Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news video.
Speaker 2: Nicole, thank you for that quick intro of me my
Speaker 2: name again, Morgan White Jr. And by the way, Nicole
Speaker 2: and Rob are back where they belong. They had yesterday off,
Speaker 2: but Nightside is at Nightside without Nicole and Rob Brooks
Speaker 2: doing their jobs so perfectly well. So I want to
Speaker 2: say that to both of you and for all the
Speaker 2: people listening. I'm here until midnight. Dan Ray will be
Speaker 2: back tomorrow. I have non White House subjects tonight. Why
Speaker 2: because I know Dan Ray will be delving into White
Speaker 2: House subjects beginning at eight o'clock tomorrow, and I didn't
Speaker 2: want to take away programming or concepts that Dan definitely
Speaker 2: will be touching upon. That aside my first guest, I
Speaker 2: think this is the fourth time over the years I've
Speaker 2: had him on. He is a specialist when it comes
Speaker 2: to diabetes, looked upon as being one of the more
Speaker 2: knowledgeable physicians in America dealing with that subject. And I
Speaker 2: know a lot of you out there have issues with diabetes,
Speaker 2: myself included. So guess what I've brought somebody who can
Speaker 2: help you, hopefully. But I always say this when I
Speaker 2: have a doctor on the doctor is making suggestions based
Speaker 2: on your information. Go to your own physician for specifics,
Speaker 2: because your physician is the person who will take you
Speaker 2: through the windy road of physicians and patience combined. So
Speaker 2: doctor David Nathan is my guest. He may tell you something.
Speaker 2: You can use that information as a guide to your
Speaker 2: own physician and doctor Nathan. Did I say that correctly enough?
Speaker 3: Morgan? You got it as usual, You got it exactly right.
Speaker 3: You know, I may be a physician, I play one
Speaker 3: on television and radio, but I am by no means,
Speaker 3: no means should anyone take what I say tonight as
Speaker 3: no advice for them. They do need to see their
Speaker 3: own healthcare professional and listen to that person's advice.
Speaker 2: So far, And let me say to you, I've already
Speaker 2: said it during our conversation to set this up. But
Speaker 2: happy New.
Speaker 3: Year to you, bro, same to you, Morgan, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I'm listening to WBZ last weekend, just most
Speaker 2: recent Saturday day and Sunday that we just waved goodbye to,
Speaker 2: and there was a news story about glucose and circumstances
Speaker 2: around glucose that are giving all the people that use
Speaker 2: diabetes studies as their focus points, and I understood some
Speaker 2: of it, but I'm sure you know about that because
Speaker 2: they acted like this is a new discovery. So if
Speaker 2: you're familiar with that, tell people what that discovery is.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I'm not sure what you're referring to, Morgan. Okay,
Speaker 3: you know, diabetes is in the news all the time,
Speaker 3: given the you know that it's epidemic, affecting more than
Speaker 3: ten percent of the population, so it's the most common
Speaker 3: chronic disease there is. And at the center of diabetes
Speaker 3: are you know, elevated glucos levels. That's how we define it,
Speaker 3: and the elevated glucose levels are what are intimately related
Speaker 3: to the risk for complications. So therefore we you know,
Speaker 3: we try to maintain those glucose levels and the average glucose,
Speaker 3: which is a test called the hemoglobin A one C
Speaker 3: in a specific range. So I'm not sure what the
Speaker 3: exact story was last weekend.
Speaker 2: Okay, I should have taken notes, but I was just
Speaker 2: casually listened to listening to the news.
Speaker 3: But most yeah, no, I was about to say that,
Speaker 3: you know, it seems like ninety nine percent of the
Speaker 3: news around diabetes, these days is all around Wagovi and
Speaker 3: the samaglatie and all of the g LP one receptor
Speaker 3: agonists which have become, you know, really the major pharmaceutical story,
Speaker 3: I would say, of this century and are likely to
Speaker 3: be given that they've grown. You know, a large portion
Speaker 3: of a portion of the population is taking them, either
Speaker 3: for diabetes or for weight loss. They also have additional benefits,
Speaker 3: and almost all of the news these days is about them.
Speaker 3: They represent the reason why Denmark's entire economy has taken
Speaker 3: a turn for the better since Novo Nordisk, which is
Speaker 3: the company that makes one of them, is located in Denmark.
Speaker 3: So you know, you know, ninety percent of the stories
Speaker 3: out there are about these GLP ones.
