Two News Items

Good Morning! 
Two news items were brought to my attention by VMG Diabetes team members recently that I thought I should share with you. It's kind of a good news/bad news situation. 

Let's do the bad news first: the FDA has issued a drug warning for the diabetes medications Invokana (canagliflozin), Farxiga (dapagliflozin), and Jardiance (empagliflozin). These are a group of medications called SGLT2 inhibitors. 

The warning is being issued because 20 patients being treated with these medications were hospitalized with Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA). You might have heard of DKA happening to people with type I diabetes, and being associated with very high blood sugars. These cases were unusual because these were people with Type 2 diabetes, with relatively normal blood sugars. 

If you are taking one of these medications, you are not advised to stop taking it without speaking to your provider, but do be on the lookout for the symptoms of DKA, which the FDA lists as: difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, confusion, and unusual fatigue or sleepiness. You can read the full FDA warning here. 

photo from Weill Cornell Medical College's article

Today's good news? Changing the order in which you eat your meal may help improve blood sugar control! A recent study out of Weill Cornell Medical College found that eating protein and vegetables before carbohydrates resulted in lower post-meal blood sugars and insulin levels in people with type 2 diabetes on oral medications. 

They emphasize that more research is needed to confirm the finding and to explain why exactly this works, but I don't think it can hurt to try it out for yourself!

Any other big diabetes news you've noticed in the past couple weeks? Let us know in the comments section below!