Posted on 04/05/2013 12:59:11 PM PDT by neverdem
A new diabetes drug that hit the market in the past week boasts it can drop your glucose levels and flush out "guilty" calories every time you use the bathroom.
Experts say that every time the patient urinates, out goes all the unwanted sugar and calories.
Doctors say this drug could even help prevent Type 2 diabetes.
KVUE's sister station KENS went behind closed doors at the Veterans Affairs hospital to witness clinical trials for other drugs similar to Invokana.
Last Friday, the FDA approved Invokana, a drug experts are hailing as a game changer for Type 2 diabetes treatment.
The drug works in the kidneys and blocks an enzyme that would put sugar back in the bloodstream.
Dr. Devjit Tripathy with UT Medicine San Antonio, the clinical practice of the School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center, says the drug helps curb obesity.
"This drug not only has the potential to treat Type 2 diabetes but also obesity," Tripathy said. "With the loss of a lot of glucose, you lose a lot of calories and by that you lose weight."
He said the same weight loss results can occur in non-diabetic subjects, but he emphasized that so far the drug is only approved for Type 2 diabetes patients and not specifically as a weight-loss drug.
"In San Antonio, we have a very big problem with obesity," Tripathy said. "This drug will definitely help us."
He also said this drug has the potential to help prevent Type 2 diabetes.
Keep in mind taking this drug doesn't mean you can eat whatever you want. The doctor said the drug is limited on how much sugar is excreted, so it's important to continue watching your diet.
Experts say they are still assessing the long-term effects of the medication.
Yeah, that sounds safe and non invasive. What could go wrong?
Diet and exercise. Don’t become someone’s chemistry experiment.
Wow! Great news for a lot of people. Ignore type 2 diabetes and it’ll get you every time, and I’m afraid a lot of people have it but still neglect to take care of themselves despite knowing they have it. This ought to help.
Confucious say: Block action of enzyme long time much bad mojo.
See: statins, cox2 inhibitors, others.
And you have people like one of my kin who will say, ‘Hurray, I can stop watching my diet, eat what I want, and just take this pill!’.
ping
I am 5-10 weigh 145# and walk 6 miles a day on an inclined treadmill.
Still have “pre-Diabetes. Will be looking into this.
I am constantly confounded that people will simply not accept this simple solution.
The body is an amazing machine, but you have to perform maintenance. Sitting in an office 8 hours a day, driving home and then sitting in front of the TV or computer until bedtime in between stuffing your pie hole with 3 meals and countless snacks is a certain death sentence.
And yet, people seem not to grasp why they are obese and have a plethora of ailments and maladies. Stunning.
No one has to be a middle-aged Olympian, put ya gotta move!
I thought everything you eat is broken down in the body and turned into sugar ,fuel for your body ,so if it’s flushed before it’s used ,could be trouble
Do you have a meter? Get one. Test your after meal sugars every 30 min for 3hr post meal. Not every time and forever, mind you. Just to find out which meals are jacking your sugar.
If it makes your sugar go up, don’t eat that. Or only eat 1/2 as much next time. Test again. Once you have an idea, stop eating the culprits!
My a1c was 13+ when I was diagnosed. It runs in the low 5’s or high 4’s now with only metformin. If it makes my sugar go over 100 post prandial, I don’t eat that.
Hint: sugar, starch, large volumes of food (even low starch veggies!) will jack your sugars. So will stress. Stress will cause my liver to dump sugar like nobody’s business.
It’s not just fat people. My mom weighs all of 105# soaking sopping wet. Her post prandial when she was tested 5 years ago? 300+. The most she’d ever weighed in her life was 118. That was the day before she had my kid brother.
Interesting. I just scheduled an appt with my Endocrinologist to discuss.
Yep. If a person is in denial, he probably won’t bother with the pill. If he’s suicidal, he won’t take it. That’s a lot of people, unfortunately. IMO, this pill seems most likely to benefit someone who is already doing all he can do, but whose blood sugar is still out of control.
I’ve been testing for some time. I have a high fasting sugar for whatever reason.
I eat very little carbs and virtually no processed carbs or sugar. Small meals and lots of protein. Have a pretty good post prandial response (around 85 2 hr PP).
Metformin did absolutely nothing for me. Had better results with Chromium.
I tend to shy away from new drugs.
There’s always some nut/crank in every medical thread (Actually two so far in this one) who pushes simple lifestyle changes as a cure-all for a complex metabolic disorder. Sure didn’t work for #7, nor many others. Don’t be so simple minded. The body, genetics and circumstances are much more complicated than you’ll ever grasp with that approach.
I’m a nurse for over 35 yrs now....I can tell you some of the sickest people are skinny....a lot of them smokers or drug abusers or alcoholics....a lot of them have absolutely no reserves to sustain illness, so when illness strikes, it really comes hard...
Have your adrenals checked, just because.
Do you get sufficient sleep? Lack of sleep will give me high sugar too.
Adrenals, no. Sleep like a baby 8-9 hrs/night.
ping
I was diagnosed with type II when in my mid 50s. I wasn’t excessively overweight and I was/am primarily pre-diabetic, only a little bit above the norm. For six years diet and exercise worked just fine and I also lost weight. Then, the A1C and daily readings started to climb again so my doctor put me on some meds that brought things back to normal. She told me that sometimes as you age the diet and exercise no longer work as well so I’m now tied to the meds. If this gets me off the other two meds I’m all for it. I understand how it works and I’ve been following the progress for a few years now. Chemistry experiment indeed. You’re more of a chemistry experiment each time you swill a homebrew or custom beer than you are taking this.
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