Posts Tagged ‘long acting insulin’

5 Vision Loss Prevention Tips for Diabetics

April 6, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Diabetes - Did You Know?, Diabetes Resources and Tools, Diabetic Retinopathy, It's Complicated 
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Diabetic Retinopathy - What an Ophthamologist Sees

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States. For diabetics, it is the leading cause. Diabetic retinopathy is the result of microvascular retinal changes in the eye. New veins and capillaries begin to grow. However, these new growths aren’t healthy, and often bleed, which causes the customary vision-blurring and eye reddening. Here are the top 5 tips for preventing diabetic retinopathy.

1. Know the symptoms – Double vision, flashing lights, redness or blood in the eye, difficulty reading…all of these are symptoms of diabetic retinopathy. Be sure to schedule an optometrist appointment if you experience any of these. Early diagnosis is key to keeping your vision.
2. Regular eye exams – as soon as you are diagnosed with diabetes, be sure to make an appointment with your ophthalmologist. You may have been living with the disease for some time, raising your risk of diabetic retinopathy. After this, be sure to get regular eye exams. Your ophthalmologist will be able to catch any retinopathy before it becomes serious. We recommend annual exams for diabetics.
3. Maintain your blood sugar – if your blood glucose levels rapidly rise, it can actually change the shape of your eye’s lens. This can cause blurred vision.
4. Exercise – overall wellness is important not just for your eyes, but to keep your diabetes in check. It also helps to maintain your blood pressure. High blood pressure can cause a cloudy lens and blurred vision. Be sure to talk to your doctor about the right exercise regimen for your body.
5. Protect your eyes – eye protection is important for everyone, not just diabetics. Remember to wear protective sunglasses when at the beach, on the water, and especially on the ski slopes. White snow’s reflective quality can cause eye damage.

Diabetes Drug Byetta Approved as Add-On to Long Acting Insulin

October 20, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Diabetes Control, Diabetes Medication, Long Acting Insulin 
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The US.Food and Drug Administration has approved a new use for Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly’s BYETTA injection. BYETTA is now approved as an add-on therapy to insulin glargine, with or without metformin and/or a thiazolidinedione (TZD). It should be used in conjunction with diet and exercise for adults with type 2 diabetes who are not achieving adequate glycemic control on insulin glargine alone.

“This expanded use for BYETTA is important for clinical care, in that it provides a new option for the many patients with type 2 diabetes who are not achieving treatment goals,” said John Buse, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, director of the Diabetes Care Center and chief of the Division of Endocrinology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.

“BYETTA is well-suited for use with insulin glargine, offering a simple fixed-dose regimen that can help improve control of blood sugar overall and after meals. In a clinical trial, patients using BYETTA with insulin glargine achieved better glycemic control, without weight gain or an increased risk of hypoglycemia, compared to patients using insulin glargine alone.”

BYETTA is not insulin and should not be taken instead of insulin. The diabetes medication should not be taken with short- and/or rapid-acting insulin. BYETTA should not be taken by type 1 diabetics, people with diabetic ketoacidosis or patients with a history of pancreatitis. Read the full article

Novo Nordisk Files for Approval of Ultra Long Acting Insulin

October 5, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Diabetes Control, Diabetes Medication, Diabetes Research and News, Insulin Delivery, Insulin Injections, Long Acting Insulin 
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Insulin

Insulin crystals

Novo Nordisk today announced the submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of two new drug applications for ultra-long-acting insulin degludec and the co-formulation, insulin degludec/insulin aspart. These insulin analogs have been developed for the treatment of people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

“We are very excited about being able to file for the approval of insulin degludec and insulin degludec/insulin aspart now also in the US,” said Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer at Novo Nordisk. “This is another significant milestone for Novo Nordisk and for the millions of people with diabetes who require insulin injections.”

As with the European applications submitted on September 26, the U.S. filings are based on results from the BEGIN™ and BOOST™ clinical trial programs, which involved nearly 10,000 type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients. Data from the trials have shown insulin degludec to lower blood glucose levels, while demonstrating a low rate of hypoglycemia, especially at night. Read the full article

Enhanced Long Acting Insulin to Challenge Lantus

October 4, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Diabetes Medication, Insulin Injections, Long Acting Insulin 
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(From Bloomberg Businessweek) Drugs to treat diabetes, mostly injectable insulin, have become a $34 billion annual business crowded with manufacturers of relatively similar products. Novo Nordisk wants to stand out from the pack. Following the example of consumer product companies, the Danish drugmaker is betting that it can add product enhancements to basic insulin and command higher prices in wealthier nations.

Explains Chief Executive Officer Lars Sørensen, pounding his desk for emphasis: “A country like the US ought to be able to offer people the most modern insulins and not giving them Third World insulins.” Novo Nordisk, which gets half its $11.1 billion sales from insulin, this year is seeking U.S. and European regulatory approval for its newest treatment, degludec, in a bid to unseat Sanofi’s Lantus as the world’s best-selling diabetes medication.

Sørensen says degludec is “the fundamental part” of a strategy to boost Novo Nordisk’s sales by shifting patients in developed nations from older, cheaper types of insulin that must be taken just before mealtimes to more expensive chemically altered versions that are absorbed more slowly and act longer.

Degludec’s advantage is that it can be administered at any time, providing diabetes patients with greater flexibility, whereas Lantus insulin must be injected at the same time every day, although not necessarily at mealtimes. Trial results presented at a conference in Lisbon in September showed that degludec works as well as Lantus at controlling blood sugar.

