Diabetes Expert Dr. Bill Quick shares Diabetes management news and commentary at MyDiabetesCentral.com. The HealthCentral Network, Inc. (www.HealthCentral.com) is one of the top health destinations on the Web, with more than 35 condition-specific, wellness and general health Web properties. http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110 http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110 http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/43295/manifestations-poor Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:44:00 -0000 Dr. Bill Quick Years ago, I was sometimes frustrated to see that hospitals made occasional medication errors involving insulin and diabetes pills, but the errors got swept under the rug. For instance, if a patient got 100 times as much insulin as they should, due to sloppy physician handwriting in the orders, or to a hospital employee mistakenly entering information into a computer, and the patient developed hypoglycemic coma, it rarely attracted much... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/43295/manifestations-poor http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/43108/pancreatitis-effect Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:04:00 -0000 Dr. Bill Quick As readers of this blog are aware, Byetta (also called exenatide), the first approved medication in the class of diabetes drugs called "GLP-1 mimetics" or "GLP-1 receptor agonists", has been associated with a potentially fatal complication called pancreatitis. No one has been quite sure whether the pancreatitis complication is due to use of the drug, or coincidental -- as PWD have an increased incidence of pancreatitis. The FDA, however, has... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/43108/pancreatitis-effect http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/42939/egads-eag Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:30:00 -0000 Dr. Bill Quick Everyone who's had diabetes for a while is aware that there's some sort of relationship between their blood glucose (BG) levels and the results of their hemoglobin A1c (A1C) test. If someone's BGs are completely normal for the last three months, it's probably safe to assume that the A1C, if measured today, would be normal. But the reverse is not true: a normal A1C doesn't mean all the BGs the past three months have been normal: that might have... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/42939/egads-eag http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/42640/insulin-pen Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:37:00 -0000 Dr. Bill Quick I just read an article in a "throwaway" diabetes journal titled "Insulin Pens for Type 2 Diabetes." Although this article isn't on-line, there's a very similar article (published by the same authors!) in Diabetes Care, "Factors Affecting Use of Insulin Pens by Patients With Type 2 Diabetes." I was surprised at the very narrow and misleading focus of the authors on the situation about pen use in the United States. For instance, there's the... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/42640/insulin-pen http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/41631/endos-pcps Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:51:00 -0000 Dr. Bill Quick A few days ago, a friend who has type 2 diabetes contacted me. She was being forced by insurance company mandates to switch physicians, and asked my opinion about whether she should get an endocrinologist not only for her diabetes care, but also to be her primary care physician (PCP). It's an interesting question. If the same physician could deal with sore throats and sprained thumbs as well as with A1Cs and annual microalbumin checks, it... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/41631/endos-pcps http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/40394/clinical-marketing Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:58:00 -0000 Dr. Bill Quick Clinical trials of new drugs, or drugs on the market, are expensive, and have to have a clear purpose. For a drug that's in development, and hasn't yet been approved for sale, the purpose is usually to generate data on efficacy and safety, and eventually get approval. For a drug that's about to get approved, it may be to build hype for the forthcoming product (on the assumption it will indeed get approved). For drugs that have safety problems... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/40394/clinical-marketing http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/40094/insulin-potential Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:20:00 -0000 Dr. Bill Quick The FDA just released its first quarterly report of drugs with "potential safety issues." A discussion of the concept is posted at FDA to Post Quarterly Report of Potential Safety Issues, and the first report is for the first three months of 2008.   As the FDA points out, "The information is being provided under provisions of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act, signed into law Sept. 27, 2007. The law requires that FDA... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/40094/insulin-potential http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/39518/cde-credential Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:37:00 -0000 Dr. Bill Quick Many of us in the field of diabetes care are now very used to the CDE (Certified Diabetes Educator) credential. It's a worthy addition to the alphabet soup that health professionals stick after their names to indicate what training they've completed, so you might see someone who gives their name as "Jane Jones, RN, CDE" or "Sarah Jones, MD, CDE" or "Jessie Jones, RD, CDE" (or James, Sam, and John -- not trying to be sexist here).   The... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/39518/cde-credential http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/38686/failure-vigilance Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:19:00 -0000 Dr. Bill Quick Last evening (August 26, 2008), the manufacturer of Byetta (Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., partnering with Eli Lilly) released information attempting to reassure patients, physicians, and investors that Byetta was safe, despite increasing evidence that may link the drug to a sometimes-fatal complication of diabetes called pancreatitis. In my opinion, they failed.   First, let me remind everyone that the possible association between Byetta... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/38686/failure-vigilance http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/38553/insulin-diabetes Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:46:00 -0000 Dr. Bill Quick A news story today, UT Southwestern doctor reports 'intriguing' diabetes breakthrough, is indeed intriguing. A research team used high levels of leptin, a substance naturally produced by fat cells, to somehow reverse the otherwise fatal effects of diabetes in rodents.   Leptin, as you may or may not know, is a hormone. It gets very little respect -- it doesn't even have its own website (although a drug company owns the domain name... http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/110/38553/insulin-diabetes