you know, looking back, what would you tell yourself, oh,
Dr. Jason Baker 27:51
I would tell myself, be easy on yourself and learn from your mistakes, instead of beating yourself up for when you make a mistake. You know, when you have a high, don't stress over it corrected, but learn so that next time it doesn't happen, be open about diabetes at all times, don't hide it, don't spend any energy in having any shame related to diabetes, but make it part of you, and let it empower you and strengthen you, and use your energies for fighting it yourself, but also helping others to be better educated about it. So they too, don't hide it. I think that those would be the two biggest things that I would go back and tell my young self to remember to hold true. And with that, I think that everybody will do fine and use what they have wisely.
Stacey Simms 28:43
Sandy, let me ask you, you know, you're, you're a certified diabetes educator, you're a registered dietician. What do you bring now to your family, to your personal life, when it comes to diabetes
Sandy Narayanan 28:52
was the same in some ways, as Jason said, you know, to be able to talk about it to say, you know, when you have diabetes, you don't, and in my case, type two diabetes, that you can manage it with just eating right? Not just, it's not that simple. And I think I do understand that it's not so simple, just because, oh, I'm not insulin dependent. You know, I bet Oh, I just managed my diet and exercise and I can reverse my diabetes, I do understand the challenges. And I bring that in my patient interactions as well. At the same time, I can speak to the fact that you are watching your diet, watching your your eating, making sure that you stay active. These are all important and I think especially to my family and my friends and the people in India and again, women, I certainly bring that message that there is so much available in terms of education and knowledge and alternatives to eating just a carbohydrate rich diet for Since I bring a lot of that in to my discussions with family, many family members with diabetes, my father was very educated I, you know, at the same time, you know, there's, there's only so much you can fight with resources that you have. And so I do bring that as well that you know, a lot of people I know, when I was first diagnosed, you know, I go back to that concept of stigma, there's some shame attached, especially if you have type two, sometimes, you know, it's I eat a lot, and you are sedentary. And so you get type two, right? It's something you bring up on yourself. And I am able to speak to the fact that that's not true, and that we have so many things that are out of our hands. But there are some things that we can do, and what can we do to be able to try for diabetes, and I'm, in terms of, you know, similar to Jason, I went through, I went through a certain period when I wouldn't talk about having diabetes at all. You know, it's really through seeing what people are going through when on our trips abroad, or listening to family and friends, listening to my patients that I realized that it's really important to talk about it, own it, acknowledge it, and seek out as much information as possible to how you can manage.
Stacey Simms 31:17
Alright, Did I miss anything before I start wrapping us up here?
Dr. Jason Baker 31:20
No other than to congratulate yourself for having an awesome podcast, not because of your guests, necessarily, but putting together an amazing forum for us to discuss things like this. So thank you for having us here and letting us tell you the story of M Fund and our stories. We appreciate it.
Stacey Simms 31:37
Jason at the end. Thank you so much for being here.
Unknown Speaker 31:40
Thank you so much, Stacy. You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.
Stacey Simms 31:52
Lots more information about Marjorie's funder, M Fund, and the gala and auction they have coming up in October, it's October 12. It's virtual. If I didn't mention that earlier. You can buy tickets and join live, you can donate money, there are there are a lot of ways to help as you can imagine. And there's always more information at Diabetes connections.com, including the transcription that I put out for every episode. So if you know somebody who would prefer to read, please send it their way. And in just a moment, I'm gonna tell you something a little bit embarrassing, and a mixup I have had for a long time about Marjories’ fund.
But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. And you know, when we first started with Dexcom, and it was back in 2013, the share and follow apps were not an option. They just hadn't come up with that technology yet. So trust me when I say I know using shared follow makes a big difference. I think it is really important though to talk to the person you're following or sharing with and get comfortable with how you want everyone to use the system. Even if you're following your young child. These are great conversations to have, you know things like at what numbers will you text, how long will you wait to call that sort of thing. That way the whole system gives everyone real peace of mind. I'll tell you what I do love absolutely about the Dexcom share. And that's helping Benny with any issues using the data from the whole day and night. And not just one moment. Internet connectivity is required to access separate Dexcom follow up to learn more, go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo.
Alright, so you know, I'm never afraid to tell you when I make a mistake and even when it's embarrassing one. So I told you at the beginning of the show that Dr. Jason Baker is one of those names that I'd heard for years. And you know, people had told me to get in touch with him and have him on the show. But every time I heard about Dr. Baker and Marjorie's fund, I thought this was about the dog. Marjorie, do you know what I'm talking about? Does anybody out there understand my confusion. So this is actually kind of a sad story. But it led to a very happy ending. Marjorie was one of the dogs that was crucial inventing and bests experiments which led to the discovery of insulin. They removed these dogs pancreases and then tried to figure out how to keep them alive. And Marjorie, I believe was the first one. She was kept alive for about 70 days, and got quite famous actually, but obviously quite different from what Marjorie's fund is all about. So yeah, a little embarrassing to share would have been a very simple Google search all this time. But I'm really glad that I did get to talk to Jason and to Sandy and to do to finally learn a lot more about the work that they are doing and how we can help.
Okay, before I let you go, just a reminder to join the Facebook group if you haven't done so already. If you're on Facebook, it is Diabetes Connections, the group if you'd like to sign up for our email list, that is always easy to do just go to Diabetes connections.com there's a pop up with our latest promotion right now. It's still how to get your gear to stick and you can sign up for that or you can just scroll down to the bottom if you don't want the promotion, you know that's currently running. You can just Scroll down to the bottom and there's a little portion where you can join the newsletter list. If you're not on Facebook, I would urge you to do that. Both of those together really how I get the word out about announcements and fun stuff, surveys, that sort of thing. thank you as always to my editor, John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. Thank you so much for listening. I'm Stacey Simms. I'll see you back here in just a couple of days. Until then, be kind to yourself. Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms Media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged
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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 – and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast.. so you can read more if you want, on your own schedule.
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In the News is brought to you by Real Good Foods! Find their Entrée Bowls and all of their great products in your local grocery store, Target or Costco.
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Our top story.. What helps people with diabetes gain better glucose control? Expansion of Medicaid. As part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, U.S. states were given the option of expanding Medicaid coverage to more people as a means of reducing the number of people without health insurance. As of today, only 12 states have not taken advantage.
A new study finds that blood pressure and glucose control measures have improved in states that have. The researchers behind the study say it may take a while to show up but that, over the longer run, expanding Medicaid eligibility may improve key chronic disease health outcomes for low-income, marginalized populations.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/medicaid-expansion-improves-hypertension-and-diabetes-control
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Medtronic takes over the intellectual property rights to an implanted infusion pump. This is technology developed by the Alfred E Mann foundation. 25 years ago, there was a lot of buzz about implantable insulin pumps, but it hasn’t panned out. The tech is just what it sounds like – a small insulin pump that goes under the skin and holds enough insulin for a few months. Medtronic had one on the market but pulled it almost 15 years ago. One of the drawbacks is that you have to go to the doctor every time you need to fil the pump and there’s other upkeep – but the upside is said to be better control and a lot less thinking about diabetes. Interesting to follow this one.
