People with diabetes who use insulin are experiencing sticker shock these days. Especially since many people have high deductibles and have to pay the whole cost early in the year. At the pharmacy, it isn’t unheard of to see $800 insulin charges.
There is a better way!
Current Situation
The headlines out there for just 2019 are adequately descriptive:
- Rising insulin prices drive higher diabetes care spending
- Insulin is a lifesaving drug, but it has become intolerably expensive
- U.S. insulin costs per patient nearly doubled from 2012 to 2016, study
- Rising Insulin Costs Are a Life-or-Death Political Crisis
- Even Congress is getting involved!
Here is an image through 2014, but this trend has continued:
Adding Insulin – Not An Inconsequential Decision
The focus
Type 2 diabetes though is not just a blood sugar problem, it is also partly insulin resistance. This is where the cells don’t listen to the insulin signal as well because they are full and don’t need to accept any more glucose. The body responds with a more pronounced dose of insulin, until the
Giving more insulin here will lower blood sugar, however it impacts multiple other body processes – and they have pronnounced effects
Insulin Sends Growth Signals
Growing is good, but only some of the times. Insulin and proteins activate a system called mTOR that ramps up downstream growth signals. Short term ok – all day every day not ok.
Constant growth signals can lead to cancer.
Another other growth factor is lipid production. Yes, insulin drives lipid synthesis.
Do Type 2 Diabetics Have An Insulin Shortage?
No.
They have a fuel input problem. Feeding carbohydrates and sugar at rates in excess of demand, especially processed carbs, leads to disarray. We call this dissary metabolic syndrome/type 2 diabetes/insulin resistance.
The solution is not more insulin.
The solution is addressing the fuel inputs.
How to Avoid Insulin in Type 2 Diabetes
A quick blog post can’t cover everything in depth, which is why I put together a 20+ page whitepaper on various strategies to combat the cause and not the effect.
If you want to avoid spending your hard earned dollars on insulin, while reducing constant growth signals (or help a friend do the same), please carve out a few minutes with this whitepaper to chart a different course.
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