Every week “In the News…” brings you the top stories and headlines around the diabetes community. This week: a new look at access to #diabetes meds, a look at stress in parents of children with type 1, Mark Cuban's new online pharmacy is open, can worry contribute to type 2 risk factors? And Lilly gets another slap from the FDA, this time about an Instagram ad.
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Episode Transcription Below (or coming soon!)
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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. If you’re new we go live on social media first and then All sources linked up at diabetes dash connections dot com when this airs as a podcast.
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Looking to get organized? Check out my new guide with top tips to clear your diabetes clutter. Everything from how to start to where to donate and how to keep it from taking over your house. Head over to the home page to get organized.
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Among people with type 2, minority ethnic groups have more limited access when it comes to newer diabetes medication.. This study used data gathered from 2005 to 2019 in a large clinical trial conducted at Johns Hopkins and other sites across the U.S.
They found that compared with white patients, all minority groups were less likely to start newer diabetes medications. Black patients were 20% less likely to start newer medications, and American Indian or Alaskan Native patients, were 50% less likely. The researchers stress the findings were not driven by the patient’s income – didn’t matter how much money they made. The researchers say the next step is to look at how insurance coverage impacts which diabetes medications get prescribed.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-01-minorities-diabetes-medications.html
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Billionaire Mark Cuban has opened up an online pharmacy offering prescription drugs at cheaper prices. Insulin isn’t included.. yet.. but there are some diabetes medications listed. Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company says they want to – quote - "bypass middlemen and outrageous markups.” Cuban is not the first to enter the market.. it’s a highly competitive one with contenders like GoodRx
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/01/24/mark-cuban-cheaper-prescription-drugs/6636901001/
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Really good write up about the stress of parenting a child with type 1 diabetes.. and what can be done about it. This is in Endocrinology Advisor – they spoke to pediatric psychologists and endos. Familiar stories of no sleep, fear of hypos and of future complications but also some good information about how the stress changes over time and over the child’s life. Acknowledging different challenges face parents of very children compared to those of teens. Not a lot of solutions here.. but very good reading about supporting a parent’s well being as well as the child’s.
https://www.endocrinologyadvisor.com/home/topics/diabetes/type-1-diabetes/children-with-type-1-diabetes-and-parents-and-psychological-and-impact/
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Obesity is a main risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes, but it has not been previously seen as a major complication in type 1 diabetes. However, a new study shows that obesity rates in adults with type 1 diabetes are increasing and mirror the rates in the general adult population. These researchers, also at Johns Hopkins, say adults with type 1 diabetes also now have a higher risk of kidney disease than those with type 2.
https://scitechdaily.com/obesity-is-more-common-in-people-with-type-1-diabetes-than-previously-thought/
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Middle-aged men who are anxious and worry more may be at greater biological risk for developing heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, also called cardiometabolic disease, as they get older. This study used a long-running research project, started in 1961 and mostly including white men. They followed different groups of men through 2015 and measured worry through questions and surveys. Higher worry levels were associated with a 10% higher likelihood of having six or more cardio-metabolic disease risk factors. These researchers say it would be important to follow up to see if these associations exist among women and people from diverse racial and ethnic groups.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-01-men-heart-disease-diabetes-factors.html
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Big slap for Eli Lilly from the FDA.. they say an Instagram ad for the type 2 diabetes drug Trulicity was “misleading” and “particularly concerning.” Lilly has since deleted the post in question, but the FDA says it failed to adequately communicate the indication and limitations of use associated with Trulicity, FDA says. It was alerted to the post via complaints to its Bad Ad program. The FDA said that this isn’t the first time it’s warned Lilly on Trulicity ads.
https://endpts.com/fda-slams-eli-lillys-misleading-instagram-ad-for-its-type-2-diabetes-injection/
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MIT engineers are working on a couple of devices to streamline some of the daily diabetes tasks – this got a lot of buzz this past week but is in the very early stages. They have one device that takes a photo of your food, calculates the carbs, measures your blood glucose via a finger stick.. then calculates your insulin dose & gives the injection. That’s all in one device. The second device is all of that AND it’s set up so the blood glucose measurement and insulin delivery happen through the same needle. As I understand it this would be like giving an insulin injection through the CGM wire. We’ll see if it gets out of the lab and into clinical trials..
https://scitechdaily.com/mit-all-in-one-approach-to-diabetes-treatment-features-app-that-identifies-and-quantifies-food-content/
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Before I let you go, our long format episode this week is with Tandem Diabetes. They released an ambitious 5-year plan to add a tiny pump they’re calling Mobi and eventually move to a tubeless system. Next week we’re talking about what it’s like when type 1 is just one of the auto immune conditions you live with.. and the other one makes it very difficult to get a COVID vaccine.
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That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.