[Califallan]

Amazing good things have been happening daily as I've had the good fortune to be accepted for a clinical trial of capsule
based, nanotech directed insulin. 12 caps a day, along with mandatory METFORMIN (I can only handle 500mg daily) cut up in small sections. The Glypizide, had to be allowed to leach out of my system for 2 months, before starting the test program. I have been on the medication for about 40 days. In the very beginning, I was shocked by the stratospheric numbers I was getting after eating my normal diet. In one case I went into the mid 400s after macaronic & cheese, washed down with a lot of sugared Cola! I'm testing with minimal invasive meter/lance,kit sometimes 4, and now three times daily. During this 40 day interval, I have cleaned up my bad eating habits. Instead of mac and cheese goo, lots of eggs, sour dough white bread with peanut butter, moderate beer and too much soda, I'm now living on two
small meals. generic Cheerios, with minute amount of fruit, a little low fat cottage cheese...with coffee... for late breakfast, then after fasting on water for 10 hours, I eatmy larger meal, that is a salad, with extra-virgin olive oil,and lots of very green leafy ingrediants, and a small serving of cooked veggies with a tiny serving of chicken breast. No
bread, a little red wine in seltzer water, or distilled water with fresh lime, and a tiny dusting of Splenda. During the day, I drink only distilled water. My fasting blood is down to 89 to 100. My highest readings, two hours after a meal are 104 to 114. I have lost, so far, 28 pounds in 40 days. My foot nueropathy is greatly reduced, ankle swelling gone. My fingers
are free of any numbness now. The "snow blindness" effect I was experiencing in my right eye, is controlled by sunglasses, and mostly gone without the glasses! I can now walk twice as fast and ten times a far each day. I can feel pebbles under my shoes. I don't need the special shoe, to enclose my swollen left foot. I was urinating every 40 minutes..or else, with a 2 minute warning! Now I can go 3 to 5 hours during the day.
No more maple sugar odor in my urine! My A1C was 7.1 prior to the test program, I hope it will be much better when they test me next week, but I don't see the results, unless my regular internist sets up a test. I read that internal viseral fat around the portal vein entering the liver, is the core seat oftype 2 diabetes. I'm walking two miles a day fast, to burn thatinternal mess away, as diet doesn't necessarily reach it !
I'm only going to on this test, a few months more, then I'll have to go back to Metformin and Glipizide, or maybe I'll have to start injecting until the drug is approved. I feel so much better, that I'm hoping to control the whole problem with a 40 lb. permanent weight reduction, and lots of walking. I also have Atrial fibrilation, and a partial blockage of just one of my coronary arteries. They want to stent it, but I'm hoping the new eating habits, and angioplasty, will clear it. I amtaking L-Argenine, Niacin, and Simvatstatin, along with Warfrin, and Blood presure drugs. And I no longer eat salty food, ice-cream, candy or any of the obvious culprits... and will never do so again! I'm male, 68, 6'2", and now weigh just over 200 pounds..I'd be delighted to hear from my fellow diabetes sufferers, and I'd say that this oral insulin is looking very good to me so far!

[Cormac_Doyle]

In one case I went into the mid 400s after macaroni & cheese, washed down with a lot of sugared Cola

Umm - are you really surprised?

non-diet sodas of any description WILL spike your blood sugars - the only time someone posting to these forums should consider drinking one is if they are having a hypo!

Macaroni is a type of pasta, and again is likely to spike your blood sugar.

Cheerios are high in sugar - swap them for sugar free cereal such as Wheetabix/shredded wheat/corn flakes/oatmeal/porrige/etc

Three meals a day would probably be better for you - are the people conducting the trial aware of your diet - it will badly skew the results ...

[pdxdennisj]

Though I love Cheerios I gave them up - very bad for glucose control.

[Hammer]

I'm curious about the oral insulin...how does it work? I know that you can't take insulin orally because the stomach will destroy it, so how do they prevent this with the oral insulin you are taking?

[Califallan]

The caps are digested in the small intestine, and use nano-technolgy to pass the insulin into the liver. This is going to be a world changer for injection dependent diabetics...they have no taste or unpleasant effect! Insulin is far more natural than
the pharma of other drugs like Metformin or Glipizide.

[Califallan]

I don't eat rgular sugared Cherios. They are just shaped that way, these are made without sugar. I'm getting a little fructose, in the bits of cherry, or apricot, and the milk sugar in the small amount of milk. This is a 200 calorie meal or less. After the coffee, I hit the distilled water for the next ten hours of fasting.Fasting is critical to keep drawing down the fat reserves, as you walk actively. I couldn't walk before,easily
due to the swollen ankles and feet! Now 2 miles a day or more.
I use a digital scale that read down to a fifth of a pound in
accuracy. If I'm even two tenths higher, I adjust my portion size at dinner. I'm doing a steady DOWNWARD 6 tenths lb. per day. Today, I expect to pass below 205.8...God willing!
I hope to walk off the near liver PORTAL VEIN FAT...and cut the head off the diabetes dragon. Diet and vigorous walking!