Speaker 2: Now, people listening, Like, when I was first discovered to
Speaker 2: have diabetes, and that would be around nineteen ninety six
Speaker 2: or so, I had a few warning signals and I
Speaker 2: needed to be alerted to pay attention to these warning signals.
Speaker 2: Why don't you tell my audience at least three or
Speaker 2: four different things that could now underline could indicate that
Speaker 2: diabetes has a hold on you.
Speaker 3: Sure, so diabetes can have its on set. Now what
Speaker 3: we're talking about for the most part here is the
Speaker 3: epidemic form of diabetes, which is called type two diabetes.
Speaker 3: Used to be called adult onset because it arises in
Speaker 3: people as when they're adults. Type one diabetes, by contrast,
Speaker 3: occurs or has its onset most frequently in younger people
Speaker 3: and usually around the time of puberty, between the ages
Speaker 3: of eight and fifteen. Now, people can develop type one
Speaker 3: diabetes later in life. And although type two diabetes is
Speaker 3: the most common, it has its most common onset, you know,
Speaker 3: in middle aged older age. It can also occur in
Speaker 3: kids these days. Its major risk factor is overweight and obesity.
Speaker 3: And given that there is an epidemic of over seventy
Speaker 3: percent of the US population is either overweight or obese,
Speaker 3: that is double the number of the you know, fifty
Speaker 3: years ago. So that is the major risk seven zero
Speaker 3: seven zero percent, and that includes about forty percent or
Speaker 3: considered obese and thirty percent that are who are considered overweight.
Speaker 3: And you know, I agree entirely with the current stance
Speaker 3: that we shouldn't be fact shaming anyone. Okay, people should
Speaker 3: not be judged based on their weight. But diabetes doesn't
Speaker 3: understand that because diabetes the major risk factor is as
Speaker 3: people gain weight, and that is clearly linked to the
Speaker 3: epidemic of diabetes and a lot of other bad things.
Speaker 3: So you know that that's that's really the story kind
Speaker 3: of of this century, all right.
Speaker 2: And the fact that we just came through a holiday
Speaker 2: a pair of months with Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, Christmas, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Holidays a lot of food based family get togethers could
Speaker 2: have even nudged people closer to those diabetes' issues. I've
Speaker 2: got a break to take, and when we get back,
Speaker 2: let me open up the phones. If you want to
Speaker 2: call and speak to doctor Nathan and ask questions that
Speaker 2: relate specifically to you. Here are your phone numbers. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty, eight eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty.
Speaker 2: Take advantage of the doctor who is here. He has
Speaker 2: a great depth of knowledge in this subject. And we'll
Speaker 2: be right back after these messages. Time and temperature here
Speaker 2: on night side eight sixteen seventeen degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nice Sight Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: I'm Morgan feeling in for Dan Ray, who will be
Speaker 2: back this time tomorrow. I promise you and my guest
Speaker 2: for the first hour of night Side is doctor David
Speaker 2: Nathan and he is well renowned across America's Seed the
Speaker 2: Shining Sea with the subject of diabetes. So if you
Speaker 2: have questions, you have concerns, call six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine,
Speaker 2: ten thirty and doctor there have been I'm gonna say,
Speaker 2: leaps and bounds changes in the meter, because when I
Speaker 2: first became aware that I had diabetes and I had
Speaker 2: a glucose meter, that meter is now obsolete and should
Speaker 2: be in Fred Flintstone's home in comparison to what we
Speaker 2: have now in twenty twenty five. Would you like to
Speaker 2: speak to changes in the glucose meter?
Speaker 3: Sure, absolutely so. So you know, the glugos meters go
Speaker 3: back more than fifty years. I have a bunch of
Speaker 3: them in my office that are paper weights, because there
Speaker 3: are these enormous black black boxes that you stuck a
Speaker 3: strip in after you'd incubated it for more than a minute,
Speaker 3: and then you stuck in it. They were pretty accurate actually,
Speaker 3: but they were totally unwieldy. The ones that came along
Speaker 3: more recently, meaning the last twenty five for thirty years,
Speaker 3: allowed people to do these fingerstick, blood shrigger checks and
Speaker 3: with that for people who don't know what it is,
Speaker 3: it was a little device like a pen that you
Speaker 3: held up against your fingertip with a spring. There was
Speaker 3: a little lancet, a little point that went into your
Speaker 3: finger and drew a drop of blood. You applied the
Speaker 3: drop of blood to a strip, put it in the meter,
Speaker 3: and within you know, thirty to sixty seconds, it gave
Speaker 3: you what turned out to be a very accurate reading.
