Speaker 1: It's with Dan Ray un Boston's final hour of Night Side.
Speaker 2: If you or someone in your world, family, neighbor, boss,
Speaker 2: has diabetes as an issue, get comfortable for this hour
Speaker 2: because this gentleman is looked upon as one of the
Speaker 2: most intelligent physicians in the world of diabetes, well respected
Speaker 2: across the country. At one time he was my doctor,
Speaker 2: growing back about twelve years or so ago. Doctor David
Speaker 2: Nathan is here, doctor, thank you for a green to
Speaker 2: come on. And you know how much I appreciate getting
Speaker 2: a chance to share you with thirty eight states.
Speaker 3: Morgan, my friend, Thank you. It's always a pleasure. Thanks
Speaker 3: for having me, all right.
Speaker 2: You and I both know there are so many commercials
Speaker 2: that are on TV, and I know you and Rob
Speaker 2: were talking about this as he called to set you
Speaker 2: in our system for this interview. They are making promises
Speaker 2: there are at least a half a dozen medicines that
Speaker 2: are allegedly good for you if you are a diabetic,
Speaker 2: and I want to begin at the starting point, explain
Speaker 2: to people how you become a diabetic.
Speaker 3: Well, diabetes comes in several different flavors, one of them
Speaker 3: which is relatively rare and which usually affects younger people
Speaker 3: is called type one diabetes, and that's a disorder in
Speaker 3: which the your own immune system attacks the insulin secreting
Speaker 3: cells in your pancreas, wipes them out over time, and
Speaker 3: you end up being totally insulin deficient. And that is,
Speaker 3: you know, a disease that we've known about from antiquity.
Speaker 3: It effects probably in the US a total of maybe
Speaker 3: one and a half million people, and we've known about
Speaker 3: it for a long time. It was an entirely deadly
Speaker 3: disease until insulin was developed in the early nineteen twenties.
Speaker 3: The type of diabetes that most people are suffering with
Speaker 3: are struggling with, is called type two diabetes, and that's
Speaker 3: a combination of several factors. It's firstly, it's multi it's
Speaker 3: publicly called polygenic, meaning it's not one gene. It's a
Speaker 3: combination of a whole bunch of different genes, each of
Speaker 3: which contributes a small amount of risk. But you know,
Speaker 3: people don't generally get this kind of diabetes unless one
Speaker 3: of three things happens. One is that they get overweight
Speaker 3: or obese. Number two is that they decrease and this
Speaker 3: contributes to their overweight. They decrease, their activity levels, and
Speaker 3: this has happened to many people all over the world.
Speaker 3: And number three, when people get older. That's also So
Speaker 3: those three factors are the ones that have led to
Speaker 3: this being an epidemic. And not only it's not just
Speaker 3: one and a half million people as with the type one,
Speaker 3: but type two affects more like, you know, thirty five
Speaker 3: million people. So you know it's one of the most
Speaker 3: common chronic diseases there is.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned the three causes. Number two and number
Speaker 2: three overlap. As you get older, you get less interested
Speaker 2: in taking care of yourself exercise, so there are two
Speaker 2: things working against you.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, you know, we're at a time in our
Speaker 3: in the human history when we are living longer, older
Speaker 3: than ever before. And you know many of us who
Speaker 3: are so I'm in my seventies and my knees are
Speaker 3: hurting a lot. And you know, we just weren't designed.
Speaker 3: We weren't engineer to last as long as we are
Speaker 3: now living. And one of the things that happens is
Speaker 3: that our muscle mass decreases. As you get older, the
Speaker 3: proportion of your body mass that is fat increases. Even
Speaker 3: if you're not overweight, your relative amount of fat increases.
Speaker 3: And all of those factors conspire to cause type two diabetes.
Speaker 3: And it's epidemic. I mean, you know, it's affecting once
Speaker 3: you're a rage of sixty five, it's affecting one out
Speaker 3: of every five people or so. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: it's really incredibly common.
Speaker 2: And I've noticed this is observational on me, it's not scientific,
Speaker 2: but I've noticed thinner people by comparison, that have developed diabetes.
Speaker 2: There was a time you could see somebody who had
Speaker 2: a tummy and pretty much guess in their world they
Speaker 2: were suffering from diabetes. But that's no longer a guarantee
Speaker 2: or am I wrong?
Speaker 3: Right? No? No, no, no, it's the kind so there.
Speaker 3: It's you know, when we say that being overweight and
Speaker 3: less activity levels, lower physical activity levels are major environmental
Speaker 3: contributors to this true, true, But it doesn't mean that
Speaker 3: people who are thinner might also not get diabetes when
Speaker 3: they're older. And in those folks, interestingly, they probably have
Speaker 3: a limited capacity to secrete insulin themselves. That is, their
Speaker 3: pancreas doesn't make as much insulin, and as they get
Speaker 3: older they may need a bit more insulin and their
Speaker 3: pancreases just can't keep up with it so they can
Speaker 3: develop diabetes. Their diabetes looks a little bit more like
Speaker 3: the type one I described before. That is, they tend
Speaker 3: to be more insulin deficient compared with insulin resistance. Those
Speaker 3: are the two factors we talk about in type two diabetes,
Speaker 3: and i'm more resistance. Yeah, go ahead, sir.
