My brother called asking about a treatment called Physiologic Insulin Resensitization, I was stumped as I have not heard of it. As a site moderator I have spent considerable time chasing away spammers offering miracle cures. Lets just say my suspicion’s have been raised. That being said, There is more to this. This treatment is being offered by one of his doctors, a vascular surgeon. He is no quack but does seem to be stepping out of his field of expertise.
The purpose of the treatment is to reduce insulin resistance. I can’t say exactly how it works but it is suppose to resensitize your body during 2-3 hour sessions where glucose is ingested and insulin is infused intravenously in a pattern that mimics the way that a pancreas works. This treatment is new and is covered by insurance and Medicare.
I can’t get my head around how this might work but realize that this could be a game changer if it works.
Sounds interesting…it looks like they tried it on type 1’s too to reduce insulin sensitivity. The researches did not supposedly have conflict of interest. But if it works well, you would think it would be all over the place in sites talking about it. So it has me wondering???
I just read the paper in the following link. My reading is not in depth, but I find the concept interesting, and it may be valid. It is probably not ready for prime time, maybe in 5 years
Not looking at the actual study - this is so easy to game and overwhelm it would require a longer time to check references and plausibility, something I’m not willing to do - just evaluating the quality of the source.
The case studies and clinical trials examining efficacy presented in this paper are insufficient to prove the hypothesis that biomimicry of the physiologic insulin administration in this manner is broadly efficacious. Randomized clinical trial are needed.
Looking at the signatories, only one or two seem to have done much of anything in the diabetes realm, a red flag. It seems an odd collection of ‘authors’.
I looked at one of the ‘clinics’ supporting that kind of therapy, and its principals seem bogus. At first glance, their rating of 4+ out of 5 seems great, until one looks at the underlying reviews. They aren’t. Someone seems to have gone in and repeatedly given them 5 stars, with no text.
As for the idea that biomimicry of insulin secretion could be beneficial, that might be plausible, but the underlying physiology of diabetes means that it wouldn’t correct the underlying issues. It does not suggest that pulsatile secretions restore pancreatic function.
Personally, it seems more scam than not, or at best, an unproven idea. I would think that a good low glycemic diet paired with weight lifting and fitness would do more to improve sensitivity.
Even more pointing to scam: There are multiple providers of systems, but not proof that the systems were tested, nor the underlying hypothesis validated.
I think scam, although maybe that it too strong a word.
The paper itself seems like garbage, poorly written, a hodgepodge of bad sources, mixing animal studies with human studies, with most of the studies being of poor quality, with no controls, making numerous conjectures without proof. Plus, as mentioned, the people behind it are either questionable ‘professionals’ or companies selling devices.
As I mentioned previously, it is time-consuming to check all the references, to verify the veracity of its material. I looked at the reference they site for somatostatin use and the paper does not mention somatostatin, nor does it include any reference to Octreotide or its brand name, Sandostatin.
The study linked is just a study of glucose tolerance and sensitivity, done over yeas, and one can tell from the writing that it is a legitimate, professionally-written document. As to whether is shows what they purport it to show is another matter.
Thanks for checking @John_Bowler. It can be tedious to verify things like this. That said, to my mind they seem to misrepresent the actual findings:
The present study affirms the hypothesis that the pattern of multiply dysregulated insulin secretion typical in patients with type 2 diabetes is, at least temporarily, reversible by short-term β-cell rest achieved via an overnight somatostatin infusion. The results of this clinical experiment thus imply that β-cell rest is a logical therapeutic strategy to restore the pattern of insulin secretion in patients with type 2 diabetes.
This is not directly related to insulin sensitivity, and is only temporary at that. As a lay person, it could simply mean that suppression of insulin output allows the cells to rest, and that rest restores the normal insulin output pattern, but only temporarily.
My feeling is that while the study that you cite is legitimate and in the form of what a respectable, legitimate study looks like, the study we are checking looks like bogus material, particularly in comparison to and in light of its errors. On another level, it looks more like a standard disinformation strategy, a bunch of gobbledygook, strung together in such a way to make it hard to decipher, and at least superficially, plausible.
Thanks everyone for the feedback, it is what I had hoped for. It is because I do not have the background or the education level necessary to fully comprehend the reports that I find your feedback valuable.
I had breakfast with my brother yesterday and he advised me that he plans to give these treatments a try, I did not try to dissuade him. I did advise him that I have some skepticism of this new and unproven treatment but saw no reason not to give it a try.
I honestly believe that I cannot stop him from going ahead with treatments if I wanted to. He has a long-term relationship with this doctor and really trusts him. LOL I told him to go ahead and be the guinea pig, if it works I might just make an appointment.