[Califallan]

I have been testing my fasting blood glucose for many months,
when on the Metformin and Glipizide routine. It was always about 125 to 135. I didn't know that my numbers were going to the 200, 300. and even 400 range an hour or two after dinner. I didn't live on pasta, but I ate it several times a week! And my devoted lady love stopped buying Coke Zero, thinking Sugar Coke was less likely to trigger cancer...Oh brother! Now she understands!

[Ategeler]

Wow this is amazing news. I didn't realize they were able to find a way past the stomach to the small intestine for insulin. When do they think this will get FDA approved?

[Califallan]

Probably, approval will take a few years. But you can get into the trials if under 70 and on Metformin..that pays about $400 in eight blood tests over a few months. I was on the trials of
Droneaderone (the replacement drug for toxic Amioderone)
and went 24 months in sinus heart mode, it still isn't approved after 5 years of testing...and so I have to live again with atrial fib! Maybe the weight loss will help..and approval is coming soon, I'm reading!

[Califallan]

Bravo on the great A1c reduction numbers! You mention the risk of skewing the tests with smaller carb intake. I had to change
my habits, because I was finally seeing the super-high sugar levels after meals. I'm not on any weight loss meds, just better
eating habits, which PREDICTABLY change when you test 4 times a day and see the horriffic effects of stupid eating. I'm sure they factor it all in. The test, by the way, is mainly about being able to get the INSULIN into the liver intact! My test results, though favorable, must be compared to the near
suicidal eating of cheap **** that seniors are sometimes forced to eat to make ends meet! I am chagrined that I could have eaten so many $1 and even 50 cent frozen TV dinners! Old folks like me with little money, wind up eating a lot of ****, if they don't know about the horrible "tween meal" numbers, that FREE TEST STRIPS provide the diabetic. I'm a changed man..and hope to change more as the fat melts away. Humans aren't lab rats...better eating habits have nothing to do with intestinal INSULIN UPTAKE from caps...which is the purpose of the test.

[slipperyelm]

Good luck on you blood glucose control, your weight loss, and your improved nutrition. I hope you will let your research team know that you have made these huge changes even if they do not specifically ask.

Have you figured out how many calories might be "ideal" for you? Is that how many calories you are taking in? I ask because it sounds like you might be on a very, very low level of calories and that long term you might not be able to continue that way. I imagine near-fasting is the better choice in some circumstances, but not always.

I'm doubting that oral insulin will be life changing for many people. In my own case, for example, I don't want to take any insulin, just no, no matter how convenient, easy, and cheap it may be. More insulin might help force my blood glucose down, but I already (as a type 2) seem to have very high levels of insulin. I don't want to add to that, not understanding what such increased levels of insulin may be doing to me. In my case, I prefer to address the insulin resistance---which you, too, are doing through weight loss, exercise, and metformin.

If your beloved does the grocery shopping and you eat/drink whatever it is she brings home, I hope you will continue to educate her about your needs. A lot of people do have trouble understanding.

A lot of diabetic studies get done in my city, but I have never looked into participating in one. Sometimes I do look over what studies are looking for participants. Oh, I did do one that was merely a questionnaire and study of my medical records, but no treatment type studies.

[Califallan]

Thanks Slipperyelm for the thoughtful comments and good wishes. I don't want to inject insulin, probably anymore than you.I will haveto return to a little Metformin and Glipizide, even if I can reach my 40 loss goal. However, when the new insulin isapproved I would take it in a heartbeat over a lot of Glipizide! I consider the new drug "life changing" in that some
people truly need to inject, but don't because of the emotional stress factor. I'm going to do everything to lose the
hideous network of special fat attached to my portal vein. That is probably an endcrine organ of sorts, not simple energy storage. If some surgical team wants to excise it with a tricky
proceedure, such has been tested recently in Turkey, I'll let them try on my case. My gut tells me it is the greatest culprit
in the diabetes puzzle!

[sumi]

Very interesting posts, Callifallan. I hope you continue to keep us up to date.

[Califallan]

Thanks, Susan. I'll try to keep everyone informed about the new option, we all are going to have eventually with ORAL INSULIN. Compared to taking something harsh like GLIPIZIDE, which wears out the beta cells in the pancreas, INSULIN far betterand safer.
If you don't inject it, it doesn't just get stored in the shallow
external fat layer. It goes directly to the liver, and may be taken up by the specially bad, blanket of fat around the
liver and small intestines. Modern scientists consider this fat
to function as an endocrine organ, puting bad stuff right into
the liver, through the portal vein. There is an experimental
surgery, that goes down your throat, into the stomach, then
through the stomach wall, to extract a full third of the
fat blanket, from it's dangerous position, so close to the liver.
The alternative, is to walk a lot more, after you begin to lose weight. That tricks the body into eating this nasty fat, rather than unused muscle tissue. I'm sleeping on a futon, and do
leg lifts to tighten the my lower belly, and drain fluid out of my
once swollen ankles! Today, I just crossed into the 205 pound
benchmark! That's a thrill, that I'm celebrate with some walking, and distilled water drinking, as I spend the fourth
of July, with no beer, soda, or barbacue, until veggie and
chicken time, after dark! I'll add a little lo-cal barBQ basting
to the bowl! Happy Fourth to all you T2s!

[mzteacher]

hi califallen,
thanks for sharing your story....keep us posted....this sounds like an exciting alternative for the future....
thanks!
susan