Speaker 2: I meant to say this in the beginning. We always
Speaker 2: you and I always make this statement clear to the listeners.
Speaker 2: The circumstances descriptions that we will cover between now and
Speaker 2: the end of the hour are generic. They necessary. We
Speaker 2: don't point at you specifically, you need to get from
Speaker 2: your doctor your specifics. We can indicate or point you
Speaker 2: in a direction, but necessarily the information that we are
Speaker 2: giving won't cover your issues so nobly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm glad you point that out. More right. I mean,
Speaker 3: I play I play a doctor on radio and TV,
Speaker 3: and I am some people's doctors, but I'm not you know,
Speaker 3: the people on the radar, I'm not their doctor. They
Speaker 3: absolutely need to talk to their healthcare professionals about their
Speaker 3: health care issues, including diabies.
Speaker 2: Nor Now, if you're listening right now, you'd like to
Speaker 2: call in. You're waking up three four, five times a
Speaker 2: night to urinate. You know the different warning signs, and
Speaker 2: you have a question. Yes, doctor Nathan can respond to
Speaker 2: your question. But again what he tells you might indicate
Speaker 2: the church to be in, but not the pew to
Speaker 2: sit in the church, to use that old analogy. But
Speaker 2: I'll give you the phone numbers if you want to
Speaker 2: call in. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten, thirty, eight, eight, nine, two, nine,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. He is doctor David Nathan, and he is
Speaker 2: well respected across the country and dealing with issues revolving
Speaker 2: around diabetes. And he always gets kind of sheepish when
Speaker 2: I say this. He made a difference in my life
Speaker 2: going back about twelve years, and I thank him for
Speaker 2: the positive things that he helped me realize and take
Speaker 2: care of a dozen years ago. You're very kind And
Speaker 2: on that note, let's take our break. You want to
Speaker 2: call in. I gave you the phone numbers. Time here
Speaker 2: on Nightside eleven sixteen sixty five degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Dan will be back on the twelfth of August. I
Speaker 2: am here obviously for the rest of this evening Thursday
Speaker 2: evening tomorrow evening and Friday evening, but nightside goes on
Speaker 2: whether Dan is here or not. My guest this hour
Speaker 2: is doctor David Nathan, and we're talking about diabetes, and
Speaker 2: doctor there may be people out there that are getting
Speaker 2: warning signals but they're not paying attention to it. The
Speaker 2: deterioration of vision, frequent urination. I'll let you're the doctor,
Speaker 2: so I'll let you tell people things that should make
Speaker 2: them possibly get in touch with their physician, because as
Speaker 2: it could be that they have diabetes, one way to
Speaker 2: find out is to get a professional.
Speaker 3: Right. Well, you know what you described, Morgan are the
Speaker 3: classical symptoms of diabetes, because when your blood sugar rises,
Speaker 3: it goes into the urine and that pulls water along
Speaker 3: with it. So frequent urination is a common complaint, or
Speaker 3: when diabetes is out of control can be a common complaint.
Speaker 3: And with that people get a little bit more dehydrated,
Speaker 3: so they're more thirsty, they may be unusually fatigued. Vision
Speaker 3: can be blurry, as you point out, but it's worth
Speaker 3: pointing out that the majority of people actually don't have
Speaker 3: those symptoms. That most people can be running around or
Speaker 3: walking around walking slowly around with diabetes and not even
Speaker 3: know it, which is why we recommend strongly for people
Speaker 3: who are adults and certainly over the age of forty five,
Speaker 3: that they have annual blood tests done when they see
Speaker 3: their doctor, because they will pick up an elevated blood
Speaker 3: sugar or a test called the hemoglobin A one c
Speaker 3: which measures average blood sugar, and that doctor can do that,
Speaker 3: and you know, if it's elevated, then they will pick
Speaker 3: up the uibts even though you didn't have didn't have
Speaker 3: many symptoms or any symptoms.
Speaker 2: And what is a number that indicates maybe you should
Speaker 2: pay attention with your A one C and or blood
Speaker 2: pressure number.
Speaker 3: Right, So, the if you're going to do a blood
Speaker 3: sugar a blood glucose test, it's usually done fasting, and
Speaker 3: a fasting test that's greater than one hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: six is what is commonly accepted as the definition for diabetes.