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/medtronic-buys-implanted-infusion-pump-tech-to-develop-new-type-1-diabetes-treatment
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A story familiar to way too many parents.. symptoms of type 1 diabetes are not always immediately recognized by primary care providers. This was a study of about 240 kids under 18.. published in Pediatric Diabetes
These researchers found that 39% of parents had suspicions of new-onset diabetes before they brought their child in for care. Of those, the majority of parents first brought their child to the doctor with symptoms.. and then ended up bringing the same child to the emergency room within the next four weeks.
This was a Swedish study, but research shows especially during COVID, diagnosis during DKA is increasing in children in many countries, showing the greater need for better education all around.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-09-21/doctors-often-miss-signs-of-type-1-diabetes-in-kids
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We’ve heard a lot during this pandemic about an increase in new diabetes diagnoses. A new report from Mississippi, where providers are reporting a -quote – massive increase. One pediatric endocrinologist is says they’ve seen up to a 40% increase this year, compared to 2019. That’s both type 1 and type 2.
So what’s going on? Lots of theories including indirect effects of quarantines, closures, and unemployment. It might sound odd to some, but severe emotional stress is thought to be a trigger for diabetes, especially in type 1.
Additional studies show that COVID targets the insulin making pancreatic beta cells. A full understanding may be some time away, but these endos say the surge is real.
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Interesting listener question about Dexom sensors.. thanks for sending in this photo – seems that some customers are getting these G6 inserters – brand new in the original packaging – with a label that says “this product meets shelf life extension requirements.” I reached out to Dexcom and they told me: the stickers are legit and there are updated expirations dates. I’ve asked for a bit more information as to why they’d do something like this and if it means that all G6 sensors could have extended shelf life.
They responded that they aren’t going through all the sensors, so only the ones labeled can be considered extended.. no answer as to why now or to which part of the sensor or inserter actually expires. I’ll follow up next time we talk for the podcast, but if you get one of these labeled sensors – the company says it’s legit and safe.
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More to come, But first, I want to tell you about one of our great sponsors who helps make Diabetes Connections possible.
Real Good Foods. Where the mission is Be Real Good
They make nutritious foods— grain free, high in protein, never added sugar and from real ingredients—the new Entrée bowls are great. They have a chicken burrito, a cauliflower mash and braised beef bowl.. the lemon chicken I’ve told you about and more! They keep adding to the menu line! You can buy online or find a store near you with their locator right on the website. I’ll put a link in the FB comments and as always at d-c dot com.
Back to the news…
Big news for a great children’s book. JDRF has put Shia Learns About Insulin into the Bag of Hope. We had the author on the show last year... I’ll link that episode up so you can hear the whole story. Shaina (SHAY-ahn-uh) Hatchell is a Registered Nurse, Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist, and Nurse Manager at the Howard University Diabetes Treatment Center. The story was inspired by her brother, who lives with T1D.
The JDRF Bag of Hope is given to newly diagnosed children age 11 and under. Frankly, it’s pretty hard to get new products in there – it’s nice to see some more diverse representation.
https://www.jdrf.org/press-releases/jdrf-announces-the-addition-of-shia-learns-about-insulin-book-into-the-bag-of-hope/
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Last bit of news is note worthy for what didn’t happen. Big apple news conference this month with absolutely no mention of blood glucose monitoring. You’ll recall there was a ton of speculation about this all year long.. with many tech websites breathlessly reporting this was going to be happen. Look – I do think it will.. but there is really no hard evidence that anyone has come close to cracking this. Non invasive remotely accurate glucose monitoring is really hard. And, as I’ve said all along, we’ll know it’s for real when we see some clinical trials.
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Please join me wherever you get podcasts for our next episode - The episode out right now is with American Idol contestant turned actor Kevin Covais – he’s in a new Netflix show out this month and he spent some time this summer mentoring teens. Fun guy with great behind the scenes Idol stories, too.
That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.
Kevin Covais was one of the youngest contestants on American Idol; he was just 16 when he made his debut during season 5. He’ll share some behind the scenes stories including managing low blood sugar during a live performance. Diagnosed with T1D at age 11, Kevin has been working steadily as an actor. We’ll talk about working in Hollywood with diabetes – and what that's been like during COVID, more about American Idol, and how Kevin found himself mentoring other kids with type 1.
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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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.
Announcer 0:20
This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.
Stacey Simms 0:26
This week, actor Kevin Covais was one of the youngest contestants on American Idol back in season five, he'll share some behind the scenes stories, including managing low blood sugar during a live performance.
Kevin Covais 0:38
And I'm singing and I just like, I can't wait for this thing to be over. I can't wait to stop singing and get the critiques from the judges that I'm not even gonna really listen to you because I got to get off the stage and I got to get some juice or I gotta get some tablets. I gotta take care of this.
Stacey Simms 0:49
He was fine. And since Idol , Kevin has been working steadily as an actor. We'll talk about working in Hollywood with diabetes and during COVID more about American Idol, and how Kevin found himself mentoring other kids with type one. He has advice for parents too.
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, always is so glad to have you here. Hi, I'm your host Stacey Simms. We aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. And my guest this week is Kevin Covais, diagnosed with type one just as he turned 11. Kevin is best known for American Idol as you heard in the tease there and the Disney Channel show Good Luck Charlie, where he played the character Victor. He is a steadily working actor with roles in Transformers and this is us, the rookie, NCIS Los Angeles and more. I put some pictures of Kevin in the Diabetes Connections Facebook groups, you can kind of see him on set. And he is appearing in the new Netflix series on the verge, which is out this month.
I thought it would be fun to just play a little clip of Season Five of American Idol where Kevin appeared and this was back in 2006. As I said he was one of the very youngest contestants. So here's a little bit of him from back then.
(Kevin sings)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc5ec3te75I
Stacey Simms 2:44
used to watch idol all the time. And as I confessed to Kevin, it has been a while. But what a big show, right? And you'll hear Kevin during the interview mentioned Elliott Yamin who was also on season five and also lives with type one. I got to meet Elliot a couple of years ago at a touched by type one conference he is still performing writing music. He's now a dad, I'll put a link to Elliot stuff in the show notes as well.
That of course will have tons of information about Kevin, but I just thought that was really interesting because to me, I don't know it seems like yesterday but of course 2006 was the year that my son was diagnosed, Benny was diagnosed right before he turned two. He is now almost 17 which is I mean, we've lived with diabetes. Now I've been part of this community for 15 years in just a couple of weeks. So 2006 kind of was a long time ago and kind of seems like yesterday to me.
Alright, Kevin's interview coming up in just a moment. But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Gvoke Hypopen and 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 fast 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 is Gvoke Hypopen. Gvoke Hypopen is pre mixed and ready to go with no visible needle. You pull off the red cap push the yellow end onto bare skin and hold it for five seconds. That's it. 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 slash risk.
