I also dismissed it out of hand for the first several years after it came out for the same reason: the needle business was all you heard. Whereas the fast-effect/short-tail piece of it when I finally found out about it here on TUD was much more significant to me. Needle-phobia is a thing, I get that, but it bothers me that it obscures everything else about this treatment. I think that if the medical benefits were not overshadowed by the essentially psychological ones it might have made more headway among endocrinologists, who are essentially the gate-keepers, the ones who write the prescriptions.
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Exactly.
Recent news article that discusses benefits without bringing up “needles” at all. (Well a little bit at the end of the video.)
“Will lower my blood sugar much quicker and it burns out much quicker”
Although (laughingly) in the video when they say “insulin in a hormone the body produces naturally …” they are showing a picture of a phlebotomist drawing vials of blood. Like ???
Frankly it’s not just needle phobia but injecting for every carb that passed the lips and injecting yet again for corrections that in my book make MDI a solution straight from Satan. It’s just so much fun getting the “stink eye” from coworkers, friends, and other diners when I injected in a restaurant or before a lunch meeting.
I’ve been pumping for 16 years and instead of a pump vacation, my time on the pump has been an MDI vacation. If I ever have to go back to MDI, it’ll be with Tresiba and Afreeza.
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I’m on my first pump vacation and feel freer already from wearing that contraption. Maybe I’ll try it again in the winter where it’ll be covered up in long sleeves. I have no needle phobia, and since I eat carbs in only one meal a day, I only have two injections - long acting and a bolus (not counting corrections).
I’m hoping to try Afrezza. Contacting my insurance today. Really appreciate all the info!
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Whereas for me it was the thing that got me out of 20 years in R/NPH prison–so much of this stuff has to do with individual experience that is never exactly the same for any of us (YDMV). But I totally agree, if I had to go back to MDI I’d definitely be looking at newer insulins, and I’d probably get more assertive with my endo about trying Afrezza (she’s not a fan and I haven’t pushed it).
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Love to know her real reason for not being a fan. There’s an Afrezza group on Facebook, it was 100 people last fall, it’s at 340 now and seems to be growing steadily despite being owned by a cash strapped company that has limited funds to market it. The discussions are overwhelmingly positive at some point it’s got to turn heads like hers or there’s really something else influencing her opinion.
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Potentially lungs.
So before anybody gets worked up (lol) I am not saying there is or is not anything that impacts lungs.
What I AM saying is a potentially wide spread perception which appears to be backed by the FDA in light of the black box warning and the requirement for the lung testing prior to prescription as well as the requested follow-up data related to lung that a given doctor may be balancing the FUD of potential future lung issue against how the Afrezza was being previously being marketed which was directed to needle phobic patients.
So potentially the doctor who is more concerned over “doing no harm” thinks that needle phobia does not balance against potential future lung issue.
Again - not saying there is or is not anything.
I am trying to get inside a Doc’s head to get an understanding of potentially what their thought process might be.
In my opinion, a very large portion of the “fault” would like squarely with the previous marketing of the drug. But then again - I am so far being a marketing guru it is not even funny.
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Yup, that was it (and in answer to @Mitchell2) . Also yes to your qualification that this isn’t an assertion that there is a problem, because just mentioning Afrezza seems inevitably to provoke a long discussion about the the validity (or not) of these concerns, leading to long sidebars off the original topic. I get along great with my endo and I’m confident that if I really wanted to try it she’d okay it, but I’m also starting on the 670 this week and that renders it semi-moot, as my biggest interest in Afrezza derives from issues the hybrid pump is supposed to be very good at resolving. One major change at a time…
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How would the 670g help when you decide on the spur of the moment to pull into a Starbucks and pick one of their drinks at random (lol) like say… oh… maybe a Mocha Frappuccino (obviously with whipped cream) that has a mere 65 carbs.
From what the “Afrezza folks” have said, this would be ideal for Afrezza. Whereas any other type of insulin (on the spur of the moment) would send the BG into crazy land regardless of what you have for a pump.
Ok - so maybe the Mocha Frappuccino is not the healthiest thing in the world but if Afrezza actually would let you have this on the occasion without then having to ride the BG roller coaster all day - I would certainly consider that a nice tool to have. Options certainly are great.
(Yeah - I did not want to kick up a crazy sidebar that obscures anything !!!)
Note that we have seriously considered Afrezza but are not using it. Our Ped Endo is not comfortable at this time doing an off-label prescription. We are still kicking the idea around. I believe what the people on these forums are saying about it (in terms of the fast acting and avoiding lows) and it really sounds very very interesting to me.