Speaker 3: The hemoglobin A one C is a blood test, and
Speaker 3: these are simple blood tests. They're inexpensive. The hemoglobin A
Speaker 3: one c can be drawn taken at any time of
Speaker 3: the day, and it's being used increasingly, and if your
Speaker 3: value is greater than six point five percent, that is
Speaker 3: considered diabetic and not infrequently when people are starting to
Speaker 3: get older. These are done as part of the routine
Speaker 3: annual physical examination.
Speaker 2: It used to be seven instead of six point five.
Speaker 3: When did that, well, go ahead, No, So I think
Speaker 3: what you're mistaking is that greater than six point five
Speaker 3: is the level at which diabetes occurs. The target that
Speaker 3: we're aiming for with therapy is to lower it below
Speaker 3: seven percent in general. So again six point two over
Speaker 3: six point five diagnosis diabetes. But when we treat people,
Speaker 3: we try to get their value less than seven percent
Speaker 3: because that's been shown in many high quality studies to
Speaker 3: reduce the risks of die. You know why do we
Speaker 3: care about diabetes is because it's accompanied. You know, it's
Speaker 3: the greatest cause of vision, loss, of kidney failure, of amputations.
Speaker 3: It increases the risk for a heart disease. I mean,
Speaker 3: there are these just awful complications that occur. But we've
Speaker 3: shown through really very high quality studies that you can
Speaker 3: reduce those risks if you keep your average blood sugar
Speaker 3: in a certain range, and that range for most people
Speaker 3: is less than seven percent immagomina ONEC. At the same time,
Speaker 3: you want to control your blood pressure and your cholesterol
Speaker 3: because heart disease is the other major killer that accompanies diabetes,
Speaker 3: and you can improve your chances with that not only
Speaker 3: through blood sugar control, but through controlling your blood pressure
Speaker 3: and your cholesterol levels.
Speaker 2: Are there any new philactrimated term inventions to help people
Speaker 2: who are suffering from diabetes?
Speaker 3: Oh boy? Yeah. So with the epidemic of diabetes, which
Speaker 3: has increased just dramatically in the last thirty to fifty
Speaker 3: years and has gone up and up and up and up,
Speaker 3: the pharmaceutical industry and our basic scientists have developed a
Speaker 3: whole host of new medications and if anybody watches television
Speaker 3: or listens TOLA radio or reads the newspaper, they will
Speaker 3: see them. You know, I'm not sure that people in
Speaker 3: this kind in the US recognize that we are one
Speaker 3: of only two countries in the world where drug companies
Speaker 3: can advertise directly to the consumer. So, you know television,
Speaker 3: I think it's Brazil, all right, So so just two countries.
Speaker 3: Everybody everywhere else advertising of that sort. You know, the
Speaker 3: dancing guys who are advertising the wigov or the some
Speaker 3: magmatizer of those drugs, and they're on constantly, and it's
Speaker 3: turned into a giant, giant and even more so than
Speaker 3: it used to be in the past. A giant industry
Speaker 3: that is diabetes medications. So the new things that have
Speaker 3: come about are a series of new and exciting drugs.
Speaker 3: I mean, they really do help you.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: Interestingly, the ones that everyone knows about that are advertised
Speaker 3: most widely are these called drugs called the g LP
Speaker 3: agonists or receptor agonists. And that's I'll give I don't
Speaker 3: usually I'm trying not to advertise any medications here, but
Speaker 3: the magletide and what go be and those drugs that
Speaker 3: people see advertised, or ozempic those and you.
Speaker 2: See them, they were five times a day, and that's
Speaker 2: not that's not an over exaggeration. Maybe even more than that.
Speaker 2: You know, I've got talked to diabetes, but I manage
Speaker 2: it well.
Speaker 3: Stocks in my head, no, no, so you can't get
Speaker 3: the songs out of your head. That means the advertising
Speaker 3: is working.
Speaker 2: Apparently, I take my pills from charity ins and and
Speaker 2: I've seen several of those commercials that all focus on
Speaker 2: an office dancing, a woman getting off the bus downtown
Speaker 2: and everybody's dancing. They grab your attention.
Speaker 3: No, these are these drugs are well known to cause
Speaker 3: dancing you're taking these drugs and you start dancing in
Speaker 3: the streets. That's just the way they were, right. So
Speaker 3: the two new classes of drugs. One of these are
Speaker 3: the glps, and interestingly, those drugs were invented in my
Speaker 3: hospital at the Mass General many many years ago, and
Speaker 3: the pharmaceutical industry went wild with them and developed a
Speaker 3: lot of interesting and good formulations. And those drugs are
Speaker 3: actually becoming increasingly popular because of their weight loss side effect.
Speaker 3: So they're being used not only to treat diabetes, but
Speaker 3: if people are overweight, these drugs are more effective than
Speaker 3: drugs we've had in the past at causing leading to
Speaker 3: some weight loss, and in fact, people with diabetes are
Speaker 3: sometimes struggling to get them because everyone who's overweight in
Speaker 3: the country is now ordering them and trying to use them.
