Dangers of Actos

Avandia is a drug that increases insulin sensitivity. This drug was prescribed to patients with Type 2 diabetes. Some of Avandia’s side effects are that it can cause heart failure, myocardial infarction, and other afflictions. Actos is another drug that increases insulin sensitivity but it is not as likely to cause heart failures… it causes bladder cancer! With this small difference, Avandia is mostly banned in the US, but Actos isn’t. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) still doesn’t have enough sense to ban Actos. The FDA avoided an interview with CBS news on the topic of Actos.

Different types of diabetes

The two common types of diabetes are type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is when the body does not produce insulin, known as autoimmune response. Causes of type 1 diabetes are not known but evidence has shown that a genetic predisposition and environmental factors could be linked to type 1.

Type 2 diabetes is when there is an abnormal amount of insulin in the body. Children can also be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Causes for type 2 diabetes include aging, obesity, and physical inactivity.

Heredity is a cause for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. As the Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center stated,

If both parents have Type 2 diabetes, there is a chance that nearly all of their children will have diabetes. If both parents have Type 1 diabetes, fewer than 20 percent of their children will develop Type 1 diabetes. In identical twins, if one twin develops Type 2 diabetes, the chance is nearly 100 percent that the other twin will also develop it. In Type 1 diabetes, however, only 40 to 50 percent of the second twins will develop the disease, indicating that while inheritance is important, environmental factors (for example, too much food, too much stress, viral infection, and so forth) are also involved in the development of Type 1 diabetes.

Treatment for type 1 diabetes is taking insulin injections. Treatments for type 2 diabetes include diet, exercise, weight loss, and taking medications such as Actos, Avandia, Metformin, and many others.  

Type 2 diabetes- Actos

Actos is a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes. When combined with proper diet and exercise, it can lower the level of sugar in the patient’s blood stream. Actos was one of the best selling drugs in 2008 in the US. However, the FDA found that the use of Actos may increase the risk for bladder cancer. France and Germany took Actos off of their markets. It remains on the market in the US, but the risk for bladder cancer is scheduled to be added to the Warning and Precaution label on the drug.

TSA Humiliates Bladder Cancer Survivor

Real Story of Diabetes

Causes, symptoms, and living with Diabetes

Appreciate to all of these cute pictures in the video even though some of them are not really related to diabetes; however, the video introduces the causes, symptoms, and livings with diabetes.

It is Worth to take 5 minute break and check it out.

Basic Facts of Bladder Cancer

"I.A.M.D.I.A.B.E.T.I.C", a Rap Song for Diabetes.

You have to take a look at this, because their kids are so funny and their creativeness won the 2008 World Diabetes Day Young Voices video contest in NYC! 

I couldn't help to laugh, hope you will like it!

FDA warns Diabetics about Actos

Take a close look to Diabetes.

I found a video on Youtube which did a little overview on Diabete, such as how does it occur and how to treat it. Taking a look at a clip might be easy to read, right? You might be interested in it.

A new segment of Actos from InsiderMedicine

This video from InsiderMedicine talks about the latest news of Actos. Although Actos is known for one of the best medicines to deal with Diabetes, recently search document  proved that Actos might increase the risk of getting bladder cancer. 

I think we gotta make a choice between helpful to Diabetes or harmful to Bladder Cancer, what's your choice? 

Life with Diabetes: Wilford Brimley Was Right

Years ago, my aunt was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes--something my mother always worried about, since she had always carried a little more weight than her other sisters, and she had (well, has) a bad sweet tooth. My mother told me I was likely to get it, too--hasn't happened yet, but I have inherited that sweet tooth.

My little cousin, in his twenties now, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was a baby, and the health scares he had as a kid would make your hair stand on end. To look at him, you wouldn't think anything could be "wrong" with him. He looks like the Brawny man without the mustache. But the kid can't eat an ear of corn without having to mentally tally what he ate that day, can't have more than two beers without thinking about his liver.

He and my aunt have had their struggles with diabetes, and I've learned from them. I have also learned from friends, co-workers, and exes. Some managed their diabetes like accountants, measuring every calorie. Some were dangerously negligent--I'm think of one guy I knew who would get out of his mind drunk with the rest of his frat, then take his insulin like nothing was wrong. I'm praying he is taking better care of himself now.

In case you don't know what life with diabetes is like, let me give you some highlights:

-No more soda. Your diabetes doesn't care how thirsty you are for a Coke, root beer, or black cherry soda (my personal favorite). I think soda would be the hardest thing for me to consider giving up, though one of my cousins swears by seltzer and says it satisfies her carbonated cravings.

-Pricking your finger every day to test your blood. When I was a little girl, I thought finger pricking was exciting because that's how Sleeping Beauty entered her magic coma. Now I know it is a life-saving, pain-in-the-butt fact of life for diabetics, no magic involved.

-Medication with scary side effects, like bladder cancer and heart attacks. (Oh hello Actos! We were just talking about you!)

-Medication with annoying side effects, like weight gain. (Well, speak of the devil: Actos again!)

-People treating you like it's your fault, if you have Type 2.

Cake-loving "Diabetty" from The Simpsons. 

-People treating you like the sickly boy in The Secret Garden, if you have Type 1.

Pitiful little Colin (left) from The Secret Garden.

-"Helpful" suggestions about weight loss from strangers who are not doctors or nutritionists.

The pity some people feel for Type 1 diabetes sufferers is as misplaced as the contempt some feel for Type 2 diabetes sufferers. Being born with it or developing it later in life don't change the fact that it's a hard disease to manage and live with, and that diabetics are just people with a blood sugar problem. They're just like everybody else, except they can't afford to be as reckless with what they put in their bodies. 

I've become a healthier and more considerate person from knowing and loving people who suffer from diabetes. I'm nowhere near perfect, but I know that knowing people with diabetes has helped me treat my body with more care, and treat the people around me with more care. I want to share that, and I want to stay up to date on medical news by joining the diabetes blogosphere. There is so much more for me to learn.

XOXO,

Brenda

Pricking your finger on a daily basis: NOT FUN.