Clever and interesting concept, for sure. How practical of an application could this have for diabetes if it needs an empty stomach to be effective?
Using compressed dried insulin as the “needle” is indeed clever. I’m not sure how useful it could be for those of us who need to administer insulin many times daily, often when there is food in the stomach.
I realize there is a lot of fear of needles that prevents many T2Ds from starting insulin. This could help that if it’s found to work in humans.
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Can you explain where needle-phobia is higher in T2’s than T1’s? Or is it that they try to get by with non-insulin meds instead, so rather than a fear, it’s just more of a desire to avoid injections if they can.
Newly diagnosed T1Ds are immediately faced with a cold, hard choice: take insulin or die.
T2Ds, however, with a partially working pancreas can survive without added insulin but this comes at a cost of extended hyperglycemia. They are afforded the “luxury” of delaying insulin.
Needle phobia is a real thing. Sticking oneself with a needle is not natural. That very primitive part of your brain does not think that this is good thing. That fear response is highly useful for survival and reprogramming it takes some persistence and time.
Haven’t you been told by many gluco-normals that they could never imagine giving themselves even one shot, much less hundreds and thousands? The fear is real palpable.
This seems like a imperfect solution to a minor problem. The fear of needles is a natural one as Terry says but is is not one that cannot be overcome, if some one needs insulin, even a T2 they will overcome the fear.
I call this an imperfect solution because there is no confirmation that the device has made its injection. What happens if it fails to attach itself to the stomach lining, you will only know when blood glucose starts to rise. I have confidence in an injection by syringe, pen or pump not sure I would have the same confidence in this device.
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I have spoke with a small handful of T2 not yet on insulin and it seems the insulin itself is just as much of a fear if not more so then the needles.
For many, they have had years of being (basically) threatened with insulin if they do not make whatever lifestyle changes the Doc says.
I am not sure if that entire approach (ie - Doc threatening insulin as the boogie man) is really the best long term approach. But perhaps those few I spoke with are the minority. One can certainly hope at least.
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Agreed.
It’s their research money, they can spend it on what they want, but it would be nice it they spent it on something useful.
LOL! Tell me about it. For many many months after my dx, I would break out in a sweat, shake and delay giving myself shots. It seemed like forever before I could poke myself without a second thought. It didn’t help that I was allergic to the first THREE insulins I was put on by the bozo-doctor who didn’t believe I was allergic to them. A switch of endos solved that problem.
I don’t know where 100% of their funding comes from. If any of it comes from tax dollars, then I think there needs to be more accountability. Got any data on their funding sources?
It would be interesting to see what the time action profile of this “insulin” looks like.
They say the motivation for this research is “patients usually prefer oral treatment”. After four years on the market afrezza does not seem to be supporting that argument. Even with a time action profile which nearly mimics natural pancreatic release people are still sticking themselves at mealtime with their favorite RAA.
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I ate my orange. Three times. It was the right decision.
There seems to be quite a lot of people that don’t want to ever inject or prick their finger. They will put off even considering it so won’t even get to the point of getting used to it. As a type one 1 you have too…but it doesn’t mean there’s not fussing from kids, avoidance from teens and adults.