Speaker 3: So that's one class. The other one is the jardians.
Speaker 3: These are called the that's called empiglephalazin, and that's a
Speaker 3: group of drugs that have another effect, that is, they
Speaker 3: work differently, but they're also effective to treat diabetes. They
Speaker 3: drop people's wait a little bit. And both of these
Speaker 3: classes or drugs also reduce the risk of heart disease.
Speaker 3: No no, not enormously, but enough that it's a recognized indication.
Speaker 3: So they're being used for several different purposes, not only
Speaker 3: to treat diabetes, but to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Speaker 3: They can help with kidney disease as well. So, as
Speaker 3: often happens, you know, diabetes specialists have this, they finally
Speaker 3: have something that you know. Unfortunately it is epidemic, but
Speaker 3: it's something they can pay attention to. But now the nephrologists,
Speaker 3: the kidney experts, the cardiologists are all using these diabetes
Speaker 3: drugs to help treat these other conditions. And they're quite effective.
Speaker 3: These are good drugs. They're important and if it wasn't
Speaker 3: for the endless advertising, I'd be even more enthusiastic about.
Speaker 2: Let me take a call before I have a break.
Speaker 2: I get two people on hold. First, as Paul in
Speaker 2: Rhode Island. Paul, thanks for calling Knight's side. You've got
Speaker 2: doctor David Nathan.
Speaker 4: Yes, hello, doctor Nathan. I was a patient of yours
Speaker 4: in Boston in the early nineteen eighties at Mass General,
Speaker 4: and I'm a Type one diabetic and now I've been
Speaker 4: a Type one for fifty six years. I'm doing fantastically
Speaker 4: my last A one C was six point four. I
Speaker 4: really credit you for how I'm doing so well. I
Speaker 4: really appreciate that the care you gave me at that time.
Speaker 4: And I'm I just I just want to want to
Speaker 4: stress the importance of keeping up with the testing and
Speaker 4: the diet and everything, and it really pays off in
Speaker 4: the end.
Speaker 2: Paul, you were so right, and I like you had
Speaker 2: doctor Nathan as my physician, and I can't thank him
Speaker 2: enough because here I am in my world twelve years later,
Speaker 2: still here, and here you are in your world fifty
Speaker 2: years later. So there you go.
Speaker 3: So Paul, thank you, Yeah, thank you for your con comments.
Speaker 3: I should point out which Paul and Morgan both know,
Speaker 3: is that type one and type two diabetes are enormously
Speaker 3: self care diseases. It because we eat constantly and because
Speaker 3: we have to pay attention to the blood sugars constantly,
Speaker 3: and we have to you know, for type one, of course,
Speaker 3: it's a question of figuring out how much insulin to
Speaker 3: give before any given meal using the technology that's been developed.
Speaker 3: But when it comes down to it, this is a
Speaker 3: lot of work for young people who when they first
Speaker 3: developed diabetes and through a lifetime and Paul. You know,
Speaker 3: as Paul probably knows, if we were talking forty years ago,
Speaker 3: no one survived with fifty years of type one diabetes.
Speaker 3: The majority of people with type one diabetes were had
Speaker 3: died by the time they were fifty years old, So
Speaker 3: that you know, sixty percent to die by fifty these days,
Speaker 3: because of the new methods they're treating diabetes, the importance
Speaker 3: of keeping bloodshers and tight control medications, we live normal lifespans. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they live normal lifespans without blindness, without kidney founder and
Speaker 3: so like Paul, I hope Paul's story is the story
Speaker 3: that hopefully we'll be talking about from now on.
Speaker 2: Paul, thank you for your call.
Speaker 5: Thank you, all right, good night to you, Paul.
Speaker 2: I'm about to take a quick news hit. A couple
Speaker 2: of commercials will be in there. Gary, you are on deck.
Speaker 2: Anyone else who wants to do what Paul and Gary
Speaker 2: have done. Six point seven two five four ten thirty
Speaker 2: or eight eight eight nine two nine ten thirty, We're
Speaker 2: talking diabetes with doctor David Nathan here on Night Side. Well,
Speaker 2: the time is eleven twenty nine sixty five degrees. It's
Speaker 2: night with Dan Boston's News Radio. In case you haven't noticed.
Speaker 2: Dan has been on vacation. He should be back on Monday.
Speaker 2: I am here now. I'm Morgan Morgan White Junior. I'll
Speaker 2: be here tomorrow, Thursday, and as well Friday. Don't forget
Speaker 2: my show on Saturday at ten and tomorrow. I mentioned
Speaker 2: I'm here. Alison and Grim from Little House on the
Speaker 2: Prairie that's celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. She will be here.