Kevin, welcome to the show. I'm really glad to talk to you. Thanks for making some time for me.
Kevin Covais 4:26
Stacey. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to find we've been talking about this for a while I'm so I'm so happy to finally join the program. It's great.
Stacey Simms 4:33
Awesome. Yeah, it's great that we finally connected Gosh, so much to talk about. We connected everyone We see each other every year add friends for life. Yeah. And I was so happy we were able to do that this year. We'll kind of see what happens going ahead. But before we get into all of that, do you mind if we just kind of take a step back and look back? I mean you haven't been on the show before and I'd love to kind of revisit the early days of Kevin
Kevin Covais 4:59
Spacey. I would be disappointed if we didn't do that. So let's, let's dive in. Let's do it. Yes, please.
Stacey Simms 5:04
As I was asking that I was thinking about American Idol but I should probably go back further. You were diagnosed when you were you were a kid. You were not even 11 years old yet, right? Yeah, it
Kevin Covais 5:13
was just prior to my 11th birthday symptoms leading up. Yeah, my birthday is at the end of May. And I just remember that entire month of May so vividly. You know, obviously, you think back to childhood and, you know, memories here memories there. But that month just stands out in my mind so vividly. Symptoms throughout the month, parents wandering out what's going on with Kev? what's what's happening, you know, maybe an infection this that bring me into the doctor, several days prior to my 11th birthday to get the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. Yeah.
Stacey Simms 5:41
Did you spend your birthday in the hospital?
Kevin Covais 5:43
I think it was. So it was it was several days after my birthday. So yeah, it was the entire month leading up to the birthday. And then it was, yeah, right. At the start of June, I was putting so this was several days after my 11th birthday that I was in the hospital. And just you know, you hear the doctor tell you and your kid and I, you know, I immediately I broke down and cried. I didn't know, I didn't know what I was dealing with. I you know, you hear the word diabetes and you know, your mind escapes, you starts running around all these different things. And then he you know, the doctor, you know, kindly explained to me, now this is something you're going to be able to manage your life. It's obviously going to be a great deal of work. But this is something you live with and something you manage. And then from there, I learned everything over the course of the next week and being in the hospital and getting treated. Yeah, it was. It was a month like no other though. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah.
Stacey Simms 6:27
So your kid, you're diagnosed at a time when frankly, it's the as I recall that time that early 2000s. It's the time right before everything really started changing. Absolutely. As I look at I mean, Ben, he was diagnosed in 2006. They were like, we've got this amazing thing called Lantus. That's just been approved for kids. Yeah, you know, and now everything seems so different with the technology. What was the first kind of technology or routine that you were on? Gosh, you
Kevin Covais 6:54
got me thinking back to the pre Lantus days of time? Yeah, it's it's wild. For me. Taking the injections, taking the daily injections, I will go ahead and say I'm not currently on the pump, that I am one of these those rare rare people that uh, that takes daily injections. I have a CGM. But that's, that's my preferred way of doing it have been doing it that way for years. But yeah, starting out being diagnosed taking human and human log each and every day. Yeah. And those pre Lantus days. And, you know, they think back to those syringes before you have the pens and the newer technology and the things that make it so easy now, so, so accessible, and thinking back to a time before, you know, we had some of those advancements, it was definitely interesting at the start for those first couple of years.
Stacey Simms 7:35
Well, is that the kind of and I say technology to encompass whatever you're using shots? Oh, of course. Yeah. So when you're talking humulin, you have a log, did you have to kind of eat on a set schedule? Or were you okay to kind of inject when you want it to eat,
Kevin Covais 7:51
you know, that really came with adulthood, that sort of injecting when I wanted to eat and the accessibility I remember, as a kid, it was, it was the preference of my doctors to have that set routine. I remember going in and you have a regimented schedule of three meals, several snacks, a snack at an after school snack at roughly 3pm. And, and one prior to bed 9pm at night. And yeah, that was for a while. It's obviously insulin matching. Exactly what you're what you're ingesting exactly what you're eating and set times. It was all very regimented. For me those first couple years of my life. Yeah. Something. I bet. I bet it's a trip to think back on it really is. Yeah,
Stacey Simms 8:30
it must be I mean, I just think, you know, it's there's no easy age to be diagnosed with diabetes. But 11 you're just starting out that like, tiptoeing into independence. Yes. Middle School. Do you remember? Did your parents kind of give you a long rope? Were they very protective? I don't want to be too personal.
Kevin Covais 8:48
Please, please. They were unbelievable. I'm so blessed to have the mother and the father that I do. And the support system that I do, I think they handled it differently. I think, with my mother, I think not that there was more trust, I think, was maybe a little longer rope and trusting me to do the things I think my father was, you know, very concerned at times, but you know, rightfully concerned about, you know, what I was taking and this and that. So there were I think there were several different schools of parenting going on. But together, they complemented each other so well. And it was I just knew that they were always there for me during those frustrating moments, those highs, those lows, quite literally, obviously, where it's just they were there All the while, but just like an amazing support system site. I think they went about it slightly differently. But we're, you know, managed to still be on the same page because, you know, nobody handles You know, one set situation quite the same. So, I was just incredibly fortunate. We just got informed, it's like we figured out what it was and there was a moment of kind of bowing our heads and being frustrated being sad. And then we were like, Alright, what do we do about this and got in the hospital and took care of and met up with all the doctors and got assigned the endocrinologist and and took it from there. Yeah,
Stacey Simms 9:53
your parents must have given you a long rope because five years later, you auditioned for American Idol right when you're 16
Kevin Covais 9:59
I was a baby I mean, I'm still a baby. I'm just an older baby. I'm still probably just as immature. But now I'm in my 30s so I don't really get away with as much. I I was 16 years old SJC when I did the show, I can't believe I did it at all. And I can't believe I did it when I was when I didn't know any more. I was just a child. Yeah. It's so
Stacey Simms 10:17
funny. So okay, so you're my son's age.
Kevin Covais 10:23
And your son's a child. I'm sure he's way more mature than I was.
Stacey Simms 10:28
But, you know, you did let him just go. You know, he took an international trip for a month but he was with you. But he was with a bunch of people who, you know, we're we felt very safe with of course, what was the deal with American Idol because you didn't just go to one city, right? I mean, audition different cities take us kind of through what happened.