Speaker 3: For people with type one diabetes, the juvenile form, who
Speaker 3: were taking always taking in slow by definition, and we're
Speaker 3: trying to avoid high glucose levels as well as low
Speaker 3: gugos levels, they were generally recommended to do these tests
Speaker 3: at least four times a day, so four fingersticks a
Speaker 3: day for a lifetime. Type two diabetes also recommended for
Speaker 3: people with type two diabetes who have we're taking insulin
Speaker 3: or who were taking a medication that could cause low
Speaker 3: blutugar and there are a couple of oral medications that
Speaker 3: could do that. So if we fast forward, the meters
Speaker 3: got quicker, more accurate, smaller, and all that. But the
Speaker 3: real change has been in the last almost ten years
Speaker 3: now where people can wear these devices that everyone sees
Speaker 3: on the back of somebody's arm, and they're called continuous
Speaker 3: glucose meters. And what these do is that it's like
Speaker 3: a little patch that goes on your arm, or you
Speaker 3: can put it on your abdomen. There's a little straw
Speaker 3: called the catheter that goes a little bit below the
Speaker 3: surface of the skin, and what that straw does is
Speaker 3: it SIPs a fluid from between the cells, and that
Speaker 3: fluid actually isn't exactly the same as blood glucose, but
Speaker 3: it reflects what the blood glucose is. And these devices
Speaker 3: give people readings automatically every five minutes. So you put
Speaker 3: one of these things in, you leave it in for
Speaker 3: three to more days, and it gives you a reading
Speaker 3: on your cell phone, for example, again every three to
Speaker 3: five minutes. And for people who have type one diabetes,
Speaker 3: these devices are invaluable. People who have type two diabetes
Speaker 3: a little bit more debatable whether they're useful or not.
Speaker 3: The real advance that has occurred is that these meters
Speaker 3: talk to an insulin pump, so by bluetooth, they can
Speaker 3: send the signal to an insulin pump and they help
Speaker 3: drive the insulin pump. For type one diabetes usually and
Speaker 3: help the pump determine how much insulin needs to be given.
Speaker 3: So it's kind of an automated system. And that's where
Speaker 3: those are the real advances that have occurred.
Speaker 2: Okay, And we started to but I wanted you to
Speaker 2: give me, let's say, one to three specifics of something
Speaker 2: not right with your body. I'll begin by eyesight. You, okay,
Speaker 2: have no problems with your eyes, and all of a sudden, right,
Speaker 2: it's hard to read the magazine you've always read, and
Speaker 2: are other things beyond that, So go.
Speaker 3: Ahead, absolutely. So I would say that in the old days,
Speaker 3: meaning fifteen twenty years ago more, many people were discovering
Speaker 3: that they had diabetes because of symptoms. And the one
Speaker 3: that you're suggesting eyesight, is that people would develop blurry
Speaker 3: vision without any explanation for it. They would get new
Speaker 3: glasses because they had blurry vision, and then a week
Speaker 3: later their vision was blurry again. And that was because
Speaker 3: if blood sugars rise very quickly, they actually affect the
Speaker 3: lens of your eye, so it changes the refractive the
Speaker 3: refraction that the lens provides, cause you have blurry vision.
Speaker 3: The other symptoms that we'll get to, okay, which you're
Speaker 3: gonna ask me about anyway in a minute. I know
Speaker 3: is you know, people tell me, well, you know we've
Speaker 3: done this, but you know we really we should go on
Speaker 3: stage or something, so yeah we should. So the other
Speaker 3: the other symptoms that occur and don't occur as commonly
Speaker 3: now as they used to, and I'll explain why in
Speaker 3: a minute. Or people get increasing thirst and increasing urination,
Speaker 3: and that is because if the blood shiger arises to
Speaker 3: a certain level, you start spilling it in your urine,
Speaker 3: it goes into the urine, and when the shrew goes
Speaker 3: in the urine, it pulls water with it, and before
Speaker 3: you know it, you're going to the bathroom far more often.