Speaker 2: She's supposed to be with me Monday. Unforeseen things happened,
Speaker 2: so she'll be joining me tomorrow as well. Former ABC
Speaker 2: newsman Bill Dial and then Susan Brakeman, who's written a
Speaker 2: number of books. She's currently working on a book about
Speaker 2: candy specific to Massachusetts. She wrote a book about Route
Speaker 2: one north shore of Route one. And my buddy, former
Speaker 2: lieutenant for the City of Newton Police Department, Bruce of Potheca,
Speaker 2: will be here. That's my scheduled show for tomorrow. Right now,
Speaker 2: I've got full lines. Believe it or not, all want
Speaker 2: to talk to my guest, doctor David Nathan about diabetes.
Speaker 2: So Gary wooburn your first this segment with doctor Nathan.
Speaker 5: Hello, Gary, Yes, her doctor bad news on my report.
Speaker 5: I've had diabetes since I was thirty six years old,
Speaker 5: type two, and I got type one in the past
Speaker 5: five years, five five pounds. I'm very direct the way
Speaker 5: I talked, as you can tell, I'm a bad boy
Speaker 5: when it comes to eating. I can't stop you. I
Speaker 5: can't even exercise, even though I have a physical job
Speaker 5: where I move around a lot. And also I'm going
Speaker 5: into long periods of sleeping where even if I didn't
Speaker 5: work hard the night before, so they work second and
Speaker 5: third chif type of job, I sleep into six to
Speaker 5: eight hours to ten hours instead of back in the
Speaker 5: younger days of four to six and I just can't
Speaker 5: motivate myself. I take insulin and you take it from
Speaker 5: their doctor.
Speaker 3: Well, Gary, so I mean, you are not that different
Speaker 3: than lots of other people around the country who are,
Speaker 3: you know, quite overweight, have been so for a long time,
Speaker 3: struggle to lose the weight. And you need to talk
Speaker 3: to your healthcare provider, you know. I mean, you could
Speaker 3: see a diabetes specialist if you're not seeing one already,
Speaker 3: an endocrinologist, or even through your primary care doctor. But
Speaker 3: there are these new medications available which are really quite remarkable.
Speaker 3: I mean, they you know, they're not going to get
Speaker 3: you down to what you weigh in high school. That's
Speaker 3: probably not realistic. But these medications kind of help people
Speaker 3: lose twenty five thirty five pounds pretty reliably. The problem
Speaker 3: with them is that a Number one is that they're
Speaker 3: quite expensive, although insurance tends to pay for most of them,
Speaker 3: but that you have to stay on these medicines probably
Speaker 3: you know, forever, because once you stop taking them them,
Speaker 3: the weight comes back. There are other options, which I'm
Speaker 3: sure I suspect that your doctors may have mentioned to you,
Speaker 3: and that there are surgical approaches to people who are
Speaker 3: very big and who have struggled to lose weight. And
Speaker 3: these are what are called gastric restriction or gastric bypass
Speaker 3: procedures can really help people lose weight forever, but it
Speaker 3: does require you know, it's a modest surgical procedure generally
Speaker 3: very very safe, but you need to talk to your
Speaker 3: physicians about that. I think your healthcare providers, because you know,
Speaker 3: depending on what age you are, I mean, if you're
Speaker 3: one hundred and two years old, then probably doesn't matter, okay,
Speaker 3: because you know no one will forever. But on the
Speaker 3: other hand, if you're a middle aged or even you know,
Speaker 3: not very old, with a lot of years in front
Speaker 3: of you. It's much easier to control the diabetes if
Speaker 3: you've been able to lose weight effectively, and there are
Speaker 3: different ways of doing that.
Speaker 2: Gary, does that help you?
Speaker 5: Oh? Very myself? Thanks doctor all right.
Speaker 2: Garry, thank you for your phone call. Good night to you,
Speaker 2: and now let's go to Wall Fame and speak to Joan.
Speaker 2: You're next, are on nightside, Joan, You've got doctor David Nathan.
Speaker 6: I'm alganon doctor Nathan. I read a study that the
Speaker 6: drugs like ozembic are linked to I strokes. Do you
Speaker 6: know anything about that?
Speaker 3: There has been one recent report, So let me just
Speaker 3: say firstly that these drugs, this class of drugs has
Speaker 3: been studied in tens of thousands of people, and that
Speaker 3: particular that particular complication that was just I saw the
Speaker 3: same news report that you did. That same study was
Speaker 3: a single study that demonstrated an eye problem. But in fact,
Speaker 3: none of the other studies have picked anything up like that,
Speaker 3: and I must say that clinically we certainly haven't seen it.
Speaker 3: So again, it's something you know, new drugs, especially when
Speaker 3: they're going to be used by tens of thousands of people.
Speaker 3: You sometimes find things, whether they are directly related to
Speaker 3: the drug or whether someone had a problem and they
Speaker 3: have to be taking the drug and then one is
Speaker 3: associated with the other. You know, you always have to
Speaker 3: be a little cautious about that because again, these drugs
Speaker 3: are being used by lots and lots of people. I
Speaker 3: got to say that the studies that have been done
Speaker 3: and again in tens of thousands of people in the aggregate,
Speaker 3: have not seen that in the past.