Kevin Covais 10:45
It was just the journey of a lifetime at 16. I audition in New York. I'm from from Levittown, New York, Long Island, New York, and I audition up in Boston, I turned 16. And as I tell the story, my mom and I would watch idol from the Kelly Clarkson days. I ultimately was on season five. But you know, Kelly Clarkson wins the show, season one, my mom and I, it's must see TV. We tune in every week to watch the show. And my father was never a big fan. And I was a singer, around the same time that I was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 11. That's kind of when I joined the chorus and developed a love for singing and acting in the school plays and whatnot. And he'd walked through the room and we'd be watching idol. And I would tell him, I said, you know, one day I'm going to do this show. And he's like, yeah, okay, we'll see. And I turned 16. And again, just to echo how incredibly supportive my parents have always been, they've always been by my side, I turned 16. I go up to Boston to audition for the show. When there were no tri state area auditions in the Greater New York area. They take me up to Boston, they take me up to Gillette Stadium where the New England Patriots play, they're having massive auditions. 15 tents set up on a field, a judge at each tent and forward a time that bringing us down and they say Sing, sing, sing, sing, you sing a little bit of a song, they cut you off whenever they feel like you either make it or they send you to the exits, we see a herd of people go into the exits. And I was one of the lucky few that day who they said you know what, we're gonna give you another audition, we'll come back and see the executive producers, so on and so forth all the way up to the main judges in the city of Boston, I see the original three of Simon cow, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson. And eventually I make my way out to Hollywood. I get past that round, and made it to Hollywood. It was my first time ever on the west coast. I get to go and I'm one of maybe 180 people auditioning out in Hollywood to try to get on those live shows where ultimately I landed and Gosh, got to somehow got to the top 12 my seats I don't even know I don't even it was honestly Stacy, it was all blur. I don't even know how I did it. I don't know. I mean, I remember it. But it was just such a roller coaster and such an emotional ride in such an exciting ride my lights? Yeah.
Stacey Simms 12:39
When I'm researching to talk to you, you know, going through the American Idol season five and kind of looking at what was written around that time. There's no mention of you having diabetes?
Kevin Covais 12:50
No, no, you hiding it.
Stacey Simms 12:57
Right back to Kevin finishing that thought. But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario health. And one of the things that makes diabetes management difficult for us that really annoys me and Benny isn't actually the big picture stuff. It's all the little tasks adding up. Are you sick of running out of strips, do you need some direction or encouragement going forward with your diabetes management, with visibility into your trends help you on your wellness journey? The Dario diabetes success plan offers all of that and more. No more waiting in line at the pharmacy no more searching online for answers. No more wondering about how you're doing with your blood sugar levels, find out more go to my dario.com forward slash diabetes dash connections. Now back to Kevin talking about why he didn't share his type one with the American Idol audience.
Kevin Covais 13:46
Absolutely not hiding it. This is how little I just knew about I just wasn't aware of anything. I was so green to the experience that like now as an actor of 10 plus years as a mainly transition to acting at this point, which I'm sure we'll get to a bit in a little bit. I didn't think about it from a perspective of Oh, wow, what a stage to raise awareness for this thing. I was on the show. I made it to the top 12. And one of my best friends from the show is Elliot Yamin, fellow type one, and you know, great guy, great personality and just just a heck of a voice. Oh my god, the guy can sing the doors off the place. He's unbelievable. And we auditioned in Boston together. I was so nervous until my final few weeks performing live on the show. I just think I went in and I would do the interviews and I would do this and I would do that. And it wouldn't even occur to me like man, you should really bring this up. I wasn't hiding it. I wasn't ashamed. I think for me, it was just such a normal part of my life that I'd been accustomed to for five years. And I was like, Oh, yeah, well, I'm you know, I'm no different than anyone else. I'm just dealing with my type 1 diabetes, you know, all the while. And it's it's a regret not from a sense because again, I wasn't hiding it. It's a regret because I realized how big that platform was and Oh man, I should have said something. And it was and it wasn't until after the fact that I was like oh wow, there's like a lot of opportunity here and when I you know start to do very As events for the jdrf are really dive into work with the Diabetes Research Institute several years thereafter. It wasn't until that point, when I kind of got older. I was like, Man, this is an incredible opportunity to raise awareness. And, you know, use your platform. And I wish I could go back and tell 16 year old Kevin that I really wish I could.
Stacey Simms 15:16
Well, I wasn't even thinking of it in terms of advocacy, which is a terrific point that you make, but I was thinking about it as your 16. And, you know, to say, Well, I need extra help, or I need you to know that. Although you weren't beeping at the time, you probably didn't have a CGM. No, not yet. Right. You might not just you know, and I think and I can totally understand that, because that's how my son is, you know, he'll tell people to be safe, you know, spending the night and we're not there. And he'll say, Here's to this and that, but he's not gonna say, hey, by the way, just as dropping into the conversation, yeah. I don't think a lot of 16 year olds who are let's just say it like that, I think. And you've already kind of mentioned it, it just seems like it was such a normal part of who you were. I think that's very commendable. I think that's great.
Kevin Covais 16:01
Thanks. Yeah, I'd like to think so as well. I'll tell you, every staff member on idol, the producer, the up to the producers, up to the big time people behind the show, they knew I had type one. I always made it a point to you know, school teachers, obviously, you're telling them okay, hey, look, if I need to go to the nurse, this is why I'm not. I'm not trying to get out of taking this exam. It's because I have a legitimate low right now. So the people in my life I was telling, it never occurred to me when the cameras started rolling to bring it up, because it just didn't occur to me. I was like, Oh, yeah, no, I'm telling the people that are directly affected in my life about this. It didn't, it didn't even dawn on me to inform the audience about
Stacey Simms 16:36
it. Did you have any issues on Idol with diabetes? And I did,
Kevin Covais 16:40
yeah. There's a story that stands out. I don't mean to laugh. It's just some hilarious stories. When we were laughing. We This is how we do it. This is how we deal sometimes, you know, you know, you know better than anyone as to why it's, it wasn't an issue, up until the live shows. Really, I think, for me, it was always Okay, we're testing constantly, we're making sure we're correcting prior to getting up for big performances, or whatever I got to perform during Hollywood week, I'm making sure I'm good to go in preparation for those performances. It wasn't until the third live show there were three weeks of semi finals on the show. And I get up there on the third week, and I'm waiting in the wings to be the next one up and I I know where my blood sugar is, you know, without the CGM. I'm one of the lucky ones who can, you know, 21 years of this thing I can tell where I am. If I'm running high in the two hundreds, I feel lousy, and I know it. I know where I'm at. If I'm low, and I have the shakes, and you know, you feel a little disoriented. I know that too. And I could feel myself dropping and dropping quickly. But I'm up on stage and it's live television. So I go up and I perform I perform. Don McLean's stories of Vincent starry, Starry Night old ballad that one of my favorites, Josh Groban read it, and in more recent years, and I'm singing, and I just like, I can't wait for this thing to be over. I can't wait to stop singing and get the critiques from the judges that I'm not even gonna really listen to because I got to get off the stage and I got to get some juice or I gotta get some tablets. I gotta take care of this. It was the most surreal thing to be experiencing that in that moment. I got through it. And the performance wasn't terrible. I think it was, I think was one of my better ones. So I was on for five weeks. And I I put it up in the maybe on the top two or three of them. And yeah, but that did happen on live television, which was just the most surreal thing. Yeah.
Stacey Simms 18:18
Wow. When you got off the stage Did you like eat everything? Oh, yeah.
