FDA clears use of Ozempic to protect kidney health by Kristin Jensen for BioPharmaDive.com, 29 January 2025.

Novo Nordisk won an expanded approval for Ozempic, allowing the company to market its top-selling medicine to reduce the risk of kidney complications in adults with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.  Ozempic is the first GLP-1 drug to win Food and Drug Administration approval for use in protecting kidney health. The FDA acted based on a study showing Ozempic could reduce the risk of worsening kidney disease, kidney failure, and death due to cardiovascular disease. The effects were so pronounced that Novo halted the trial early in 2023.

The new indication adds to a growing list of uses for Ozempic, first approved in 2017 to improve blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes. The FDA has also cleared Ozempic to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events in diabetes patients with heart disease. And a different formulation of the drug — sold as Wegovy — is cleared to treat obesity and protect heart health.

Read more: FDA clears use of Ozempic to protect kidney health


PREPARENESS & Go Bags!

I live in southern California, which recently experienced devastating and massive fires that completely and suddenly flattened entire neighborhoods instantly.  Homes are gone, along with all medical supplies for residents living with diabetes.  Folks evacuated fast.  If they had organized their own Go Bags, they could have grabbed the bag and gone. 

Are YOU prepared for a sudden emergency or disaster???

This is my urgent request, to all of you, to put together your own Go Bag … and have it ready to go, when YOU have to GO!  An emergency trip to the hospital, a natural disaster, or even a sudden wonderful surprise trip to Paris!  Grab your GO BAG and be ready to GO!

Here are some great reference articles from our diabetes community:

 

Several members of our diabetes community have shared various Go Bag Lists on how to build your own Go Bag.  These are some pix of my friends’ Go Bags, ready to grab and go!

If you’d like me to email you a wonderful presentation by the folks at T1D to 100 (a new project to share knowledge about T1D and aging), please email me (joanne@TheSavvyDiabetic.com) with your name and email address.  (You will not be added to any mailing list … this will let me send you the presentation to read, learn, build/update your Go Bag,  and share.)

PLEASE BUILD YOUR GO BAG!  When you do, please share a photo of it or a short story of your experience! 

5 pills that could reverse aging (including some you may already take) by Andrew Steele for ScienceFocus.com, 21 December 2024.

Scientists have identified several so-called ‘hallmarks’ of the aging process – underlying biological and biochemical processes that are common to multiple, different diseases and dysfunctions associated with old age. Reading about the promising effects of these drugs when taken independently might leave you wondering if combining them would have a bigger effect.

The current record-holder for extending mouse lifespan is a combination of rapamycin and the anti-diabetes drug acarbose. They weren’t picked at random – it’s known that rapamycin can worsen control of blood sugar in mice and humans who take it. So, the theory went that perhaps a diabetes drug could dampen this effect. The results were astounding: on average, male mice lived nearly 40 percent longer with this combination, and female mice 30 percent longer.

But could another blend of drugs be even more effective? That’s what the Robust Mouse Rejuvenation study hopes to find out. It’s following 1,000 mice, in 10 groups, that are receiving different combinations of up to four treatments (rapamycin, a senolytic, a therapy to strengthen the protective caps on their DNA and a bone marrow transplant).  The experiment isn’t yet complete, but early results show that the mice receiving all four are living the longest.

Read more: 5 pills that could reverse aging


Drinking sparkling water may help with weight loss, study finds by Jessica Freeborn for MedicalNedwsToday.com, 24 January 2025.

Carbonated water or sparkling water is water that contains carbon dioxide (CO2). BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health report discussed how drinking sparkling water may contribute to weight loss. It suggests that the CO2 in the water leads to increased glucose breakdown and increased glucose uptake by red blood cells. This may contribute to weight loss. However, the report notes that the effects are so minimal that carbonated water is unlikely to have a significant impact on weight loss on its own.

The report notes a few ways that drinking sparkling water may lead to increased feelings of fullness and lower blood sugar levels but that the mechanisms are not entirely clear.

Report author Akira Takahashi with the Dialysis Center at Tesseikai Neurosurgery Hospital in Shijonawate, Japan, highlighted “When carbonated water is consumed, CO₂ is absorbed into the blood vessels in the stomach. This CO₂ rapidly penetrates the lipid membranes of red blood cells and is converted into bicarbonate ions by carbonic anhydrase, increasing the alkalinity of the red blood cells. This alkalinity promotes glycolysis, which consumes glucose in red blood cells and lowers blood glucose levels.”  Thus, sparkling water could indirectly help weight loss through its effect on blood glucose.

Read more: Drinking sparkling water may help with weight loss, study finds

 

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