Forget barhopping and sitting around eating raw cookie dough: when your friends and family have diabetes, you've got to adjust your lifestyle too.
My friends, family (and a boyfriend or two along the way) have taught me more about diabetes than I ever wanted to know. But now that I do know, I want to share it with all y'all.
Showing posts with label diabetes medication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diabetes medication. Show all posts
..so they could give Actos four thumbs down, apparently.
Diabetics give a Rick James reception to Type 2 medication side effects.
I was on Ask a Patient, checking out other people's reactions to Actos (the TZD a lot of people were switched to when Avandia got a reputation for being bad for your heart, but now it's coming out that Actos shares some of those same heart risks and then some), and it seems unanimous, at least among this sampling of internet commenters: all thumbs down.
From their testimonies, weight gain was pretty much a given, which really upset a lot of the reviewers (obviously... who wants a side effect that contributes to the disease it sets out to treat?).
Here's a sample of what people had to say about their Actos side effects:
"I am so mad because I was losing weight before I started this medicine. I was 213lbs and now, two months later, I am 233. DONT TAKE THIS DRUG, IT IS DANGEROUS !!!!!!!!"
"I now have huge thighs and butt. I started actos 15 MG and my doctor quickly moved me on to 30 MG. I can't lose the weight even though I have been off of actos for almost a year now. It did bring down my blood sugar but made me fat in doing so."
"It did bring my blood glucose levels down, but the side effects just are not worth it. I thought I was going to have a stroke, heart attack or something."
"...So puffy around my knees that I can no longer see where my knee stops and my leg starts. Extreme swelling due to increase in fat cells as per Actos. I can no longer continue using this medication. Legs look like huge tree trunks."
And those are just four people out of the millions who have taken this drug. Check out others here if you really want to get a sense of the kind of side effects people are experiencing.
Que ta pasando, readers? I thought I'd use my long-dormant high school Spanish skills to spread the message of hope, caution, and education to everyone with Type 2, whether they are dealing with dietary restrictions, diabetes medication,or complications with diabetes medication and heart problems.
Especially since so many Americans of Hispanic descent suffer from Type 2 that the National Diabetes Education Program calls it an "epidemic". The NDEP says that
10.4 percent of Hispanics/Latinos ages 20 years or older have diagnosed diabetes.
Among Hispanics/Latinos, diabetes prevalence rates are 8.2 percent for Cubans, 11.9 percent for
Mexican Americans, and 12.6 percent for Puerto Ricans.
Sometimes the treatment can be as bad as the disease: Type 2 diabetes medication Actos has been linked to bladder cancer (o cáncer de la vegija, si prefiere), bone fractures, and increased risk of heart attacks (el riesgo de tener un ataque al corazón).
Is your medication upping your chances of having
un
ataque al corazón?
OK, hope my Spanish wasn't totally incomprehensible.
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.
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 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.
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?
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.