Kevin Covais 18:22
I went to town state. Oh, yeah. Are you kidding me? I was like, Yeah, let's go. I was just, it was bizarre. It was just a bizarre, but it was just a wild, wild thing to experience. And that's kind of telling for anyone who deals with this is that you can prepare to the best of your abilities. And that you know, that unexpected lower high could still come about, you just have to do your best but there's no there was no shame. I didn't feel any shame after that. I know. Look, we're all human. And this is this is a normal part of the day in and day out experience. It's just so unique that to be in the position that I was in to have experienced that at that moment was very unique. Yeah, yeah, that's
Stacey Simms 18:57
interesting, too. That I forgot. Elliot. Yeah, I mean, was the same season.
Kevin Covais 19:00
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, man. He was I was rooting for him after I eventually got bounced and got kicked out. You know, after I got eliminated from the show. I was I couldn't get kicked off now. I was a good kid. After I got eliminated from the show. I was I was rooting for Elliot anyway not I mean, obviously the bond we shared as as he was a fellow type one and we you know, related and became fast friends over that, but I just thought he had the best voice that of anyone that sees and I thought his voice was you know, another league but it was a it was a heck of a year and a heck of a ride for it really was
Stacey Simms 19:30
Do you still forgive me? I don't know if it's even on the air. Do you still watch
Kevin Covais 19:33
idol please? It is not really Oh, no, it's been going on a while sometimes it's like sometimes you gotta know when to let go. I like emotionally said goodbye to the show. I think it was about five or six years ago now when when Fox had its last airing of the show. So I kind of had my emotional goodbye with the show. Then I had a bunch of friends over to my place and we watched it and we were you know we're they were laughing about stuff. Remember in my time on the show years ago, we had a we had a grand time and then you Goes via Idol s off the air and then ABC is picking it up. Because you know, why not? Why not pick it up? And they've had some successes with the ABC run and some some very talented people on the show but I think there's just there's so many options now so many things to watch. You got the voice you got to America's Got Talent, things of that nature. It's tough. It's tough to keep up with all of them now stuck to keep up. Yeah.
Stacey Simms 20:20
So right. So after idol, you change from being a singer to acting? What What happened? Like, what were some of your first jobs. I know you were at the Disney Channel, and you've been guest starring spots. So if you could tell me, like when you started?
Kevin Covais 20:32
Yeah, I saw I finish idol. And I'm really honest about these things. I thought, going into the Idol experience as everyone does. I want to be a recording artist, I want to make records and I want to do this. And my love for music. And my love for singing is never escaped. It's really I'm just being honest, it's more of a hobby. At this point. It's more of something for me. And if I record something, it's more for me or potentially to work, collaborate with friends or right with fellow musician, friends. But I got into the acting I remember I got done with idol and I got management back, I found representation back home in New York, there was a real interest, I think people really found me to be a bit of a character on the show. And in a good way, not a bad way, of course. And that led to auditions. And I started going out in my first movie was a real silly kind of raunchy comedy, I wouldn't recommend anyone listening to this podcast, watch it, it was a movie called college. It was with a Nickelodeon star by the name of Drake Bell and various other funny people. And, you know, really funny people in the cast. And we had a blast making it. And this was my first taste of a film. And I came to know that Deb Hagen, our director on that project, she was at home with her family reading the script of this movie, she'd just been assigned as the director. And she's watching idol with her family and I'm on the show. And she's reading the script. And there's this you know, kind of nerdy character named Morris super this kid with, you know, part of gold sweet kid, but you know, just kind of reserved and whatnot. She's reading the character, and she's looking at me on the TV, and she's like, Man, this kid would be, I want this kid to play this role. And I never knew this and takes a while to make a movie. And about a year later, I within that year, I get done with Idol I go back home, I'm doing my senior year of high school now, because I did Idol as a junior in high school. I'm back in Levittown, New York, I'm back at Island trees, high school over there. And, and I'm doing self tape auditions, I get a manager at home who starts sending me out for acting, saying there'd be quite a bit of interest if I were to pursue this. And I put myself down for this movie college and put a self tape down and I got the roll, I got the roll, which offers self tape, which is like, You're so lucky to get that it's a rarity. And I was very fortunate. And I had a fun time making that one. And then that led to a bunch of other opportunities got to work with Lindsay Lohan on a on a television movie called labor pains, which was a blast, a really stacked comedic cast. And that one, you know, that's silly movie, but a lot of fun. And then since then, the big one was good luck, Charlie, for me got to be on the Disney Channel and work on eight episodes of good luck, Charlie, in the early 2010s. And, and then from there, just a slew of fun guest stars. And I've just I love it. I love every minute of it. I don't know how it all came about. I think for me, I always love to act adjust as much as I love to sing. But I never I wasn't savvy enough at the time of doing idol at 16. Again, I was so green, I didn't even think like oh, you can use this idol platform to maybe swing a few meetings or this or that and try to try to get your way into acting. I don't even think like that. If again, if it was today, if I was doing that in my 20s or if I was doing that today in my early 30s. Like obviously I would have had that mindset but you know, I didn't know I didn't know anything like that. So but just so fortunate that it came about and I love it. I love being on set. I love playing these characters escaping into these fun people that are nothing like me. It's fun.
Stacey Simms 23:35
Yeah. And you've been you know, you continually work I mean, yeah, it's as you said their guest starring roles and you know, but they seem so fun. You were This is us. 68 whiskey, you know, the Yeah, I think the last thing I saw was NCIS LA or Los Angeles. I saw you did like a theme during COVID. How is production been? Have you been able to do anything? That's
Kevin Covais 23:57
You know what? That's a great question. My last two roles, which as you previously mentioned it NCIS Los Angeles I got to do a again small role but part but a scene with with great actors and Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J the leads of the show. And that was just so trippy because you know, you grew up watching lol and then you get to do a scene with them. I like that. It's like I've done this for over 10 years and you still get in those situations and you play it cool, but it's like I'm working with frickin Oh, cool. J This is not. But that was interesting. I'll tell you as it pertains to COVID they were coming off a hiatus to show and this was I believe this was their first episode of production back since COVID. I don't think I'm making that up. We go and we film at the Paramount lot you know the famous Paramount live in Los Angeles and and they took so many precautions. It's unbelievable. When you have a small you know, co star role such as myself, they give you a tiny little trailer whatnot. And everything's placed outside the trailer, your wardrobe, your sides like there. Nobody's coming into your trailer. It was a whole new world. Obviously you're wearing a mask the entirety of the time. You're filming just a little funny story, my character is wearing like some sort of alligator costume. He's like a sign spinner on the corner of the street or whatever, who they take in for interrogation at the NCIS headquarters in LA. And so they take me in and I'm still wearing this thing. And for the purpose of the scene, I have the first line and I'm wearing a mask during rehearsal we get in and obviously, you're not shaking hands with anyone, you're just meeting you're there for a day. It's a quick day, and I'm wearing a mask in this like weird out, you know, this weird, like lizard costume or whatnot. And then when they they start rolling, they're like, Okay, everybody take your masks off. Kevin, you can take the mask off. I'm like, okay, so I, I don't know what's going on. I'm just following their lead. I take the mask off. And I'm like, Where do I put this thing? I don't pocket somewhere in a lizard costume. I just like kind of stick it under my button, keep going with the scene. And then they call action and I run a scene with a local j was nuts. It was crazy. I was like, but it's a whole new world, you know. So they take the precautions, but then they call to action and you're back in a fictitious world that apparently doesn't have COVID-19 in it. And it was just bizarre. I was fortunate I had a small role A few weeks later on a show that is yet to be released a show with Elizabeth Shue called on the verge which I believe is upcoming on Netflix. And I didn't get to shoot a scene with her unfortunately, because she's amazing. But I had a really fun scene as a whole as like a funny, wholefoods worker, and I got to shoot on on that set. And again, they're taking all the precautions, you know, no contact and you're getting COVID tested every other day, because they need assurances that everyone on that sets safe. Everyone on that said this was pre vaccination. This was at the end of last year when I worked at magic, so nobody been vaccinated. Yep, you have to have assurances that nobody is has tested positive for covid. Otherwise, you got to shut the whole thing down. It was wild. But you know, it's a whole new world out there. And we got to be we got to be safe. And we got to be cautious, especially those of us with pre existing conditions, like type one. Yeah.
