this is my first post in the forum. I am a 65 years old man who was diagnosed with diabetes type II 25 years ago. Since then I am on medications for my diabetes. For the last 5 years I have been using Byetta 10 micro-gram twice a day along with Metformin 1000 mg twice a day, Glymberide 4 mg twice a day, and 45 units of Levimere long acting insulin at midnight. My HbA1c levels were 7-8 most of the time. Last week my diabetes doctor switched me to Trulicity1.5mg and I am supposed to start using it soon. But when I read the warnings about its side effects I felt very scared. I felt even more scared when I Googled the subject and read the scary comments by people who used Trulicity on the following link:
The comments on the article in the above link were all very negative and tell serious painful stories. Now, I am puzzled, what to do? Shall I go back to my doctor and tell him I am good with Byetta for the last 5 years and don’t want to take the risks associated with Trulicity or shall I switch as he prescribed to me. I have already the Trulicity injections (3 months supply) in my refrigerator now but scared to use them. I appreciate sharing your experience and advising me on this situation.
Well, there’s a lot of (perhaps important) detail I don’t know about your situation, but one of my basic rules of life is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Thanks David for your kind advice. My doctor thought that Trulicity is better than Byetta. He said that Byetta is an old medication. Its ime to go to the latest.
Thank you for making this point. I agree with you, and because of that I Googled Trulicity to learn more about it. But in that link that Google led me to I read many scary comments from people who used it. Here I am now, scared to switch and feel puzzled.
Did you google your current medication? What do the comments say about that? I know nothing about Byetta or Trulicity, but it seems only people with bad experiences bother to comment. Good luck
Have you tried splitting your levemir for a more even BG level? Also the overnight and miss a meal basal testing
GLP-1 does some good stuff and may turn out to be a good drug, but a bit early to tell
as you know, insulin resistance is at the base of T2, many find cutting the sugars and starches does the job and are able to reduce or not need the insulin etc. I’d watch the last 20 minutes of this video. definitely the last 10 minutes.
I ask that you consider where the information came from. I have not read all fo the data and so I am not qualified to comment about the validity, or lack of validity of the information presented. But I do hope you will use great caution in consulting with Dr. Google for medical advice. I know I always google my medications and over time one of the things I have found is that for every 5 things I read which are positive, I read about 25 that are negative.
I find the best person to consult is my doctor. I use some powerful and scary medications. If a person googles many of those medications it would give anyone pause. I still use them because i need them. If I listened only to Dr. Google I would never do it.
It is not that I ignore what I find, it is I looks at the practice outcomes. To my knowledge. Dr. Google had not graduated from any medical school. Now if you are concerned that you are not getting the straight scoop, try a second opinion.
Thank you very much for sharing some of your thoughts about Dr. Google with me. What a coincident, I was in a discussion with a friend who is an MD during the last 2 hours and his advice was exactly similar to yours. He said since your doctor prescribed Trulicity to you you should trust him on that and he said that since I am OK with Byetta for the last 5 years I should not be scared from Trulicity because they are not much different. He also like yourself does not trust Dr. Google when it comes to making decisions. I believe based on what I heard from you and other colleagues here I will start using my first injection soon just after my current Byetta pen is finished.
Thank you for sharing this great video lecture. I enjoyed watching it and learned a ton of useful information from it. Definitely I will try the Low Carb Diet and I am confident it will help me to reach my goals.
I have to say, when I first mentioned seeing something on the internet to my doctor years ago I got a total eye roll and a lecture that everything on the internet is false and dangerous advice. Over the years things have changed. There are now actually credible sources of information. But if you just google, you can come up with whack jobs like this website and Martin Hum PhD DHD nutritionist. In case you don’t know what DHD stands for it is Disability and Human Development. When I looked him up he is associated with the supplement scam operation I looked into last June. Not a credible source of advice.
I have to tell you, every GLP-1 drug comes with a warning. Yes, even Byetta. And absolutely if you have or have had thyroid cancer you probably should not use a GLP-1 drug until there is a better understanding of the risk. Every drug carries some risk of adverse effects, whether it be gastric distress with metformin, weight gain or hypos from insulin or excessive bleeding with aspirin. All these risks should be taken in context. GLP-1 drugs like Byetta and Trulicity have been associated with thyroid cancer in rats. One human patient (of many thousands) in the Trulicity study had thyroid cancer. It wasn’t clear whether Trulicity played a role and the FDA could not conclude that there was any connection, hence the black box warning. Byetta missed the same warning by a single patient. The bottom line, they have both been associated with thyroid cancer in rats, but there isn’t sufficient evidence to conclude that in humans. The FDA has a “watch” program where the thousands (if not millions) of patients are observed for thyroid cancer. If Trulicity (or Byetta) does cause thyroid cancer it will show up and the FDA may alter it’s approval of the drug. If no thryoid cancer shows up then the FDA will remove the warning.
At this time switching from Trulicity to Byetta probably does nothing about those risks. You can talk to your doctor about your concerns, but he will likely ask you why you suddenly worried about Trulicity but never had any issue with Betta.
ps. If you really want to know about black box warnings on these drugs your should read the prescribing information for Byetta and Trulicity. That information is carefully reviewed and approved by the FDA.
I have been on trulicity for four months. It has lowered my morning blood glucose into the 70s and 80s for the first time I can remember. I have hAd only slight nausea the first day after shot. I also take metformin. Please note the woman in your linked article is pushing an herbal substitute. Always suspect.
Again, as David said, if it’s working, and you have reservations about changing, then don’t. AFAIK, Byetta ain’t going away any time soon.
Ultimately, YOU are in charge when it comes to your health care. Be a bit more assertive, and just tell your doctor you don’t want to switch. Byetta is working, so you’ll stick with that until there’s a problem.
[quote=“Brian_BSC, post:14, topic:56469, full:true”]
I have to say, when I first mentioned seeing something on the internet to my doctor years ago I got a total eye roll and a lecture that everything on the internet is false and dangerous advice. Over the years things have changed. There are now actually credible sources of information. But if you just google, you can come up with whack jobs like this website and Martin Hum PhD DHD nutritionist. In case you don’t know what DHD stands for it is Disability and Human Development. When I looked him up he is associated with the supplement scam operation I looked into last June. Not a credible source of advice.[/quote]Mention of this sort of thing always makes me think of Dr. Wallach and youngevity.net. His quack radio show has been airing here in the Santa Cruz area for many years.
My mother has type 2 for 20 years now.Started trulicity about 2 months ago.Since then she has no problem with her blood sugar and almost no side effects-only moderate constipation.Her morning blood sugar readings are about 102 and in the afternoon just lil bit above normal-about 150.Before she had about 170 in the morning and over 200 in the afternoon…She is taking trulicity 0.75.
Thank you for your kind response to my post. You have brought up several points that are valid points. You convinced me now since I already used Byetta for the past 5 years then I should not be scared to switch to Trulicity with one dose a week instead of two doses of Byetta every day as I am doing for the past 5 years. Thanks also for explaining to me the concept of Black Box Warning. I feel comfortable now and not scared. I’ll switch to Trulicity as soon as the current Byetta is finished. I am indebted to your kindness. You helped me to reach a decision.