Speaker 6: Oh that's good news.
Speaker 3: So so yeah, I mean I think it's something yeah,
Speaker 3: to be you know, to keep aware of, listen to
Speaker 3: the news. But again, as far as I'm concerned, it's
Speaker 3: not something I'm very concerned about.
Speaker 6: Okay, my husband does have diabetes and has been taking
Speaker 6: montano He did have an eyestroke multiple interactions in his brain,
Speaker 6: but his heart doctor doesn't think it was attributed to
Speaker 6: the medicine. He thinks a little piece of plaque broke
Speaker 6: off his a order. He has concerned me that maybe
Speaker 6: he should stop taking it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think he should talk to his doctor and
Speaker 3: they you'll weigh the benefits against the potential risks, like
Speaker 3: with any medication, and he should talk about it about
Speaker 3: that his concern with his healthcare pro letter. Absolutely, I'm the.
Speaker 6: Idea that there's been lots of studies and don't show
Speaker 6: that result, So that makes me feel better.
Speaker 2: Anything else that will do it.
Speaker 6: Thank you very much, thank you for the call.
Speaker 2: Good evening to you. Let's go to Brighton and speak
Speaker 2: to Susannah. Susannah, thank you for calling. Welcome tonight's side.
Speaker 7: Morgan, thank you so much for taking my call on
Speaker 7: doctor Nathan. Good evening. How wonderful to have you.
Speaker 3: Well, aren't you nice?
Speaker 7: Well, this is a very very important discussion because my
Speaker 7: brother died from complications of type one diabetes. They just
Speaker 7: didn't have a med that could get his blood sugar
Speaker 7: under control. And my mother died of pancreatic cancer is
Speaker 7: past February. And one of the things that they called
Speaker 7: it type three, which is the geriatric kind of diabetes.
Speaker 7: Now what I did, well there there's actually a question.
Speaker 7: And you mentioned GLP twice and may I assume, yikes,
Speaker 7: that G means glycemic.
Speaker 3: You know though, Actually GLP and I'm sorry to use
Speaker 3: you know, abbreviations, it's called glucagon like peptide. So this
Speaker 3: is a chemical that we all make in our intestines. Okay,
Speaker 3: it's a naturally occurring substance that we make in our
Speaker 3: small intestine. And what it does is when we eat,
Speaker 3: it is released from the intestine. It goes to the
Speaker 3: pancreas and it tells the pancreas to wake up. You know,
Speaker 3: food's coming, Food's on its way. You better start making insulin.
Speaker 3: So that's what that is. The medications that we're telling
Speaker 3: you know, some maglatide and will goovi and ozempic and
Speaker 3: all of those, and manduro as well. What they do
Speaker 3: is they are synthetic forms of this substance. And the
Speaker 3: way they've been formulated is that they can now be
Speaker 3: given once a week by injection. So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: I mean, to have to take a medication only once
Speaker 3: a week by injection, it lasts for a week. All
Speaker 3: of these medications, the first ones that came out, by
Speaker 3: the way, had to be given twice a day, but
Speaker 3: now they're once a week, so that makes it very convenient.
Speaker 3: The GOOGDLP is not glycemic. It's glucagon like peptide, and
Speaker 3: glucagon is unnaturally As I said, these are naturally occurring substances.
Speaker 3: It's just that these are more powerful, and we give
Speaker 3: them as an injection and they really stimulate insulin secretion
Speaker 3: from the pancreas. That was the way they were developed.
Speaker 3: So I was actually the first person to ever give
Speaker 3: one of these things to a human being back in
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety nineteen ninety, So it took you know, thirty
Speaker 3: years for these to really come into you know, to
Speaker 3: the foe in terms of treatment. And the weight loss
Speaker 3: is actually a side effective, it's not the major effect.
Speaker 3: It turns out to be a side effect. They were
Speaker 3: originally developed to try to help increase insulin production.
Speaker 7: Are there any foods or any kind of nutrients or
Speaker 7: supplements that can do that? I'm not talking about gummies.
Speaker 3: Definitely no gummy. Right, Gummies are all the rage, aren't they?
Speaker 7: So yeah, I know, so I rue the day that
Speaker 7: they started doing.
Speaker 3: Gummies, you know, like the gummies, I know, the ACV
Speaker 3: gummies by the real thing, don't you know? So those
Speaker 3: are advocates why as well? Right? So no, No, the
Speaker 3: answer is that there are no foods that I know
Speaker 3: of as far as I know that shown to have
Speaker 3: the same effect.
Speaker 7: Would Colin.