Speaker 3: You're having to get up at night several times, and
Speaker 3: because that's happening, you get a little dehydrated, and then
Speaker 3: you get increased thirst. So those are really the kind
Speaker 3: of classical symptoms of having an elevat blood sugar. These days,
Speaker 3: it turns out that many people are actually discovered to
Speaker 3: have diabetes just because they're doctors or healthcare providers appropriately
Speaker 3: are testing their blood sugar or that hemoglobin a one
Speaker 3: C test which measures average blood sugar, and they're doing
Speaker 3: that at least once a year, and that is the
Speaker 3: way these days that most people are picked up are
Speaker 3: diagnosed as having diabetes, not waiting until the sugar rises
Speaker 3: so high that their vision gets blurry that they're urinating.
Speaker 3: It can still happen, but many more people are picked
Speaker 3: up just by routine laboratory tests.
Speaker 2: And in those tests, your blood sugar numbers tell people
Speaker 2: a range where okay, we're not concerned, your doctor is
Speaker 2: not concerned that diabetes is in your immediate future, versus okay, now,
Speaker 2: thirty more points, fifty more points get a doctor's concern, right.
Speaker 3: So you know, as it turns out, we as a
Speaker 3: species eat episodically. We don't graze all day long. We
Speaker 3: have three meals a day usually and sometimes four or
Speaker 3: five meals a day with snacks and whatever. But you know,
Speaker 3: with the episodic eating, the meal time eating, our bloochergers
Speaker 3: tend to be low before you eat, and in everyone
Speaker 3: they rise after you eat. And the more sugar or
Speaker 3: more sugary drinks, or the more carbohydrate you have in
Speaker 3: the meal, the higher the blood suger is likely to be.
Speaker 3: So the timing of these tests turns out to be
Speaker 3: pretty critical. Most of the time, doctors will want you
Speaker 3: to come in for a fasting blood sugar test, blood
Speaker 3: glucose tests, same thing, and if the number is greater
Speaker 3: than one twenty six, greater than one twenty six, they'll
Speaker 3: ask you to repeat it. Okay. Now, by the way,
Speaker 3: if the blood sugger is two hundred and you're complaining
Speaker 3: of the urination and first, then the diagnosis is made. Okay,
Speaker 3: you don't have to have it repeated. If the blood
Speaker 3: is very high, and that's simple, and then you have
Speaker 3: diabetes and they'll put you on treatment and hopefully it'll
Speaker 3: improve it. The other measurement that's done is I said,
Speaker 3: is this hemoglobin a one c, which is also a
Speaker 3: blood test, and if that value is higher than six
Speaker 3: point five percent, it's a different unit than the blood sugar.
Speaker 3: But if it's higher than six point five it means
Speaker 3: you have diabetes. They usually would repeat that also to
Speaker 3: make sure that the first test was not an error.
Speaker 3: But once either of those, you know, either of those
Speaker 3: criteria is met, So either a fasting blood sugar or
Speaker 3: a hemoglobin a one c, then you're diagnosed. Sometimes people
Speaker 3: are so symptomatic, thirsty and urinating and blurry vision that
Speaker 3: you just do a random blood sugar and if it's
Speaker 3: over two hundred, there's no question you've got diabetes. And
Speaker 3: so there are a number of different ways of diagnosing.
Speaker 2: It now that we know a red flags to watch
Speaker 2: out for. If any of these circumstances one or a
Speaker 2: combination of two or all three are happening to you,
Speaker 2: do the smart thing, because I'll tell you something real quick,
Speaker 2: and then I have to take a break. My grandmother
Speaker 2: was a nurse and in nineteen ninety six when it
Speaker 2: was discovered I'm a diabetic. In her time it could
Speaker 2: have been fatal. But nowadays there are just so many
Speaker 2: measures that can cut this off at the pass, so
Speaker 2: many ways that you're necessarily not going to get rid
Speaker 2: of it, but you can at least help fight it,
Speaker 2: curb it, and find a way to stay ahead of it.
Speaker 2: And I want you to have a long, happy life.
Speaker 2: I have thirty eight states listening to me, parts of
Speaker 2: Canada listening to me, listening to me. Do the right thing,
Speaker 2: And now I've got to take a break, doctor Nathan
Speaker 2: and I will be back after a few messages and
Speaker 2: a quick hit of news. This is Nightside, heard only
Speaker 2: on WBZ News Radio ten thirty time, eight thirty seventeen degrees.
