Week 7, and Personal Best records were achieved this week! Congrats to Brian and Jackie on their truly outstanding and unbelievable results–Brian had his best “time in zone” EVER and also his lowest correlated A1C EVER, and Jackie had her best correlated A1C EVER, too. It’s shocking, but the reality for most diabetics is they get a pat on the back from their doctor if they have an A1C of 7, even though that is still doing tremendous physical damage to their bodies and over the long-term is still killing them. But when there is nothing else a doctor has available to lower that number, you can see why the complications from diabetes are so rampant in the world. Enter the power and possibility of Afrezza—A1C’s and  “time in zone” never imagined or achieved before.  The bar for measuring effective diabetes treatment is being raised big time right before our eyes! Once again, technology is making it possible for diabetics to live a longer, and more worry-free life with the advent of “real-time” monitoring (Dexcom) and “real-time” insulin, Afrezza. The beauty about our Afrezza User Results for diabetics and the medical community is that we all get to download our data at our doctors offices, and they can veritably see in 5  minute intervals, 24 hours a day, how our blood sugars are controlled better than ever before. And with the power of the internet, these views are shared regularly around the world. So when will these results start to be officially announced? Stay tuned as Dr. Bode has emailed me stating it takes 130 days to get the true A1C number when you are taking a new insulin–we are about a month away!   On Thursday, I have a webcast with Emily Coles on how we are achieving these incredible results in our Afrezza journey. Here are this weeks numbers!

What surprises you most about the Week 7 data?

What is amazing this week, is that just when you think it can’t get any better, you see continued improvement, either lower average blood glucose numbers or greater “time in zone” results or both! The fact every person, if you average their numbers over the last seven weeks, has a correlated A1C in the 5’s and is experiencing a freedom like never before should be no surprise to the readers who are following our group. This week, the results will be partially certified by medical professionals as Eric and I both have doctors appointments later in the week. This week, you might notice that Eric and I both had slightly higher BG levels–He was turkey hunting in New York State, and did a ton of walking (he walked 8 miles on Sunday, almost all of it solo) and didn’t want to take any chances having a low come on quickly as he is in remote unfamiliar areas at high terrain. He purposely chose to keep his sugars a little higher than usual, and was happy to report no severe lows while hunting this year.  Here is a photo he sent me –can you tell it’s him?

As for me I was on vacation in the Dominican Republic and eating out every meal and doing some fairly extreme hikes. As a general rule for diabetics, it’s always better to be safe than sorry if away from civilization and so I adjusted my sugar alerts to 100-130  vs. the usual 85-120. I think most diabetics can relate  being stranded  somewhere facing a low and caught with not enough sugar. Certainly not a fun feeling. I have never experienced that panic while on Afrezza nor do I ever want to. In spite of Eric and I’s adventures, we still maintained extremely controlled blood sugars compared to our old insulins as you can very well see.

Afrezza is the paradigm shift in all our diabetes treatment–it is like nothing else anyone has seen before, and when diabetics and their doctors realize what is available to them, we all believe Afrezza will be the “first line” treatment option over current injectables. What a welcome relief this will be to both doctors and patients who won’t have to deal with the complications and anguish down the road that nobody talks about–amputations, nerve damage, kidney failure, blindness, etc. That means a “happier” practice for doctors and a better life for all diabetics.

So Week 7 actual results– another positive testimony to the power and effectiveness of Afrezza–even when on vacation or turkey hunting! Thank you to the entire Afrezza Users Group for sharing your results. Good luck to everyone this week.

What is the Afrezza User “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 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 very well understood by the diabetic community at large—both doctors and patients. This will 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!