Tag: diabetes
Energy drink addiction left mom with pacemaker at 32
A British mom is speaking out about the dangers of energy drinks after developing an addiction “worse than that of heroin” that left her on the verge of diabetes and forcing her to get a pacemaker — all by the time she was 32.
“The drinks made my heart beat faster, which would cause palpitations, then after I would crash when I needed another one,” Samantha Sharpe told Leicestershire Live. “It would give me headaches, I’d be grumpy, and I’d need another one to keep me good.
“I felt like an addict to the stuff.”
The mom-of-three started pounding five to six of the sugar-packed drinks every day starting in 2014 to keep up with her childcare and her then-job as a cleaner.
“I have three children and I work so it was daily life that pushed me to drinking the energy drinks,” Sharpe told the outlet. “I work in the evenings so it got me through the day.”
But Sharpe’s body grew dependent on the drinks, leaving her plagued by insomnia and constantly in search of her next sip.
“I wouldn’t sleep and I had an overwhelming feeling of doom when trying to sleep,” she said. “It’s something I haven’t experienced before, which made me want another one.”
Sharpe began to suffer kidney stones, and was told she was on the precipice of Type Two diabetes — but it was the blackouts that finally made her see the light.
“I went to the doctor over a year ago because I kept blacking out at home,” recalled Sharpe. “I had a first-degree heart blockage and it then extended to second degree.”
Sharpe had a pacemaker implanted through a vein in her leg.
“My sister, who is a nurse, said the addiction is worse than that of heroin, which I can understand because I needed it to help me be awake,” said Sharpe.
Now 33, working as a bartender and off the sugary stuff, Sharpe “has a new lease on life,” and wants to make sure no one else goes through what she did.
“The effects of energy drinks need to be advertised more,” she told Leicestershire Live. “I think everyone knows they aren’t good for you — but no one has ever said why they aren’t.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/05/09/energy-drink-addiction-left-mom-with-pacemaker-at-32/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Fake doctor claimed to have the cure for diabetes
A Florida man who posed as a doctor claimed he could cure diabetes through a dubious procedure transferring the patient’s own blood back into them, according to officials
Onelio Hipolit-Gonzalez, 73, was arrested Tuesday in connection to a medical scam which advertised his services on a site called “Elclassificado,” according to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
Hipolit-Gonzalez posed in a white lab coat on the site and claimed he treated a range of illnesses from leukemia to multiple sclerosis, authorities said.
The Florida Department of Health alleges he never had a medical license in the state.
An undercover officer arranged an appointment last week with Hipolit-Gonzalez — who requested $160 for the visit and asked to meet at a residential home, officials said.
“Hipolit-Gonzalez checked the patient’s blood pressure and pulse and then placed a band around the patient’s head and had him hold a metal rod (both the band and the rod were connected to a machine on a table),” authorities said. “Once turned on, the machine began making beeping noises. Hipolit-Gonzalez told the patient, that the device was testing his heart, brain, intestinal system, bones, nerves, and ‘everything else.’”
When the test was complete, the so-called doctor diagnosed the patient with diabetes and osteoporosis, according to authorities.
Hipolit-Gonzalez then claimed he previously cured diabetes for another patient and could treat the undercover cop for $2,000.
Officials said he went on to explain that the treatment would include injecting the patient with “his own blood.”
The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office then intervened and brought Hipolit-Gonzalez in for questioning.
When asked about the bizarre procedure, Hipolit-Gonzalez said “he draws the patient’s blood, and then injects the same blood he just withdrew,” according to police.
“He said when the blood enters the body it ‘combats’ the blood cells and increases the immune system,” officials said.
In regards to his medical background, Hipolit-Gonzalez claimed he was a lab technician in Cuba then got a certificate in Florida for iridology, herbology and nutrition.