Stacey Simms 26:47
All right. So we're gonna list in the show notes. We're gonna put your IMDb so people can figure out that they've already seen you a bunch of times. Yeah. You know, like, my husband. And this is? Well, it's not really embarrassing, but my husband is a big Transformers fan. Like all the Transformers movie. So I know you've been in those. So now I got to go back and like freeze frame and find you.
Kevin Covais 27:07
Yeah, I just did one of the transformers. I had a funny, memorable scene with I think memorable with Mark Wahlberg and he would have been the fourth one. So it was I can't even keep track of it. He would know. I don't know. It was called Transformers Age of Extinction. Oh, yeah. The
Stacey Simms 27:22
one with the dinosaur. Yeah, there's
Kevin Covais 27:24
been five total, I believe. Yes, there's dinosaurs. Because Why not? Because anything goes in the transformers. You notice out? Yeah. And I think Shiloh buff did the first three. And then Mark Wahlberg took over as the lead for the next couple. And I was in the fourth one. And yeah, that was nuts. I had, it was that was such a surreal experience to
Stacey Simms 27:42
get working on a big, big, big budget. That was the hugest gi crazy. I mean, it must have been wild.
Kevin Covais 27:48
That was the hugest thing getting to shoot a scene with Mark Wahlberg and being directed by the very, very animated Michael Bay who was was cool to me, but it was just like it was I felt like pinch. I was like, how am I here right now? How did I get here? Like working on this with like, huge names like This is nuts. Yeah, heck of a time. It was a lot of fun. That's awesome.
Stacey Simms 28:07
Well, I first met you ever saw you it friends for life? Yeah. You were a special guest one year. I don't think we met the first year that I saw you speak. And then you know, you've you've basically Kevin, they kind of they really adopted you. You were on staff. They did. Tell me a little bit about how you found the folks at friends for life, which I'm sure as you're listening, you're familiar with. They talk about it all the time. But the largest family diabetes conference in probably in the world at this point.
Kevin Covais 28:33
Amazing. And the amazing work that they do over children with diabetes. Yeah, I was like you said I was kind of a stray dog who they like led into the house. They're like, Alright, well, let's domesticate this guy. And maybe he can become a part of this. I'm so blessed. One of my, you know, dearest friends, is Tom Kalia from the Diabetes Research Institute diabetes dad, as he's known. And Tom is one of the sweetest most generous guys I ever met. And I did American Idol, not to take it back to Idol . But I did idol and he reached out to my father because I was still a kid at the time. And he was a fellow long Islander and said, You know, I take part in this conference, and they do amazing work. And I would love to bring Kevin down. I had the summer free. I didn't make the American Idol tour. So I had this summer for and, and he asked to if I would come down to perform at the banquet for the 2006 friends for life conference in Orlando, Florida. And I was very excited. But I didn't know what I was getting into. I didn't know what this conference was. I didn't know that such an amazing organization existed. So I go down and I sing You Raise Me Up which was the Joshua again to bring up Josh Groban. The song that I sang on idol audition with and I sing it and it was just amazing. I had such an incredible time. And I learned more about this, what this conference was and learn of the support system that people had. And I think I was just so naive. I didn't realize that something like this even existed. And it just opened up my eyes. It opened up my eyes to how many people care about people in this world that I knew, you know, to an extent you know, around home in New York, you know, when I met these People when I met Jeff Hitchcock, when I met Laura, and all these amazing Lord bility, and all these amazing people at the conference, I was instantly just felt like family, I would go back several years thereafter, I think, in 2009, and then again, maybe around 2012 2013 as a special guest. And I kept going back as a special guest. And it was fun, because initially, I was there as kind of a guest who was promoting Idol and then, and then a younger generation of the kids that would go, I'd get to be a special guest and talk about good luck, Charlie on the Disney Channel. And that was a great fun, but then I would go and I would take part in in the conference a little bit. And then I would just kind of find myself walking around and saying hi to people and popping into the, you know, the exhibition room and popping into sports Central and playing basketball, the kids and I was like, I want to do more here, I want to do more. I got in touch with Laura. And they ended up asking me the next year like we've had just a special guest, would you want to come back and be a staff member here? And I was like, absolutely. Like I just wanted to, I wanted a bigger role. And they were so gracious as to offer me one. And now I'm just like part of the gang, which is always more fun for me anyway, because I never feel important. I never feel special. Like it's just like, I'm just one of the gang. I'm just like you. I'm just like this kid who has it. I'm just like this, you know, it's unbelievable getting to go there. Every year, they asked me to be on the team staff. And I think this past summer, yeah, was my fourth, fourth year on the team staff and I just want to go back every year, every year, they'll have me I want to go back out.
Stacey Simms 31:15
It is amazing when you don't have that community connection, and then you find it, we were kind of by ourselves. I live near Charlotte, but I don't live in Charlotte. And it seems like everybody I knew with type one with kids with type one lived further away from me. And then in 2010, children with diabetes brought a conference to Charlotte, amazing. They used to have these regional focus on technology conferences, and I went, and that was where I realized, oh my gosh, there's all these other people. There's this community, and it really inspired me to get more connected. And now I'm so lucky, we have people not, you know, you hate to have more people diagnosed, but we have four people in my area, we have, you know, more connections. So I hear you, but working with the teams, as you said, Yes, I think that's a pretty hard group. What do you do? How do you kind of get through them or talk to them?
