Week 10 and lots to talk about. Within our group there were two doctors appointments. First, Ann, who just measured a personal lifetime best of a 6.2 in under 90 days on Afrezza!  Before Afrezza her A1C was a 7.0 and she is extremely pleased with her new inhalable insulin and will never, ever go back to her “old” treatment.  Congrats Ann! In addition, Laureen had a 60 day checkup and measured a 6.5 A1C. That is also for her a lifetime best as a diabetic. Before starting Afrezza she measured a 6.7 and didn’t expect any drop, but was very pleasantly surprised to see that in only 60 days it had already dropped to a 6.5!    If you’re keeping track that makes 6 out of 6 Lifetime Best A1C’s in 90 days or less on Afrezza within our group – and we’re not expected to realistically achieve our final A1C measurements until 120-130 days after beginning a new insulin treatment per Dr. Bode. This seems to suggest that  the best is yet to come.  We are all feeling very optimistic about the future and we hope others will learn from our firsthand experience.  One  member of our group – Howard was just featured in a story by Amy Tenderich today–it’s a great read and I highly recommend it.

Personally, I want to thank everyone for their words of support and encouragement during one of the most difficult times of my life. Thankfully, I was able to be there by my sisters side during the last steps of her journey and visit with her beautiful family. Grieving is such a strange process where you love so deeply and miss and hurt so profoundly at the same time. I will forever miss “my little Sis” and treasure the moments we shared together. One grateful part was being able to be “fully present” in her company and not totally distracted and occupied from having to manage around my diabetes like I used to. Afrezza is truly priceless when you consider how “life-changing” it is for every family situation, even during the most challenging of days.

On an reporting note, you will notice some slight changes in the table. Two ranges  have been updated and  are now 60-150 and 65-140. The chart reflects these new changes and will be updated even more in future weeks as our data results grow. Note, our average A1C as a group was 8.29 before Afrezza and currently as of our most recent doctor’s appointments it is now at 6.32 (pre-diabetic level). We are not quite finished yet. How can you tell someone is an Afrezza User? You can identify an Afrezza User because we are usually the only diabetics that look forward to getting our A1C tested and watching for “the perplexed look” of amazement and joy on our doctors faces! One unintended benefit all of us have noticed is how “happy” our doctors are with our success–we hope this “joy” will spread to the entire US and World very soon. Imagine that–a happy diabetes practice with happy, smiling patients- Yes it is possible! Here are this weeks numbers:

What surprises you most about the Week 10 data?

Having 6 out of 6 people achieve lifetime personal best A1C #’s is very powerful. Congrats on your new official A1C’s everyone, including Ann and Laureen. More to follow! Another new Afrezza user will be joining the group next week and I’m excited be expanding our sample size. The transparency our group has shown, and the fact we also post our official doctor/lab results and Dexcom readings frequently, is a testimony to the integrity of our Afrezza Users Group. If anyone would like to inquire about joining the group, please send me an email including all your personal contact information, doctors information (will be verified), along with your general diabetes history and I will be in touch.

What is the Afrezza Users “Real Life” Results Group?

It is a group of Afrezza Users who use a Continuous Glucose Monitors (Type 1’s) seeking tighter diabetes control and measuring the time spent in each blood sugar range. Laureen uses “finger prick” measurements throughout her day to measure her blood glucose levels while the rest of us are using CGM’s (continuous glucose monitors). It is NOT a competition between T1’s and T2’s nor among any of us and was only started so people could understand and see the inherent benefit of why Afrezza provides better control and higher patient satisfaction for t1 and t2 diabetics over any our previous regimens. In essence, this is a “real-world” trial of “do your best”, and have good and bad days, but keep track of it all, and let everyone know the results. Well, the results thus far are clearly unbelievably positive.

Why are you doing this?

There has been so much discussion about the FDA Afrezza Drug trials and why I feel as a participant in the Affinity 1 trial, there were significant “hold backs” as to why we were not able to materially outperform Injectable Insulin because of the protocols on the trials. This is no longer the case!

To Summarize here are just a few of the hold backs why Afrezza didn’t get to show how great it works:

• Afrezza Dosing was only changed approx. every 6 weeks, and not flexible dosing depending on meal
• No CGM’s allowed
• Time in Zone not measured
• Patient quality of life not measured
• Brand new Afrezza users vs. Very experienced Injectable users (what if it was brand new injectable users vs. experienced Afrezza users—would that be fair? No-they would stop the trial right away because it would be a TKO/referee stops contest victory for Afrezza which we are proving by “real-world” experience.)

What would you like to express to everyone out there considering Afrezza or to any doctors considering prescribing Afrezza for their patients?

My opinion is that Afrezza is a “life-changing” drug that is not yet very well understood by the diabetic community at large—both doctors and patients. This will definitely change! It improved my life and gave me hope in treating my diabetes. I would wish the same for you or any other diabetic you know—enjoy a better and higher quality of life! Please demand to try Afrezza from your doctor, and if he/she won’t or is not able to prescribe it–go find one that will–your life and the quality of it matters!