Speaker 1: You're on the Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ,
Speaker 1: Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: We are back here on Nightside. I'm Morgan filling in
Speaker 2: for Dan. Dan, We'll be back tomorrow. I know I've
Speaker 2: been saying it a lot, but Dan, I think his
Speaker 2: last time on air was last Tuesday. So Gary was
Speaker 2: here Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I was here last night. I'm
Speaker 2: here now, so all of you Dano files, Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: We'll be back to night Side eight o'clock tomorrow. I've
Speaker 2: got doctor David Nathan. He and I are talking about
Speaker 2: diabetes and doctor. Going back to the meters, Nancy mentioned
Speaker 2: to me, she's sitting right next to me, there is
Speaker 2: a newer meter that doesn't take blood. It well, I'll
Speaker 2: let you explain it that the newer meter, it.
Speaker 3: Was a glucose monitor or CGM that I referred to earlier.
Speaker 3: So it really doesn't take blood. It sits on your
Speaker 3: skin and again with a little straw, a little catheter
Speaker 3: really SIPs it's like a straw, SIPs fluid from between
Speaker 3: the cells and measures the sugar levels in that fluid.
Speaker 3: It turns out that although it's not exactly the same
Speaker 3: as the blood sugar level blood glucose level, it's really close.
Speaker 3: And again, these divice is measure the blood trigger every
Speaker 3: three to five minutes to provide an ongoing kind of
Speaker 3: a record, a diary if you will, of your glucose
Speaker 3: levels in real time and help you help people decide
Speaker 3: how much insulin they need to take or whether the
Speaker 3: adjustments need to be made in their other diabetes medications.
Speaker 3: So they're they're quite useful.
Speaker 2: And are there any other newer innovations of people might
Speaker 2: not be aware it's out and available to them.
Speaker 3: Well, there are a lot of you know, new ideas
Speaker 3: that are under investigation, but the ones that are you know,
Speaker 3: that have been brought to the four that have been
Speaker 3: proved to be effective, that have been approved by the FDA,
Speaker 3: and that are available to people are the ones we've
Speaker 3: talked about. The new medications, especially to treat type two diabetes.
Speaker 3: They're newer insulins available to treat type one and type
Speaker 3: two diabetes, and then the means to deliver them, so
Speaker 3: that you know, the new pumps, these new tiny pumps
Speaker 3: that are driven by the continuous glucose monitors, so really
Speaker 3: kind of artificial pancreases, and that has been, you know,
Speaker 3: a major development over the last decade or so.
Speaker 2: What reading material magazine's websites would you recommend people go
Speaker 2: to to keep up with what's happening in the world
Speaker 2: of diabetes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we live in one of the only
Speaker 3: two countries in the world that do direct to consumer
Speaker 3: advertising for medicines for examples, I think it's US in
Speaker 3: New Zealand, so, you know, ONTELL, I want to caution
Speaker 3: people that advertising is advertising. I mean, you know, although
Speaker 3: it provides a lot of information and a lot of
Speaker 3: dancing people with diabetes talking about what drug they're taking,
Speaker 3: it is advertising and they should remember to talk to
Speaker 3: their healthcare professional and not necessarily buy everything or else. Understood,
Speaker 3: you accept everything that they see on television because it
Speaker 3: is advertising and it's meant to sell the product. I
Speaker 3: think that, you know, especially diabetes specialists have a much
Speaker 3: more nuanced understanding of which device and which medication is
Speaker 3: good for the person who's asking them for help for
Speaker 3: their particular patient. So I think people have to be cautious.
Speaker 3: There's information everywhere. The American Diabetes Association has very reliable
Speaker 3: magazines both for professionals as well as for consumers meeting patients,
Speaker 3: and I think that is a reliable source of information.
Speaker 2: You mentioned dancing people. I'm going to mention this one
Speaker 2: product because they come up with a new commercial every
Speaker 2: six to eight weeks with a new set of dancing people.
Speaker 2: And the first one, the woman was on a best
Speaker 2: see was happy that. I'll say the product that begins
Speaker 2: with jay. I don't want to mention a name because
Speaker 2: people will think I am giving an approval to a product.
Speaker 3: I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to be right down the middle. But they
Speaker 2: have done more commercials. First of those women on the
Speaker 2: bus than those women dancing in the neighborhood park. Then
Speaker 2: it was a guy pruning his yard. And it's always
Speaker 2: I take, I take more blah with blah blah blah
Speaker 2: at each day. Start the jingle is in my head and.
Speaker 3: I know I've got diabetes. Right, that's the one, And
Speaker 3: you're right, we should go on the road.