The lung FUD has long been dismissed. People on afrezza now for almost 10 years after Exubera was pulled have no issues. Current users have no issue.
The big issue the Endos have with it is what the Endo at the ADCOM loudly voiced. As he said if the PCP starts prescribing afrezza early in the T2 diagnosis, it will kill his business. It not much different than when Dr, Bersntein was pushing for the use of BG meters. Most doctors did not want them as it cut into their business.
That Endo said most of his business was from T2s not in control. I assume that’s true for most.
I don’t want to start an argument that goes sideways but that is flatly not true. Your followup of:
May certainly be true.
But the first statement is simply not accurate and would distract from the true advantages.
FUD is FUD but it doesn’t change the facts and some will keep trying. No lung issues and the fact is some are reporting better lung function most likely because of better BG and better health. Its hard to argue with the x-rays.
If you look at the afrezza ADCOM document it was filled with so much Exubera speculation. Why it was in there is still a mystery. What we now know 10 years later is there were no real issues with Exubera. It simply was not what afrezza is and it made no sense for Pfizer to make the market only for afrezza to take it.
I hope you will understand if I refuse to get drawn into a sideways discussion that has (apparently) been damaging in the past without yielding benefits to the forum readers.
(In my opinion from the little I have picked up on.)
I stand by my post which I believe is fair and accurate as well as including some of my opinion.
I will not however be posting further on this topic.
Thanks.
I don’t know, but I’m hard pressed to see any complications that Afrezza brings to the table that any current insulin’s don’t already bring. It’s insulin and from what I hear its in a simpler form, that’s why its so fast acting, its easier for the body to process and exit. Obviously I’m not Dr, but the fact that it takes less for the body to break it down has got to be a good thing. From what I hear there is no trace left in the lungs, its doesn’t leave residue. The way its structured its impossible to not be absorbed by the body. At that point, how is it different from any other insulin, blood flow travels throughout the lungs, does it really matter if you injected or inhaled it? It’s still insulin, but in a simpler form. Just thinking from logical perspective it seems to make sense to me. I know its a dry powder, that’s more of an issue then anything else, that’s most likely the biggest challenge, getting use to inhaling a dry powder without making you cough. If you’ve got a dry throat, your gonna cough.
Mitchell - wants not well understood is that all RAA meal time insulins except afrezza are analogs. They are similiar to insulin but not really insulin. In addition to afrezza being a “simpler” monomer molecule, it is the exact same molecule which the body naturally makes.
The analogs are genetically engineered to improve SQ absorption by changing the amino acid structure. While none are human insulin, each rapid acting analog is different from each other and react differently in different people. While we know the long term safety of the human insulin molecule, no one is really sure about each of the analogs. We know in development some analogs proved very early like the AspB10 not to be safe.
I am not sure how some are concerned about the safety of afrezza but are not concerned about the safety of these analogs. Tweak an amino acid one way or another and things can be a real mess in 15, 20 or 25 years. With afrezza we know the coating - fdkp is totally inert and we know exactly what human insulin does in the body.
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The nice thing about the Afrezza group on Facebook is when u post a question about it, you get 20-30 replies from people who actually use it. Their not trolls either as you can check their pages and see a lot more about them. TU has some threads here but they’re dated and there’s few users here.
You make an interesting argument regarding the relative safety of Afrezza versus the rapid acting analog insulins (RAAI). I don’t really know about the long term risks of the RAAI formulations. In 1996 I was certainly ready for Humalog and the more livable action curve it provided after living with Regular for many years. The RAAI formulations made my life safer with their shorter duration and less stacking complications.
There’s been a lot of us taking these insulins for 21 years now. If there’s some untoward risk, we’ll find out in due time. In the meantime, life is risky.
I’ve been using Afrezza since March 2015 and find it quite useful. I don’t feel it’s risky, but who knows?
Back to the OP…seriously, lose your vanity. Who cares what is exposed? Is it that imp[important to you to “look” normal? Take the attitude I have…I dont give a f#@! what others say. Its my health and my body.
Just my humble opinion.
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Put simply, I’m quite introverted and I don’t enjoy the attention my exposed Omnipod pump brings. I get tired of talking about it with strangers when all I want to do is enjoy my day in peace. I wouldn’t call that vanity. I don’t blame them for being curious or for asking, but really I’d just rather be left alone.