Some of our doctors don’t help us when they use insulin as a threat: “Unless you reduce your blood glucose, I am going to have to put you on insulin.”

So it’s no surprise that many of us who have type 2 diabetes think we have failed when our doctors prescribe it. This comes from thinking of injecting insulin as a last resort.

It isn’t. More and more of us are now starting to take insulin as soon as our doctors have diagnosed our type 2 diabetes. Probably half of the men in my diabetes support group started taking insulin as a first choice.
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When I recommended here a month ago that we all get vaccinated against influenza this year, I had no idea how much controversy it would stir up. Some of the concerns are legitimate, but we have alternatives. Other concerns stem from irresponsible rants on the Internet that I’ve traced back to a totally discredited South Carolina doctor.

My article here last month jumped the gun. I knew that the flu authorities at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wanted to talk with me so that I could help get the word out. But since CDC and the Health Central Network weren’t able to work out the arrangement in time, I wrote then because the flu season was already upon us.
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Maybe it won’t cure diabetes. But a compound slated to begin a new Phase 2b clinical trial early next year stands a good chance of knocking diabetes back into remission.

Almost never do I write about new drugs unless they are at least in in the final stage of development, a Phase 3 trial. The odds are against them.

Of 100 drugs for which developers submit investigational new drug applications to the Food and Drug Administration for approval, about 70 will successfully complete Phase 1 trials and go on to Phase 2. About 33 of the original 100 will complete Phase 2 and go to Phase 3. And 25 to 30 of the original 100 will clear Phase 3.
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You can skip your flu shot this year — if you would rather get sick than go to work. While you hope to recover in your bed at home alone, you can reflect that you are among the 5 percent of Americans who told surveyors that they made that choice.

While you’re at it, you might also want to consider that about 35,000 of us die and 225,000 get sick enough to need a hospital bed because of the flu. If you recover, you might think about trying to get a job that you hate less that the chance of getting the flu.

As many as one-fifth of us will get the flu this year. Most of those who will get it are among the 45 percent of Americans who will skip getting their annual flu shot. Their reasons for skipping the shot are just as good as those who might have to look for a new job in this difficult economy while waiting for Congress to extend unemployment benefits.
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People seldom make me angry any more. When another driver cut me off yesterday, I didn’t even flip him the finger or honk my horn. I just figured that he was in a bigger hurry than I was.

Recently doctors have determined that when we are younger and when we are older we are happier than when we are middle-aged. That can’t be generally true, because I still remember my miserable youth.

My life instead has been one of increasing happiness. I’m much more likely to shed tears of joy, as I did on the evening of November 4, than to weep with rage.
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Every time we pop a pill we put our health at risk. Whether it is a prescription medication, an alternative supplement, or an over-the-counter remedy that we take to feel better, the pill can hurt instead of help us.

Every pill that does anything good for us can pack a surprise. These unintended side effects range from the unpleasant to the deadly.

Ever see an ad for a pill that “has no side effects”? These ads are a dead giveaway that they are either lying or that the pill has no effects. These are the only pills that may be safe — although we certainly would also be wasting our money.
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When we act like responsible adults, we always look at the expiration dates on the containers of prescription medicine and over-the-counter drugs that we use. Just to give one example, I can’t count the number of times that I have tossed old aspirin tablets.

Now, it turns out, I was throwing away my money.

From now on I will be saving money after reading an article in the current issue of my favorite health newsletter, which I subscribe to the old-fashioned way, on paper. The article, “Out on a date” in the October issue of the “UC Berkeley Wellness Letter,” explains that expiration dates are guarantees that prescription and over-the-counter drugs will be both potent and safe until then. But they don’t mean that after the expiration date, they won’t be effective or safe.
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The diabetes drug Byetta can help us control our blood glucose and lose weight. That’s huge — and just the beginning of the story.

Full disclosure: I own 100 shares of stock in Amylin, the company that developed Byetta.

About a year ago, after the Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association in Chicago, I reported here how Byetta can reduce our risk of heart attacks and strokes. These are the most common and deadly complications of diabetes.

Now a study presented at the ADA’s recent Scientific Sessions in San Francisco indicates that the reduced risk to our hearts may lead to previously unheard of benefits. Taking Byetta can lower our chance of dying compared with other diabetes drugs. The Times says that the chance of dying while taking Byetta is about 75 percent lower than on the other drugs.
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You can conquer sleep apnea. I know you can because I conquered a most severe form of it. And I’ve now even given away both of my continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines, which is the standard treatment for overweight people who have sleep apnea.

About half of all of us who have diabetes also suffer from sleep apnea. While not all of us who have diabetes suffer from it, everyone with sleep apnea suffers. People lose their jobs because they nod off to sleep at work rather than at night. People crash their cars because they fall asleep at the wheel. Even those who don’t get fired or have traffic accidents suffer by being sleepy much of the time.

My fear of killing myself and my passengers by nodding off during an afternoon drive was in fact what finally persuaded me to seek treatment. Four years ago, when I finally began to get my sleep apnea under control with a CPAP machine, I wrote my first article about it. That article, for Diabetes Wellness News, is now online.
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Just as I was about to stop taking Pycnogenol, along comes a high quality study that convinced me to keep on using this supplement.

I have my suspicions about all supplements and have announced them here. My most recent previous article here shows that short list of those remaining in my favor.
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