Speaker 2: We already know the material and these companies and earlier
Speaker 2: you mentioned uh well Kobe, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: this one product it was just another product out there,
Speaker 2: and then it was used to kind of help fight
Speaker 2: obesity and everybody jumped on the wacovie bandwagon, and I
Speaker 2: don't know, I just think that's a dangerous precedent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I said no, no, no, I said it previously
Speaker 3: that we are the one of only two countries in
Speaker 3: the world that allows that kind of advertising. So there's
Speaker 3: direct to consumer and the ideas to either you motivate
Speaker 3: or stimulate or inflame the population to go out of
Speaker 3: acid doctors for you know, because they saw in a
Speaker 3: thirty second to add a bunch of people dancing around
Speaker 3: and singing a song that you can't I got type
Speaker 3: of it that you can't get out of your head.
Speaker 3: It's true. I can't get out of my head either.
Speaker 3: It's you know, whoever at that jingle understands how to
Speaker 3: capture people's attention, I guess, so again I think that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was about to say, whoever does the casting
Speaker 2: for these commercials, commercials floral the plumper actors and actresses finally.
Speaker 3: Have enough place.
Speaker 2: No, because everybody is a tad overweight, I'll say it
Speaker 2: politely that way.
Speaker 3: Well, as I said earlier, remember that that is what
Speaker 3: most of the country looks like. Also, I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: the what used to be considered when we were in school.
Speaker 3: You know, I remember in elementary school sixty something years ago,
Speaker 3: sixty oh god, I'm getting old, you know, sixty five
Speaker 3: sixty eight years ago, that there was always one or
Speaker 3: two kids who were kind of overweight, plump, you know,
Speaker 3: you call them unfortunately, you call chubby or something, you know,
Speaker 3: And that was and that was unfair to them, of course,
Speaker 3: but it was only one or two. Now it's the majority,
Speaker 3: near majority of children who are getting to be overweight
Speaker 3: or big, just like their parents. So this is really
Speaker 3: a public health a public health emergency, which is why
Speaker 3: these drugs, which really are quite effective. I mean, forget
Speaker 3: about the advertising and the audience should know that the
Speaker 3: drug companies and have done wonderful work in terms of
Speaker 3: developing the medications and figuring out you know, originally the
Speaker 3: group of drugs, these glps were given twice a day
Speaker 3: by ejection, and then once a day, and now it's
Speaker 3: once a week, and before long they'll probably be even
Speaker 3: longer acting medications. So they've done a great job with that.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, they spend more money on
Speaker 3: advertising than they do on development.
Speaker 2: That's just true.
Speaker 3: A big pharma.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me take a big Farmer. Don't get me started.
Speaker 2: Let me take a quick call. I'll try to squeeze
Speaker 2: Alex and Millicon before I have to take a break. Alex,
Speaker 2: thank you for taking the time to call Night's side.
Speaker 3: Hello, Hi, how are you? How are you? Hi? Morgan?
Speaker 4: I was going to ask, how do these Farmer companies
Speaker 4: get the names that they put on the on the medications?
Speaker 4: They sound so exotic, like you know, people would name
Speaker 4: their firstborn after them. I'm going to say, like for example,
Speaker 4: sky Lizzy. They sound like, you know, they're very unusual
Speaker 4: and they sound cool. So how do they develop the name?
Speaker 4: It's not a real it doesn't mean anything. I think
Speaker 4: they take it partially from the uh, from the technical
Speaker 4: name of the of the drug.
Speaker 3: No, they don't. Actually, it really has very little to
Speaker 3: do with the name of the drug. I don't Somebody
Speaker 3: sits in a room who's an advertiser and they think
Speaker 3: about name they think will be attractive and then has
Speaker 3: some connotation to it. I think they maybe, you know,
Speaker 3: I understand that Elon Musk names his kids some weird names,
Speaker 3: and I suspect maybe they go to him and ask
Speaker 3: him what kind of names to give the drugs? So
Speaker 3: I must say it is befuddled me for decades where
Speaker 3: they come up with these names because they don't have
Speaker 3: anything to do with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they let their pet cat walk across
Speaker 2: the keyboard, and if it's a sensible word that comes
Speaker 2: out from the pause of the cat on the keys,
Speaker 2: there's your.
Speaker 3: Name right right.
Speaker 4: The other thing is how effective are generic versus because
Speaker 4: the brand name is more expensive. Is there any compromise
Speaker 4: if you were to take any medication?