Kevin Covais 32:01
It can be it can be I love it. Personally, I think I'd be more nervous to work with the younger kids, just in terms of not just holding their attention or whatnot, I think back to being 16. And I think back to the time I did I don't it's such a vulnerable time in your life. I think that more than anything else is that teenagers might act out or whatnot. But it's just stemming from insecurities or feelings of vulnerability, but a vulnerability about certain things in their life. And it's like, you just kind of have to, you know, give them a pass for that and try to break through the best you can. I mean, that's what I do. I you know, I never grew up a camp counselor. I never did any of that. So when I go to this thing, I look to friends of mine who were in the team group. Now, some of my best friends now who are on the team staff with me that I've met at the conference throughout the years. And I watched them do and I'm like trying to take notes because some of them are really good. And I'm like, yeah, it's tough. But it's tough to break through sometimes I think, yeah.
Stacey Simms 32:50
I'd be curious to as a parent of a team, I don't know, one parent of a kid with type one of a teenager with type one who says, Oh, my kid is perfect. Right? They're doing such a great job. I'm so happy with all of their marriage course. You know. And I, I'm wondering if there's any advice that you have as being somebody who is closer to being 16 than I am? Certainly, and who has worked with these kids, you know, what can we as parents do to support them?
Kevin Covais 33:15
That's an incredible question. I think I was naive, going into all this to see not that I didn't have struggles, but to have a support system at home like I did, where I think my parents, they were always aware of what's going on in my life. But I think it's such a give and take where obviously, my father, my mother spend 24 hours a day worrying about me as a kid with my diabetes, but not letting it show all the time and giving your child the space to sort of operate and trusting them in a way take off the training wheels and trust them to make their own decisions. Obviously, if if they need you, you're there. But also give them space, but don't smother them. I guess I it's a tough road. You know, I'm not a parent. So I'm not one to really comment on it. I can only approach it from that former teen perspective with my parents was I think my parents always did an amazing job on idol as well. I saw stage parents on idol I saw, you know, parents who were like, oh, you're gonna sing this song you're gonna do that. My folks always said to me, you know, Kevin, we're here for you. We love you. If you need help with something, let us know. But this is your thing. Obviously, you can't maybe take such a lacks approach in a certain way with diabetes, but it's informing your child to the best of your abilities always being present, always being there, but also letting them breathe and make their own decisions. I think if you can find that balance, it's really important because you see kids who don't necessarily have that are unique kids and I was naive. I thought everyone was like me who had and I thought everyone was like, you know had their ups and their downs and but good days and bad. But sometimes it's a rough road. And I I'd open my eyes to that just like going to the conference and just like going around and meeting people who have it. It's Yeah, it's not easy though. That's for sure.
Stacey Simms 34:47
Before I let you go, Kevin, your type 1 diabetes if I've got my math right, is about to turn 21. Oh, yeah.
Kevin Covais 34:54
Yeah, it's about Yeah. I could go out and go to the bars. type one. Yeah, I won't. But
Stacey Simms 35:02
I'm certainly not going to ask you to, you know, to sum everything up and tell us what you've learned or you know, anything like that. But I am curious, you know, you now as I said, you use a CGM, you use it, you still have injections, you use multiple daily injections, but it's different insulin. You know, things have come a long way you found the community to support you. Anything you would tell your 11 year old self, about my guts done, you know what you've been through,
Kevin Covais 35:26
I'd say Congrats. I mean, it's been a wild ride. And like, I haven't done things perfectly, and nobody's perfect. I think you got to give yourself a break. I think I've spent a lot of times kind of hard on myself from like a career perspective, as a singer, as an actor. And especially with my type one, it's easy to be hard on yourself, it's easy to, I think we go through these like ups and downs with this with this thing that we live with every day of our lives. And I can recall, like low points of like a really bad low or, you know, episodes that we all sort of experienced with this thing from time to time. I recall, like the immediate thing you feel is ashamed, ashamed that you allowed it to get to that point, I think if I could tell my younger self something, it's like, don't be ashamed. This is a part of the ride. Some days are amazing, some day stink, it's just a fact. No one's gonna be perfect. 19 you know, 100% of the time, it's just not it's not possible. So I think I would tell my younger self, I would say congratulations on achieving some of the stuff you've done, but also like, where to go, just, you know, get getting through it. And getting through this grind, you know? Yeah, I do know that. You know what, you know. So well. Yeah. Yeah.
Stacey Simms 36:28
I know it as a parent, which is different story. But that's fabulous. too.
Kevin Covais 36:32
Huge way to know it. Yeah. Well, Kevin, thank you so much. But it just thank you for having me. Yeah. Oh, it's
Stacey Simms 36:37
been wonderful to talk to you. I hope you'll come back. Keep us posted. Let us look for you. I will Yeah. And hopefully time will go fast. And we'll see you next summer friends for life.
Kevin Covais 36:47
That'd be amazing. Thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it. You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.
Stacey Simms 37:01
More information about Kevin and links to what he's doing now. And links to some performances from idol back at season five at Diabetes connections.com. Every episode from 2020 on has a transcription with it as well. I'm trying to go back and fill in the blanks on the previous episodes, but boy, there are a lot of them. So I'm doing the best I can. But you can always find the information that you need. Hopefully, for each episode, they're at Diabetes connections.com and pop in the Facebook group. If you have any particular questions for me, you can always reach me at Stacey at Diabetes connections.com
and Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. And I was watching only murders in the building the other night. Are you watching this show? It's on Hulu. So not everybody gets that. But it's such a fun and interesting comedy. It's not quite as funny and silly as I thought it was gonna be. And that's not a bad thing with Steve Martin and Martin Short and Selena Gomez. And the reason I started watching it no surprise is because they have a podcast and some of the podcasting stuff is very silly. But it's fine. I love it. It's not really too far fetched. Let's just put it that way. And it's just a good show. But I got way off the subject. We were watching this I was watching by myself actually, when I got a Dexcom alert, and Benny was upstairs. He was playing video games or doing whatever he's doing upstairs. And you know, I was just thinking about how we had blood sugar checks on a timer, we had a schedule. I'm sure a lot of you did this too. Before CGM. We would check doing the finger stick the same time every day at home and at school. And whenever extra we needed to. It's amazing to think about how much our diabetes management has changed with share and follow. I mean, it didn't stop the show to get up and check him. I knew what was going on, I could decide whether to text him or if I needed to go upstairs and help them out using the share and follow apps have helped us talk less about diabetes, which I never thought what happened with a teenager, and he loves that part to trust me. That's what's so great about the Dexcom system. I think for the caregiver, the spouse, 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 up required, learn more, go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo.
