Letter From The Editor

The prevailing statistics say that 74% of all diabetes patients have high lipids, 75% have hypertension, and that 56% of all diabetes patients have both conditions. If you take the time to read all of this week’s clinical newsletter you will learn why these statistics are so important. Our Clinical …

If you have never considered using a GLP-1 analog with insulin then you need to read this month’s update, and then think about how insulin and these analogs can be used together. While most of the the GLP-1’s are indicated with insulin, we don’t always think of using them before …

Last week, my daughter was out for a 100 mile bike ride and at mile 78 she was coming down a bridge on Madera Beach at about 27 mph when a car cut in front of her to make a right turn. She braked very hard, hit some gravel and …

Every week we see patients who can’t tolerate metformin, and we often have to chose a less effective but more expensive medication for their diabetes. We try decreasing the dose and then titrating back up, and even that does not work. For years, pharmaceutical companies have been trying to find …

Last night I was in the pharmacy and a 22-year-old man came in with prescriptions for insulin, syringes, glucose meter, test strips and lancets. He had come by motorcycle and while he was waiting for his prescription he never took off his helmet or jacket even though it was 75 …

Our good friend and Advisory Board member, Andrew Young, is one of the fittest type 1 patients I have ever met. He runs, cycles, surfs, does yoga, and is constantly working his body to improve his fitness especially for cardiovascular health. He believes that, as a type 1 patient, it …

Patients often have to deal with problems we never think of and that makes it hard for them to manage their diabetes. This becomes most important when our patients are insulin users, especially if they have tactile problems or arthritis or joint problems. We try to make things easier by …

The diabetes drug arena is getting more crowded by the day as new classes of drugs like SGLT-2 inhibitors and GLP-1 analogs seem to be getting approved at a quick pace. In addition there are classes of drugs that are in phase 2 and 3 trials that we have yet …

I was in a doctor’s office last week and reached into a drawer to get a pen and, lo and behold, I came out with one of those old metal GLP-1 promotional pens. It was silver with orange yellow and blue-green strips, and felt really good in my hand. It …

Sometimes it seems as if we don’t talk about an organ or a problem until we have a medication to treat it. For years we didn’t consider the kidney as a problem area for diabetes. It was not until we identified the SGLT-1 and -2 receptors that we began to …