To read the full article on Bloomberg Businessweek, >Click here.<

Is It Safe To Reuse An Insulin Syringe?

September 30, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Diabetes Medication, Insulin Delivery, Insulin Injections, Long Acting Insulin 
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Is it safe to reuse an insulin syringe? Bethany from California asked this question of Conditions Expert Dr. Otis Brawley on the health website CNN Health. Dr. Otis’ answer reads in part:

“Insulin syringes are expensive, and many patients want to reuse needles to save money. Many also reuse the lancets used to prick the skin and draw blood to measure blood sugar.

You are right that the reuse of insulin syringes and lancets is dangerous. A used needle can have bacteria from the skin in and on it. Bacteria can contaminate the bottle of insulin when reinserted into the bottle. The bottled insulin is a growth medium that can allow the bacteria to reproduce. Insulin is stored in a refrigerator to prevent bacterial growth. Read the full article

Does Using Long Acting Insulin Increase Cancer Risk?

September 6, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Diabetes Research and News, Insulin Delivery, Insulin Injections, Long Acting Insulin 
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Lantus Long Acting Insulin Glargine

According to the FDA, five recent studies of a possible link between insulin glargine (marketed as Lantus long acting insulin) and the growth of cancerous cells have failed to shed more light on the subject. Calling the studies “inconclusive”, the FDA said it was continuing to work with the long acting insulin manufacturer, Sanofi-Aventus, to determine whether there is an increased risk of cancer for users of insulin glargine.

The concerns arose because Lantus’ ability to act as a long acting insulin arises from its prolonged interaction with the insulin-like growth factor-I receptor (IGF-IR). IGF-IR overactivity has been linked to many types of cancer. That begs the question – could long acting insulin glargine be associated with cancer because of its continual interfacing with IGF-IR?

While the debate about the possible cancer risk associated with long acting insulin continues, the American Diabetes Association, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and two similar European governing bodies are reassuring insulin dependent diabetics that there is no need to change their insulin glargine treatment.

To read more about the controversial long-acting Lantus insulin clinical studies on diabeticlive.com, >CLICK HERE.<

Mealtime Insulin Injections May be Replaced by an Insulin Inhaler

August 12, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Diabetes Control, Diabetes Medication, Diabetes Research and News, Insulin Delivery 
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There’s good news for insulin dependent diabetics who rely on fast-acting mealtime insulin injections to keep their blood sugar under control. MannKind Corporation has the go-ahead to continue clinical testing of its investigational inhaled insulin, AFREZZA. The drug maker and the FDA met to confirm the protocols for two new studies, one in type 1 diabetics, and one in type 2 diabetics.

AFREZZA is an ultra-rapid acting inhaled insulin which uses patented technology to deliver powdered insulin from a thumb-sized device into the lungs. The lungs are an effective option for delivering diabetes medication, largely because of their huge surface area (about the size of a tennis court). Read the full article

Arthritis Drug a Future Diabetes Medication?

August 9, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Diabetes Control, Diabetes Medication, Diabetes Research and News, Long Acting Insulin 
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Photo: renjith krishnan

A collaborative group of researchers including the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has been testing the medication abatacept (CTLA4 immunoglobin fusion protein) as a possible treatment for type 1 diabetes. Abatacept, better known by its brand name Orencia, is FDA approved to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which T-cells in the body’s immune system mistakenly attack the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas. With the pancreas producing little or no insulin, type 1 diabetics must rely on insulin injections to regulate their blood sugar levels. Those type 1 diabetes who continue to produce some insulin have an easier time keeping their blood sugar in the normal range, and have less risk of diabetes complications. Read the full article

Consider an Online Canadian Pharmacy When You Buy Lantus

June 30, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Buy Lantus, Diabetes Medication, Long Acting Insulin 
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Photo: Edwar Andiko

Lantus is a popular basal, or long acting, insulin used in the treatment of both type 1 and type 1 diabetes mellitus. The diabetes medication is suitable for both adult and pediatric patients with Type 1 diabetes, and for adults with Type 2 diabetes who require long-acting insulin injections to control hyperglycemia.

Lantus long acting insulin has some key benefits: it is used only once daily, it has no pronounced peak; it lowers basal glucose levels for a full 24 hours; and it can be used with oral diabetes medications and/or short-acting insulin for better diabetes control. One of the biggest advantages of Lantus is that, due to its lack of peak, it decreases the risk of nocturnal hypoglycemia. Read the full article

Poor Sleep in Diabetics Leads to 82% Higher Insulin Resistance

June 13, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Diabetes Control, Diabetes Research and News, It's Complicated 
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Photo: catalin82

There are complex cause and effect relationships between sleep and diabetes. Poor sleep is considered a risk factor for diabetes, while diabetes is considered a contributor to poor sleep.

Sleep disorders such as insomnia, excessive snoring and obstructive sleep apnea are more common in people with type 2 diabetes. As a result, many diabetics don’t sleep as well as people without the disease.

Recently, researchers conducting a study titled Cross-Sectional Associations Between Measure Of Sleep And Markers Of Glucose Metabolism Among Persons With And Without Diabetes” monitored the sleep patterns of 40 type 2 diabetics over six nights. They were first interviewed about their normal sleeping patterns, and blood samples were taken to measure their glucose and insulin levels. Read the full article

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