Quick look ahead and a bit of a change in the schedule. I was set to go like many of you to the children with diabetes conference happening in White Plains, New York, the weekend of October 9, but they have moved that to a virtual conference. And I totally understand you know, you've got lots of kids uncertain situation with delta. So that will be in November. Now it is a virtual event. I will put information in the show notes. You can find out more about that we did virtual with them. Gosh, really all of 2020 of course, and it's a lot of fun. I think they do a great job. And one of the cool things they figured out early at friends for life and children with diabetes. You know children's diabetes is the organization friends for life is the event. They figured out how to help people socialize outside of the speeches and the reports and the talking which are all great. The presentations, I think are very valuable. But for me, the socializing is a huge part of why I enjoy these things. conferences, and they have these little virtual hallways where parents can drop in kids can drop in teenagers, young adults, that kind of thing. So worth checking out just for that. I'm disappointed, obviously, that we're not in person. But I'm still going to New York because this conference is 15 minutes from where my sister lives. And I haven't seen her in ages. So I'm going to go see her and hang out. And hopefully, Melissa, if you're listening, and I'm sure you're not, we're going to all the places where we ate in high school that weekend, so be prepared. We're going to Maria's pizza, we're going to diner, we're gonna make a list. So we grew up not too far from where she lives now. So that should be a lot of fun
Later in the month, I'm going to be in Scottsdale, Arizona for she podcasts, which is a terrific female podcasting conference, as you would imagine, I'm really excited about that. And look, we'll just have to wait and see how these things go. Because certainly, events are touching go at this point, diabetes events, people are much more cautious and rightfully so. So we'll wait and see. But hey, that doesn't mean that we can't hang out. We can socialize. My Local Group is doing stuff online. I'm happy to come and speak to your group, virtually. I've still got my book to clinic program. I am working on Book Two. I am so excited. So still a lot going on. But man, I know I can't wait to read. We're gonna get back to normal. I don't know. But I'd like to get back to something else. Something we're socialized more. We hug more with each other more. Hang in there. Oh, my goodness.
Thank you to my editor John Bukenas from auto editing solutions. Thank you so much for listening. I've got in the news every Wednesday live on Facebook, and then we turn that into an audio podcast episode every Friday. So please come back and join me for that. I'm Stacey Simms. I'll see you in a couple of days until then be kind to yourself.
Benny:
Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms Media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged
It's In the News... the top diabetes stories of the past seven days! This week, what did lockdown mean for BG trends, Provention Bio keeps fighting for Teplizumab, the FTC shuts down diabetes schlockmeisters and if you're still using the Dexcom G5 - you need to hear this...
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Episode transcription and links 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 – and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast.. so you can read more if you want, on your own schedule.
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In the News is brought to you by Real Good Foods! Find their Entrée Bowls and all of their great products in your local grocery store, Target or Costco.
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Our top story.. What did COVID lockdown mean for blood sugar trends? A new study says when they had to stay at home, people with type 1 significantly improved while the opposite happened for those with type 2.
You should know these studies all come from European countries with pretty strict lockdowns and they’re an aggregate – a look at a bunch of previously conducted studies.
With type 1, time in range improved significantly in 83% of the studies looked at here.. with type 2, almost half of the studies showed a clear decrease in blood sugar control, with higher A1Cs.
So what happened? There’s a lot of speculation but these researchers suggest less exercise and more snacking and more stress is to blame for the type 2 numbers.. although in my opinion the same could be said for all people with diabetes. They also suppose that the lockdown gave parents more time to look after kids with type 1 and gave young adults a more predictable routine.
I hope another study is done on this in the US where, frankly – access to insulin & health care providers may have become more of an issue during the pandemic
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210913/COVID-19-lockdown-linked-to-improved-glycemic-control-in-type-1-diabetes.aspx
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Bit of an update - Provention Bio moving forward to answer the FDA’s questions and hopefully resubmit. This is for Teplizumab the first drug shown to prevent type 1 diabetes for – so far- up to three years.. although the FDA turned it down in July.
Provention says they continue to collect data and are moving to set up what’s called a Formal Type A meeting to submit that new information.
The company’s CEO says they believe they’re making significant progress to address the observations cited by the FDA and continue to work with urgency.
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Bunch of schlock-meisters got called out last week by the US FDA and FTC – that’s the Federal Trade Commission. 10 companies got warning letters alleging they were selling illegal dietary supplements to cure or prevent diabetes. Regulators wrote the products cited in the warning letters are considered unapproved new drugs – they include things like turmeric, bitter melon, ginkgo biloba and more.. The report cites the increasing cost of insulin and other diabetes medications as a reason why people are turning to alternatives, even if they aren’t proven.. Please.. be careful out there.
Quick additional FTC note – they held a virtual open meeting today. Two people from the diabetes community spoke about rising insulin prices. If you’d like to learn more I’ll link up the information.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/09/ftc-announces-tentative-agenda-september-15-open-commission
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We don’t talk a lot about shots – multiple daily injections – but here’s some good news about the basics. New study shows rotating sites and using smaller needles really do help. You’ve likely heard of LY-po-hy-PER-tro-fee.. it’s when lumps of fat or scar tissue form under your skin. These Belgian researchers did a six month study where they provided smaller pen needles and did a lot of education, including an online platform where they taught proper injection techniques, including not re-using needles. They reduced what they called unexplained high blood glucose significantly and glucose variability decreased as well. A1Cs stayed about the same.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dme.14672
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No surprise but still disappointing – insurance is what’s dictating whether young children are more likely to use a CGM regularly. This was published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics.
Those on public or government insurance often face more obstacles.
This was a study of children ages 1-6 years, within two months of diagnosis.
82-percent used a CGM at least once during the study period.. but they divided everyone into 4 groups – always used CGM, stable use, inconsistent use or never used.
Families with private insurance were more likely to be in the always group or the stable group than those with public insurance. And..
The “always” group had an A1C that was 1.3% lower than the “never” group
https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20210907/private-insurance-determines-cgm-use-by-young-children-with-type-1-diabetes
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More to come, including a Dexcom G5 update! But first, I want to tell you about one of our great sponsors who helps make Diabetes Connections possible.
Real Good Foods. Where the mission is Be Real Good
They make nutritious foods— grain free, high in protein, never added sugar and from real ingredients—the new Entrée bowls are great. They have a chicken burrito, a cauliflower mash and braised beef bowl.. the lemon chicken I’ve told you about and more! They keep adding to the menu line! You can buy online or find a store near you with their locator right on the website. I’ll put a link in the FB comments and as always at d-c dot com.
Back to the news…
Heads up if you’re still – somehow – using the Dexcom G5. More than a year ago, Dexcom stopped selling the G5 and G4.. but – and thanks to the listeners who brought this to my attention – the G5 app is now sending out a notification.. On October 4th the Dexcom G5 app will no longer be available. As they’ve shared with us on the podcast many times, they’ve been transitioning everyone over to the G6 and will soon move on to the G7. No timeline on that btw I know you’re going to ask. But as far as we know, it hasn’t been submitted to the FDA and Dexcom has said it will go for European approval first.
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And finally don’t forget to send me your Dear Dr. Banting audio! What would you say to the man credited with the discovery of insulin? All the details and how to send it to me is in the show notes.
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Please join me wherever you get podcasts for our next episode - The episode out right now is all about the new Walmart Insulin.. will it save you money?
That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.