Speaker 3: Colin has been studied. It's Colin is is one of
Speaker 3: the kind of building blocks of nerve tissue. So people
Speaker 3: think of taking colin supplements to help with if they
Speaker 3: have neuropathy, which is another complication of diabetes. I'm not
Speaker 3: sure that it works very well. Frankly again, but it
Speaker 3: turns out that the unifying factor behind all of these
Speaker 3: diabetes complications is elevated blood sugar. Is that that's what
Speaker 3: is so closely connected with the risk of getting complications.
Speaker 3: And if you keep those blood sugars or the hemoglobin
Speaker 3: a one C level which is the average blood sugar,
Speaker 3: keep that under control, and you reduce the risk of
Speaker 3: all of these complications dramatically, really quite quite dramatically.
Speaker 7: Okay, So any changes in diet, I mean, our parents
Speaker 7: always told us to eat more healthily, and you can
Speaker 7: have deserved but you know, fill up when the vegetables
Speaker 7: fill up, you know when I'm not talking potatoes and
Speaker 7: we're talking about the greeneres like spinach, broccoli, that kind
Speaker 7: of stuff.
Speaker 3: I mean, yes, so I'll say what my grandmother told me,
Speaker 3: and that's you know, a balanced diets in moderation, you know,
Speaker 3: not over. The major problem we have is overeating. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's just that we eat more calories, and that's why
Speaker 3: the population is gaining weight, because we eat more calories
Speaker 3: and we're less physically active, and that is the underlying
Speaker 3: factor for diabetes. And once you have diabetes, you need
Speaker 3: to talk to you a nutritionist or your doctor about
Speaker 3: a well balanced diet. You want to avoid what we
Speaker 3: call concentrated sweets, which are things like coke. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know the diosadas that have sugar in them because
Speaker 3: they make the blood suger rise very dramatically and very quickly.
Speaker 3: But other than that, it really balanced. Died. I think
Speaker 3: what you said, you know what your mother told you.
Speaker 3: I think is probably the right, the right of the arts.
Speaker 2: Saying anything else.
Speaker 7: Thank you Morgan and doctor Nathan. I appreciate the time,
Speaker 7: and I'm sure there are other colors behind me. So
Speaker 7: i will, thankfully and with a lot of gratitude, hang up,
Speaker 7: but thank you so much for everything that was.
Speaker 2: Thank you for making the call. And I've got a
Speaker 2: break to take. But doctor, I'm going to give you
Speaker 2: something to think about during the break, because it pertains
Speaker 2: to me. I have dealt with neuropathy for at least
Speaker 2: thirty plus years, maybe thirty four years, and I've just
Speaker 2: learned to deal with it, accept it. I can still walk,
Speaker 2: i can still meander from place A to place B,
Speaker 2: and I'm used to that. Are my feet asleep sensation?
Speaker 2: But when we come back, maybe you could ease my
Speaker 2: mind to talk about neuropathy here or night side. Well,
Speaker 2: the time is eleven forty seven temperature sixty five degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World,
Speaker 1: Nice Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: I only have around eight minutes of show to go.
Speaker 2: If you want to call in real quick, if your
Speaker 2: question can be succinctly put six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty or eight eight, eight nine two nineteen thirty,
Speaker 2: Doctor David Nathan iss errand doctor I've just gotten used
Speaker 2: to my neuropathy. Is that just the best way to
Speaker 2: address it after all these years?
Speaker 3: So, I mean it's worth explaining what neuropsy is. Our
Speaker 3: nervous system is pretty complicated. So there are these long
Speaker 3: peripheral nerves that go through all through our body, including
Speaker 3: down to our toes, and these started the spinal cord.
Speaker 3: These long nerves go down and they interrovate our toes
Speaker 3: and some of those nerves are used to control muscular
Speaker 3: function others are sensory nerves, and in diabetic peripheral neuropathy,
Speaker 3: it's usually what people will notice is that they have
Speaker 3: kind of numbness or tingling, feels like they may have
Speaker 3: ants crawling on their feet when they get into bed
Speaker 3: at night. They may not feel the sheets on their
Speaker 3: feet as well. That's especially when they notice it occasionally,
Speaker 3: not often, but sometimes these can become painful. It's not
Speaker 3: just like it feels funny and numb, but it's actually
Speaker 3: very painful. Usually you don't need to treat that those
Speaker 3: neuropathies unless they're painful, and then there are a number
Speaker 3: of medications that can be used.
Speaker 2: Right, might have never been painful.
Speaker 3: No, that's good. So the bottom line is that if
Speaker 3: it's not painful, it's not bothering you. Don't bother it, okay,
Speaker 3: because I got to tell you every medication under the
Speaker 3: sun as side effects, and you know, you have to
Speaker 3: always balance the benefit against the risk. It it's not
Speaker 3: bothering you, there's probably nothing to do about it. One
Speaker 3: of the risks, though, of having neuropathy is that your
Speaker 3: feet really don't sense pressure or pain as much as
Speaker 3: they might otherwise, so that, for example, you can wear
Speaker 3: a shoe that doesn't fit well, and whereas people with
Speaker 3: normal nerve function will feel it before they get a blister,
Speaker 3: with people with diabetes, they have to be very careful
Speaker 3: about their foot care. They may not feel right. You
Speaker 3: may not feel when a shoe doesn't fit well and
Speaker 3: you wear it and before you know, you got a
Speaker 3: blister and an infection. And that's one of the things
Speaker 3: that can lead, unfortunately to amputations of the toes. So
Speaker 3: that's something needs to be kept an eye on.
