A new class of diabetes medicines is heavily advertised on TV and shows great promise in getting patients’ blood sugar levels down, but a safety announcement from the Food and Drug Administration warns that one of the drugs, Johnson & Johnson’s Invokana, doubles those patients’ chance of needing parts of their legs or feet amputated. [More]
diabetes
Diabetes Drug Invokana Must Warn Patients About Increased Risk Of Foot, Leg Amputation
By 5.17.17 — Updated: 5.19.17
Lilly Meets With Diabetes Patients, Starts Discounted Insulin Program
By 12.13.16
Even though injectable vials of insulin have been around for nearly a century, and synthetic insulin for almost 40 years, there is no generic form of the vital diabetes medication. In recent years, the price of insulin has risen sharply, leaving healthcare providers with concerns about patients who can’t afford insulin skipping doses and risking lost limbs and eyesight. Pharma giant Eli Lilly — maker of popular insulin brands Humalog, Humulin, and Basaglar — is now proposing a solution that it believes could make the medication more affordable — but only for some people. [More]
Diabetes Patients Are Losing Limbs And Sight Because They Can’t Afford Insulin
By 8.23.16
Earlier this week, we shared the concerns of patients who are struggling with the rising cost of EpiPens, injection devices that can save lives in the case of a severe allergic reaction to foods or other substances. The important thing about EpiPens, though, is that patients hope to never actually need to use them. Another drug with significant recent price increases, insulin, has to be taken every day… when patients can afford it. [More]
No Tax On Sugary Drinks In California After State Assembly Committee Vote
By 5.13.15
California lawmakers trying to get a $0.02 tax imposed on sodas and other sugary drinks in the state have come up empty, after the proposed measure failed to pass an Assembly committee. Supporters said the law would help curb high rates of obesity and diabetes, while some critics said it wouldn’t properly address health issues and would hit low-income residents the hardest. [More]
Was McDonald’s Right To Refuse Service To Diabetic Walk-Up Customer At Drive-Thru?
By 12.29.14
While we understand why a fast food place would only serve late-night customers through the drive-thru window, we’ve never quite understood why these eateries refuse to serve customers who pop by on foot or on bikes. Someone else who doesn’t get this policy is the diabetic man who claims that McDonald’s workers shrugged off his concerns of an impending hypoglycemic attack and refused to serve him because he wasn’t driving. [More]
Well-Meaning Walgreens Employees Raise Money For Diabetes By Selling Sweets
By 9.28.12
We find it totally excellent and kind of touching that employees at reader Ashlie’s local Walgreens store are holding an employee bake sale for a health-related charity. Perhaps the disease they were raising money for has affected members of the staff. Ashlie is a dietician by profession, though, and she notes that this bake has a bit of an irony problem. It’s raising money for the American Diabetes Association. [More]
Donate To Diabetes Research, Get Four Frostys From Wendy’s
By 6.19.12
It could always be worse. Almost exactly a year ago, we shared a KFC promotion that donated part of the purchase price of a ginormous soft drink to type 2 diabetes research. You know, the kind of diabetes that is correlated with poor diet and exercise habits, such as drinking ginormous soft drinks. This year’s Wendy’s promo raises money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, or type 1 diabetes–the one not correlated to poor dietary habits. Donate $1, and you get four small Frostys, cups of a sugar-laden dairy-like substance. One small Frosty contains 42 grams of sugar, if you’re wondering. That’s 10.5 teaspoons of sweetness, and kind of a weird item to be selling as a fundraiser for a disease that prevents patients from processing sugar correctly. [More]
Scientists Suggest Restricting Sugar Sales For Youngsters
By 2.2.12
Arguing that sugar is as additive as tobacco or alcohol, scientists at the University of California San Francisco say that the sweet stuff should be regulated in much the same way as those products. That means taxes to discourage consumption and age-dependent restrictions on how much can be sold to a consumer. [More]
Burger King Billboard Gets Diabetes Graffiti
By 10.21.11
Someone has graffitied this Burger King billboard in downtown Seattle to transform it into criticism about how sugary fast food contributes to diabetes and the obesity crisis. [More]
Study: Diabetes Sufferers More Likely To Get Dementia
By 9.20.11
Those who are afflicted with diabetes are apparently more at risk of suffering dementia than others. A study confirmed the link between the conditions that researchers had long thought to be true. [More]
Diabetic Walgreens Staffer: I Was Fired For Eating A $1.39 Bag Of Chips Before I Paid For Them
By 9.12.11
A former San Francisco-area Walgreens worker with diabetes says she was fired from her job of nearly two decades because, feeling a hypoglycemic attacking coming, she chose to eat a $1.39 bag of potato chips before she had the chance to pay for them. [More]
5 Things You Can Do To Prevent Diabetes
By 9.6.11
Nationwide obesity, combined with genetic factors, makes diabetes a fact of life for our society, but no one needs to accept the eventual contraction of the disease as a foregone conclusion. There are measures you can take every day to give yourself the best chance of avoiding type 2 diabetes. [More]
Pregnant Passenger Says TSA Confiscated Her Insulin
By 8.8.11
The ever-vigilant Transportation Security Administration has kept the air safe from harmless fluids by confiscating a pregnant traveler’s insulin and ice packs as she tried to board a flight from Denver to Phoenix last week. [More]
Utah KFC: Buy Humongous, Sugary Drink And We'll Contribute $1 To Diabetes Research
By 6.20.11
A promotion at a Utah KFC seemingly gives customers the opportunity to aid diabetes research while doing their best to make themselves possible patients. [More]
FDA: Diabetes Drug Avandia To Be Pulled From Retail Pharmacies In November
By 5.19.11
For several years, prescription diabetes medicine Avandia has been at the center of a debate about whether the medication’s heart attack risk was high enough to pull it from pharmacies. Now, nearly eight months after the FDA announced it would be introducing strict restrictions on its sale and use, the agency has finally gotten around to announcing the specifics of those restrictions. [More]
Giant Eagle's New Shelf Tags Target Ice Cream-Eating Diabetics
By 9.9.10
Now, it could be that Giant Eagle grocery stores plastered every shelf in their stores with tags advertising their new program which provides free diabetes medications to customers. As tipster Greg writes, “While, as a diabetic, I appreciate the free meds from Giant Eagle grocery store, did they really have to advertise it next to the Breyer’s ice cream? That really hurt.” [More]
FDA Panel Split On Vote To Remove Avandia From Shelves
By 7.14.10
Today, an advisory panel met to discuss and vote on whether or not to recommend if the FDA should pull diabetes drug Avandia from the market over a possible link to increased risk of heart attacks. In the end, the voting leaves no definite direction for how the FDA will ultimately come down on the issue. [More]
Price Chopper Supermarket Offers Free Diabetes Drugs
By 5.20.10
Price Chopper locations with pharmacies will now offer free prescription diabetes medications such as metformin, glipizide and glyburide, as well as free lancets and lancing devices when you fill those prescriptions. They are giving away the free drugs as part of a “comprehensive integrated diabetes management program.” [More]
