In the News... Dexcom G7 launch, cannabis and type 1, Insulet acquisitions and more!

It’s In the News, a look at the top stories and headlines from the diabetes community happening now. Top stories this week: Dexcom G7 is now available in the United States, Insulet buys assets from Bigfoot and another California company, new studies about cannabis and type 1 and COVID and diabetes, different predictors of type 2 in women and men, plus scholarships for T1D students.

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Episode Transcription: 

Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I’m Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines happening now
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In the news is brought to you by T1D Exchange dedicated to improving outcomes for the entire T1D population
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Our top story. Today’s the day. February 17th is the day Dexcom’s G7 becomes available in the United States. Now.. whether you can get it still depends on your insurance, your doctor – a new prescription is needed – and the availability at your pharmacy. Whether you want to get it may depend on if you use a compatible pump system – the G7 will NOT work with Tandem’s CIQ or Omnipod 5 for several more months. The G7 will be accessible to all Medicare patients with diabetes who meet the eligibility criteria as of today.. so no wait there. Much more to come on the launch I’m sure..
https://investors.dexcom.com/news/news-details/2023/Dexcom-G7-Continuous-Glucose-Monitoring-System-Will-Be-Available-to-Medicare-Beneficiaries-at-Launch/default.aspx?fbclid=IwAR0cKhAv5C8TMZ8v8f98rlhnvBQ0JkFj3SLRyc7RdMeOAO3_Tpl95cKNX20
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People who’ve had Covid-19 have a higher risk of developing diabetes, and that link seems to have persisted into the Omicron era, a new study finds.

Mounting evidence suggests Covid-19 infections are tied to a new diagnosis of diabetes, though it’s not clear whether this relationship is a coincidence or cause-and-effect. Big study here, 23,000 adults who’d had Covid-19 at least once.
The raw data showed that people who’d had Covid-19 had higher risks of being diagnosed with diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure after their infections.

But when the researchers adjusted those numbers to account for the benchmark diagnosis, only the risk of diabetes remained significantly elevated. Covid-19 increased the odds of a new diabetes diagnosis by an average of about 58%.

The new study is notable because it adds recent data, said Wander, who was not involved in the research. It also used strategies to try to address shifts in health care during the pandemic.

Another strength of the study was that it included people who were diagnosed between March 2020 and June 2022, so it was able to estimate the risk even after the Omicron variant swept through the US.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/14/health/covid-diabetes-risk-study/index.html
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Insulet making a couple of interesting acquisitions.. $25 million in assets from Automated Glucose Control LLC in California. And the same amount $25 million of assets from Bigfoot Biomedical. AGC and Insulet have had a partnership since 2016 which mostly involved the algorithm that led to Omnipod 5. Bigfoot has also claimed patents regarding more hands-off insulin delivery,
The acquisition effectively doubles Insulet’s IP portfolio, Eric Benjamin, the company’s executive VP of innovation, strategy and digital products, said in a press release.
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Dr. Halis Akturk and colleagues began noticing patterns among people with T1D in Colorado hospital emergency departments (ED) after cannabis was legalized in the state. They have since conducted several nationwide retrospective studies on those living with T1D that also use cannabis, including hospitalization records and T1D Exchange Registry participant surveys. They found that T1D participants had repeated return visits to the ED in the following weeks, and DKA was frequently misdiagnosed.
Based on that research, Dr. Akturk’s team has recently developed a key to differentiating between DKA and a new syndrome that mimics DKA, one they’ve named HK-CHS: Hyperglycemic Ketosis-Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome.
To treat HK-CHS, your care team will typically increase fluids, treat the high blood glucose with insulin, and balance your electrolytes, or anion gap. You will be advised to stop using cannabis until the symptoms resolve. These treatments will bring your blood glucose levels back into target range and get your gut moving again, which will ease the nausea and vomiting. Depending on your dose, frequency, and duration of use, symptoms may take several days to several weeks to resolve.
https://t1dexchange.org/cannabis-t1d-risks/
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About two thirds of people with type 1 diabetes in the United States have overweight or obesity, nearly the same proportion as Americans without diabetes, new nationwide survey data suggest. What's more, among people with overweight or obesity, those with type 1 diabetes are less likely to receive lifestyle recommendations from healthcare professionals than those with type 2 diabetes, and are less likely to actually engage in lifestyle weight management activities than others with overweight or obesity, with or without type 2 diabetes.
"the lack of evidence for safe, effective methods of diet- and exercise-based weight control in people with type 1 diabetes may be keeping doctors from recommending such methods," these researchers say.

"Large clinical trials have been done in type 2 diabetes patients to establish guidelines for diet- and exercise-based weight management, and we now need something similar for type 1 diabetes patients."
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/988199
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New research showing men and women have different risk factors when it comes to type 2 diabetes.
In healthy women, low serum level of the adipose tissue protein adiponectin was an independent strong predictor of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes in the future. In healthy men, instead, low serum level of the liver protein IGFBP-1, was an independent strong predictor of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes This means that these proteins, which are measures of insulin sensitivity in adipose tissue (adiponectin) and liver and muscle (IGFBP-1), can predict whether one has a high risk of getting type 2 diabetes in 10 years.
A previous study performed in Shanghai in 2016 showed gender differences in the same direction. In men with prediabetes the risk of future type 2 diabetes was significantly reduced if they increased their physical activity and muscle mass . In contrast, the same study showed that women with prediabetes must avoid increasing waist circumference and abdominal obesity or reducing large waist circumference to prevent type 2 diabetes.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-women-men-shown-factors-diabetes.html

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Tempramed/ VIVI Cap
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2023 Diabetes Scholars applications are now open! If you're a high school senior living with type 1 diabetes in the US, you can apply to get money for college.
https://diabetesscholars.org/apply-now/?fbclid=IwAR2txFmkmxp9qoMf5ZkKX0f83oxj3aOr69rCXeqozRDxq7Dt94e9QdBQrjg
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On the podcast next week.. Diatech Diabetes is a medical device company based out of Memphis, TN committed to changing the way infusion set failure detection is done with our infusion set failure detection system, SmartFusion. The last episode is with Dr Phyllisa Deroze all about explaining to your child when you, the parent, have diabetes.
That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.
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The T1D Exchange Registry is a research study conducted online over time, designed to foster innovation and improve the lives of people with T1D. The platform is open to both adults and children with T1D living in the U.S. Personal information remains confidential and participation is fully voluntary. Once enrolled, participants will complete annual surveys and have the opportunity to sign up for other studies on specific topics related to T1D. The registry aims to improve knowledge of T1D, accelerate the discovery and development of new treatments and technologies, and generate evidence to support policy or insurance changes that help the T1D community. By sharing opinions, experiences and data, patients can help advance meaningful T1D treatment, care and policy.