Charges were filed against Hipolit-Gonzalez for unlicensed practice of a health care profession and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
Hipolit-Gonzalez is being held on $10,000 bond.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/02/13/fake-doctor-claimed-to-have-the-cure-for-diabetes-cops/
‘We’re Fighting For Our Lives’ — Patients Protest Sky-High Insulin Prices
Angela Lautner knew her thirst was unusual, even for someone directing airplanes, outside in the Memphis summer heat.
“We had coolers of Gatorade and water for people to always have access to,” Lautner remembers of her job as a ground services agent. “But the amount of thirst that I felt was just incredible.”
She had no appetite and she lost an unusual amount of weight. Then after a trip to the emergency room, Lautner, who was 22, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. The diagnosis was life changing.
To start,it meant for the rest of her life she would require insulin injections every day to keep her alive. Unlike Type 2 diabetes, which can sometimes be controlled by diet, people with Type 1 diabetes need daily insulin injections to regulate their blood sugar.
Lautner’s diagnosis also meant she was no longer allowed to become a commercial airline pilot in the U.S. — a lifelong dream that she was training for in flight school at the time.
“I cried harder over losing my dream to fly than I did at the diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes,” Lautner says.
But after 18 years living with diabetes, Lautner now says the hardest thing about the diagnosis is accessing insulin — the expensive drug she needs to keep her alive. She’s had to borrow money from her parents to pay for insurance; she’s spent hours on the phone with drug companies; she’s switched brands of insulin to save costs; and she even moved to a new state, Kentucky, with a more generous Medicaid plan.
Last year, Lautner noticed other people with Type 1 diabetes tweeting similar stories under the hashtag #Insulin4All. She read the stories of Shane Patrick Boyle and Alec Raeshawn Smith, two men who died because they could not afford their insulin. It was an epiphany.
“I thought, ‘My goodness, there’s more people than me. I’m not the only one out here,’ ” she says.
Since then Lautner has joined a group of consumer activists, people who need insulin to live and are angry about the sky-high prices. They are putting pressure on the three main companies that make insulin: Sanofi of France, Novo Nordisk of Denmark, and Eli Lilly and Company in the U.S.
Taking on the drugmakers
The cost of insulin nearly tripled between 2002 and 2013 and has doubled again since then. The list price is over $300 for a single vial of medicine, and most people with Type 1 diabetes need multiple vials every month to live. That cost is typically lower with insurance or with discount programs. Still, for some people the price is unmanageable.
There’s been some action by lawmakers on the issue. In October Minnesota’s attorney general sued insulin manufacturers alleging price gouging, and a bipartisan caucus in the U.S. Congress issued a report in November urging action to bring insulin prices down.
But prices are still going up, so consumer activists like Lautner are taking things into their own hands.
Nonprofit group T1International, which advocates for Type 1 diabetes around the world, with a particular focus on insulin prices has started holding rallies outside the Indianapolis headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company. (Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have provided financial support to NPR.)
Lautner joined more than 70 people who came together to demonstrate there in September. They were asking for three things: transparency about how much it costs to make a vial of insulin and how much profit comes from each vial, and a commitment from the company to lower the list price of insulin.
There were protesters from at least 12 states, mainly Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, but also from as far away as New York. Lautner, who now lives outside Cincinnati, rented a school bus with a dozen others to make the 112-mile trip.
“Insulin is kind of the face of the drug pricing crisis in America,” says Elizabeth Pfiester, founder of T1International who has Type 1 diabetes herself. “We literally die without it,” she says. “We’re fighting for our lives.”
This was the third time the group had protested at Eli Lilly headquarters. Last fall, when the group held its first protest there, Pfiester says, as it was “the first time where people living with Type 1 were able to physically stand and show that people are angry enough to come out.”
Eli Lilly declined NPR’s request for an interview, but in statement a spokesperson said, “we understand why people are making their voices heard.”
Protesting is one arm of their advocacy efforts; the group is also lobbying at the state and national level, and conducting online awareness-raising campaigns under the hashtag #Insulin4All.
Article via NPR