Speaker 2: I will keep extra eye on it. But let's go
Speaker 2: to Framingham. Somebody called in very late, hopefully with a
Speaker 2: quick question. Mike, you're on with doctor Nathan.
Speaker 8: Yes, my problem is the last few times I want
Speaker 8: to do a lab work, is I'm pre diabetic? I'm
Speaker 8: like five point six on the A one.
Speaker 3: C and right. No, So the question is what is
Speaker 3: that all about?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean like, so is it just more like
Speaker 8: exercising eating better? Because that's what they're telling me. So
Speaker 8: I probably ask my own question, no.
Speaker 3: No, So that that's important. As common as diabetes is,
Speaker 3: I talked about type two diabetes present in thirty five.
Speaker 3: Thirty eight million people in the country pre diabetes affects
Speaker 3: ninety million people ninety million in the US, so you know,
Speaker 3: it is incredibly common. And what is pre diabetes. It
Speaker 3: means that your blood sugars are on the rise a
Speaker 3: little bit. They're not quite normal, but they're not at
Speaker 3: a level. They're not high enough yet to be considered diabetic.
Speaker 3: People with pre diabetes, they don't all. You know, it
Speaker 3: sounds like, oh, everyone's going to get diabetes as pre diabetes.
Speaker 3: That's not the case. It's really just that they're at
Speaker 3: higher risk to get diabetes, but it doesn't mean necessarily
Speaker 3: that they'll get it. If you are tested again annually,
Speaker 3: usually by your doctor to see if you have diabetes
Speaker 3: or pre diabetes, then what your doctor may do is say, hey,
Speaker 3: you know what, this is a great time to lose
Speaker 3: five pounds or ten pounds.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: They sometimes we'll even put you on some medications for it.
Speaker 3: But usually what it requires is that you keep a
Speaker 3: special eye on that, you know, trying to get the
Speaker 3: weight loss down. If you're overweight, stay as active as
Speaker 3: you can, and the next year your doctor will repeat
Speaker 3: the test and see whether it's gotten better, stay the same,
Speaker 3: or potentially gotten high enough that you have diabetes.
Speaker 8: Yeah, because guy, it's just like I need to lose
Speaker 8: off my stomach and I go to see him twice
Speaker 8: a year.
Speaker 2: Well, if you're keeping track and the doctor sees you
Speaker 2: twice a year, then you're doing what you need to
Speaker 2: do to keep it under a microscope.
Speaker 8: All right, Thank you Mike.
Speaker 2: Mike, thank you for the car and doctor. I know
Speaker 2: I only have you on once a year, but you
Speaker 2: can tell by the calls that come in. It's a
Speaker 2: very helpful thing that I have you on WBZ and
Speaker 2: I thank you very very much, especially at this hour
Speaker 2: of the night. I hope you don't have to get
Speaker 2: up early.
Speaker 3: No, I'm up late most times. Morgan, thank you for having.
Speaker 2: Me and we will do it again. I look forward
Speaker 2: to that doctor. Thank you very much. You take care
Speaker 2: you too. Bye bye. All right. I want to thank
Speaker 2: who to have the first hour I have Barry Shire
Speaker 2: on and he talked about his book. Give me a
Speaker 2: second because I put the sheet away and I want
Speaker 2: to give the right title of the book called the
Speaker 2: Song is still being written. It's a photo say book.
Speaker 2: Major artists in our generation, leading off with Joan Baez,
Speaker 2: Bruce Springsteen have photos in this book. It's coming out
Speaker 2: on September fifth. Be on the lookout for it. Mariol
Speaker 2: McCann helping us with care of our pets and advice
Speaker 2: if you have a wild animal as in possum or raccoon,
Speaker 2: a skunk, whatever, that's injured on your property how to
Speaker 2: handle that. Our old buddy Bradley Jay was here and
Speaker 2: one hour was just not long enough. With Bradley. You
Speaker 2: just heard, doctor Nathan, I just heard thirty seconds in
Speaker 2: my ear that was spoken by Rob Brooks, Nightside regular
Speaker 2: producer Rob. Thank you, thank you Nancy, and thank you
Speaker 2: Gray next to me. And thank you to the night
Speaker 2: Side audience. Whether you called or just listened, I appreciate
Speaker 2: the fact that your participation was part of Nightside. See
Speaker 2: you tomorrow night beginning at eight o'clock by Boston