With idle time in my wife’s doctor’s waiting room, I picked
up WebMD Magazine’s June 2017 issue. The cover story appeared to be an article
asking, “Trouble reaching your A1c goals?” Next to a photo of a middle-aged
man, the caption invited the reader to: “See how Jerry does it.” I’m always
interested in seeing how other people lower their A1c’s, so I eagerly and
naively turned the page…to a 3-page ad for Trulicity, a product of the Eli Lilly company.
Somehow, I missed the disclaimer on the false cover. It said,
on a black banner, “Special advertising section. This Trulicity promotional
cover has been placed on a limited number of WebMD magazines.” – just the ones
in doctor’s offices, I’d bet. It continued, “It does not constitute an
endorsement by WebMD Magazine, and no endorsement is implied.” Okay, WebMD gets
big bucks for the fake cover, but how about the doctor’s office? Are they not
complicit in this “non-endorsement” endorsement? I think so, and they (the
doctor) doesn’t even get paid for it!
I also missed the small Lilly logo at the bottom of the false
cover. But it was impossible to miss the 3 full pages of information about
“non-insulin Trulicity, a once-weekly injectable pen for type 2 diabetics to
help [your body] release its own
insulin.” They’re careful to say, as required by the FDA, that it’s not the
first pharmacotherapy med for type 2s. That would be Metformin, introduced in
France in 1957, the UK in 1958, and the U.S. in 199X. But Metformin works on
the liver
to suppress unwanted glucose production and improve to insulin sensitivity
(glucose uptake), and it’s safe.
As Lilly implies, Trulicity works on the pancreas, an organ that is
already overworked in type 2s, to counter the insulin resistance
that is the cause of type 2 diabetes.
Does it make sense to put an added burden on the one (and only) pancreas you have to secrete the insulin on which your life depends?
Trulicity makes the pancreas work harder; it “helps the body release its own
insulin,” to use Lilly’s own words. But Lilly’s not worried about that. When the pancreas eventually is exhausted from
overwork and wears out,
you will graduate
to another injectable drug
made by Lilly: insulin glargine. And with all the increases in the last few years, have
you seen the price of insulin glargine lately?
But Lilly and all
the other drug manufacturers do not intend you harm. Their drugs are all
approved by the FDA for the uses intended, and the uses all conform to the American
Diabetes Association's Standards of Medical Care. What’s wrong with
this picture? Answer: The treatment
plan! The treatment treats the most
common symptom of type 2 diabetes—an elevated blood sugar – by
forcing the pancreas to produce more insulin. More insulin is what your pancreas has been producing for years
before and since your impaired
insulin response was discovered by your doctor (by an elevated
fasting blood glucose, or with an A1c test).
Your impaired insulin response,
aka INSULIN RESISTANCE (IR), is the
cause of your type 2 diabetes. What caused your Insulin Resistance?
Answer: On the government’s advice, in order to avoid eating saturated fat and
cholesterol, for 60 years you ate a diet of 55% to 60%
carbohydrate, composed of simple sugars and processed, refined, “whole
grain” glucose molecules, euphemistically called “complex” carbohydrates. Over time,
you became Carbohydrate
Intolerant.
So, what’s the best treatment plan for Insulin Resistance?
That’s simple too: reduce your intake
of carbohydrates, especially the refined, processed ones, and the
simple sugars, of course, particularly
the liquid ones. From 60% there’s lots of room for lowering. For the
generic woman’s 2000kcal/day diet, 60% is 300 grams of carbs/day. Lowering it
to 20% would be 100 grams/day. For a man (2500kcal/day =375 grams/day),
lowering it to 20% would be 125 grams/day.
With a few more waiting-room minutes on my hands, I searched
that entire issue of WebMD magazine in vain for another mention of type 2 diabetes. This is a condition that nearly a third
of the people of the U. S. already have,
with another quarter pre-diabetic or
overweight with Metabolic
Syndrome. Alas, there was not
a word in the whole issue. There
was, however, an article on longevity where it mentioned that Metformin
was being investigated as an anti-aging agent. Hmmm. Another reason to 1) eat
fewer carbs and 2) take Metformin to help manage your
type 2 diabetes.
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