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, so, as you know, the newer drugs are
Speaker 3: patent protected and they remain brand name drugs for a
Speaker 3: while until they lose that and that's dictated by when
Speaker 3: they were developed, when their patent was put forward, and
Speaker 3: then they become generic. And in order for generic drugs
Speaker 3: to be approved, they have to be essentially equivalent to
Speaker 3: the brand name. And therefore, you know, when the brand
Speaker 3: names come along, you should be able to save a
Speaker 3: lot of money and be able to get the same effect.
Speaker 3: Now that's theoretical. What actually happens is that many of
Speaker 3: the companies have numerous patents on their drugs, which lasts
Speaker 3: you know, it's not the drug itself, it's the way
Speaker 3: that the drug was synthesized or it's some component of
Speaker 3: the drug, so they end up having patent protection for
Speaker 3: a longer period of time before the generics come about.
Speaker 3: But the generics should in general be equivalent to the
Speaker 3: brand name drug.
Speaker 2: All right, Alex, thank you, I got to take a break,
Speaker 2: Thank you for your call. Good night, and doctor, let
Speaker 2: me sell some soap, as they used to say, going
Speaker 2: into a break, and you and I will come back
Speaker 2: in about two or three minutes time. Here on night
Speaker 2: Side eight five seventeen degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ the news radio.
Speaker 2: Doctor David Nathan is here. We are talking about diabetes.
Speaker 2: We're only going to keep this conversation going up to
Speaker 2: the top of the hour, roughly another ten minutes now
Speaker 2: closer to eight minutes. And next hour we go from
Speaker 2: talking about diabetes to talking about beer, which necessarily isn't
Speaker 2: a product that you should over indulge for a variety reasons.
Speaker 2: But dealing with the diabetes subject, beer has a ton
Speaker 2: of sugar in it and you need to be aware
Speaker 2: of that. And for the rest of the night, I've
Speaker 2: got dB Cooper coming in here at ten o'clock and
Speaker 2: she is a woman making hay and broadcasting doing voiceover work.
Speaker 2: And an old teacher of mine who looks like he's
Speaker 2: twenty years younger than me, but he taught me in
Speaker 2: high school. I was in high school sixty seven to
Speaker 2: seventy one. Those are my four years. And he has
Speaker 2: a company called the Speed Improvement Company. And he'll get
Speaker 2: some of those bad verbal habits out of your everyday
Speaker 2: speech and tell you other things you should know, especially
Speaker 2: when you want to make a good first impression. Now
Speaker 2: my first impression with the gentleman I have online with
Speaker 2: me right now. I was in a life of death
Speaker 2: situation roughly around nineteen ninety seven or so, maybe closer
Speaker 2: to the two thousands. But doctor David Nathan was one
Speaker 2: of the physicians who helped nurse me back to health.
Speaker 2: And I know you're uncomfortable curing me say that to you,
Speaker 2: but by being a doctor, you save lives. That's hand
Speaker 2: in hand with what you do when you have a patient.
Speaker 2: You save lives. David.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, you always embarrassed me here, Morgan, but I
Speaker 3: always point out that you know the care that we
Speaker 3: provide at the Mass General and elsewhere. It's a team effort,
Speaker 3: lots of people involved, and it was I'm glad that
Speaker 3: you did so well. And that was a long twenty
Speaker 3: something years ago, right long ago, and so it's great
Speaker 3: to see how well you've done all.
Speaker 2: And I'll remind you of what you and your team
Speaker 2: told me. There were three options for me. One that
Speaker 2: I would get well and go on to live my life.
Speaker 2: Two I would face an amputation very high up on
Speaker 2: my leg, or three cashing your chips it's over. Fortunately
Speaker 2: the first option became the fact of my life. And again,
Speaker 2: thank you to you and your staff. And it wasn't
Speaker 2: your staff, it was like the hospital's staff, right, and
Speaker 2: all of you did a bang up job as far
Speaker 2: as I was concerned.
Speaker 3: Well, it as a pleasure and it's always I think
Speaker 3: it just so fulfilling for healthcare providers to see someone
Speaker 3: you know, improve from what is a potentially a dangerous
Speaker 3: situation and see them get better. And with regard to diabetes,
Speaker 3: by the way, so it's worth you know you pointed
Speaker 3: out earlier. I think in the program that people should
Speaker 3: pay attention to this. And the reason that it's worth
Speaker 3: paying attention to is because what has changed over the
Speaker 3: last forty or fifty years is that we know how
Speaker 3: to make diabetes less dangerous. So diabetes, as your listeners know,
Speaker 3: I'm sure, is the single major cause of blindness, kidney failure,
Speaker 3: amputation in the United States. It's the single greatest cause
Speaker 3: of those three bad outcomes, and in addition, increases the
Speaker 3: risk for heart disease and stroke by between two and fivefold.
