Insulin at 100
So, I have a couple of issues with the text.<p>1. The article describes the reduction in use of insulin in type 2 diabetes as a bad thing. No. It is a good thing. Type 2 diabetes is caused by having too much blood glucose, the body producing more insulin to lower it, fat cells absorbing the glucose, and then this cycle continuing until there is so much energy stored in fat tissue that the amount of insulin required to keep it there is really high, and eventually the body can&#x27;t produce that much insulin any more. Injecting more insulin stabilises the blood glucose level yes, but it does it by cramming more energy into fat cells that are already full. Diet, exercise, and other glucose-lowering drugs are a much better treatment. Taking insulin just makes you dependent on insulin and potentially even less healthy. Removing the stored energy by some other method (for instance SGLT2-inhibitors make you pee out glucose in your urine[0]) can make you more healthy. If you&#x27;re up for it and dedicated enough, fasting can often completely reverse type 2 diabetes. The record for the longest fast is 382 days [1]<p>2. The article says that &quot;what no one predicted was that GLP-1 agonists and SGLT-2 inhibitors have been shown to reduce the risk of both heart and kidney disease&quot;. This should be the least surprising thing in the entire world. Most of the management of diabetes these days is to try and get blood glucose levels stable, specifically because of the consequent benefits in reducing the risk of various diseases, including heart and kidney disease. If you have diabetes, your doctor will be trying to reduce these risks, because they are what people with diabetes tend to die from in the long term. That includes giving heart medication. You can live with blood glucose levels out of whack for a long time without noticing anything particularly untoward, but it will be constantly causing damage. So, was anyone surprised that drugs that lower blood glucose can reduce cases of diseases caused by high blood glucose levels? No, they were not - it was obvious.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fda.gov&#x2F;drugs&#x2F;postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers&#x2F;sodium-glucose-cotransporter-2-sglt2-inhibitors" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fda.gov&#x2F;drugs&#x2F;postmarket-drug-safety-information...</a>
[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Angus_Barbieri's_fast" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Angus_Barbieri's_fast</a>