Speaker 3: But the big butt there is that if people take
Speaker 3: care and manage their blood sugars in a prescribed level,
Speaker 3: and also by the way, take care of their blood
Speaker 3: pressure and their cholesterol, we can reduce those risks enormously.
Speaker 3: So that's why it's important to take care of your diabetes.
Speaker 2: And that was the key in my case because I
Speaker 2: did have the urination issue. Waking up at one and
Speaker 2: two in the morning, then waking up again, then waking
Speaker 2: up again, my vision did get blurry, and I wasn't
Speaker 2: expecting that because I had always had excellent vision. You know,
Speaker 2: I weigh glasses now, But we're talking twenty twenty five
Speaker 2: years ago, and I'm thinking, why can't I read this magazine.
Speaker 2: It's a TV Guide, for goodness sake. I've been reading
Speaker 2: TV Guide all my life, so that was that. But
Speaker 2: enough about me. I want you to remember back for
Speaker 2: you the first time you're either an intern or the
Speaker 2: beginning of your career as a physician and you helped
Speaker 2: a patient pull through, as it were. Tell people what
Speaker 2: that was like your mindset?
Speaker 3: Sure, well, you know the first as a medical student.
Speaker 3: People should know that. You know you're although you may
Speaker 3: be taking some responsibility for taking care of patients, you
Speaker 3: have a normal supervision. You're working with a whole team,
Speaker 3: which remains the case throughout, but it's not you know,
Speaker 3: you're not the one who's responsible appropriately. You're in training
Speaker 3: when you become an intern or resident. And I did
Speaker 3: my training in Boston. I came from I was in
Speaker 3: medical school in New York, came up to Boston, and
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, I mean, I was twenty three
Speaker 3: or something like that, twenty three, twenty four, a newly
Speaker 3: minted physician, and you're asked to go into a hospital
Speaker 3: and take care of people who are quite ill. And
Speaker 3: in those days, we're talking in the early seventies, mid seventies,
Speaker 3: a lot of the things that we can now treat
Speaker 3: today were fatal, I mean, And so as a young physician,
Speaker 3: I remember taking care of people my age who had
Speaker 3: luke kemia, for example, and who died while we were
Speaker 3: taking care of them, so that I must say was
Speaker 3: quite traumatic. I think watching people your own age who
Speaker 3: you're trying to provide care for, but the answers weren't there,
Speaker 3: we didn't have adequate treatments. And over time, thank goodness,
Speaker 3: both in chance or and diabetes and heart disease, and
Speaker 3: you know the things that those are the major killers,
Speaker 3: heart disease and cancer. You know, I think over time
Speaker 3: science has come up with really remarkable improvements so that
Speaker 3: many diseases that used to be fatal are no longer fatal,
Speaker 3: where in fact we can restore people to good health,
Speaker 3: which is why the current you know, if we weren't
Speaker 3: going to that political, but if Robert Kennedy, who is
Speaker 3: not a scientist and who seems to be actually anti science,
Speaker 3: has his way, I'm really fearful that the progress that
Speaker 3: we have made will go back to the dark ages.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just, you know, the things he says
Speaker 3: and that he seems to act on are not based
Speaker 3: on science or facts or knowledge. They're based on what
Speaker 3: he believes, which has really little based So that I
Speaker 3: find to be really objective. My whole career has been
Speaker 3: trying to prove things scientifically and develop new methods of
Speaker 3: treatment that have to be proved to be effective. And
Speaker 3: he comes around and you know, seems to turn his
Speaker 3: back on what has been the scientific progress. Today.
Speaker 2: Well, let's help people like you win out over people
Speaker 2: like him. I'll leave it at that. I've got a wave.
Speaker 2: Goodbye to you as always, Thank you for being a
Speaker 2: part of the show.
Speaker 3: And Morgan, thank you for having me as always.
Speaker 2: And we'll do this again. Thank you, David. All Right, everybody,
Speaker 2: let's take a little bit of a news break time
Speaker 2: and temperature here one night side eight fifty eight seventeen
Speaker 2: degrees