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Monday, March 15, 2010

I want a new drug...

Walgreen'sImage by Curtis Gregory Perry via Flickr


I want a new drug,

One that does what it should.
One that won't make me feel too bad,
One that won't make me feel too good...

~Huey Lewis & the News


I've been doing some Internet research and came across two new-to-me drugs that I want to try, one for my type 2 diabetes and one for my fibromylagia and sleep disorders.

Ordinarily I don't get that excited about new medications, mostly because my experiences have not been all that positive. Most medications I tried for fibromyalgia were long on side-effects and short on positive results. I've had my fair share of problems with diabetes drugs too...a sulfonylurea drug actually made my blood sugar go up instead of down, probably because sulfonylureas are related to the sulfa class of drugs which I am allergic to, but my doctor prescribed it for me anyway.

So what am I all excited about?

Nabilone

The first drug I want to try is Nabilone, a synthetic cannabinoid used for nausea and neuropathic pain. That would be marijuana in pill form. I admit I have tried medical marijuana and it did help with my pain, especially when I experienced a flare-up. But I am not a smoker and there is something about marijuana that make me feel a bit anxious, both from a legal perspective and a physical 'I just took a hit and now I feel paranoid' standpoint. The good news is that the standardized pill form eliminates the risks from smoking, addiction and getting busted by the cops. I am also hoping the pill takes out whatever chemicals cause the marijuana-induced anxiety too.

What caught my eye was research results from Canada showing that Nabilone helped persons with fibromyalgia get better sleep, and I am all about getting better sleep. In the article stated that Nabilone didn't help fibromyalgia pain, which is O.K. by me. Liked I have discussed before, I think if I could just get some better sleep I might have a reduction in my fibromyalgia pain as a result.

Click here to read the article I found: The Effects of Nabilone on Sleep in Fibromyalgia: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial


Victoza

I already use the injectable medication Byetta, an incretin mimetic, for my type 2 diabetes. I use this medication twice a day, before breakfast and dinner. It does a great job of keeping my postprandial (post meal) blood sugar under control, but only lasts about 3 hours after the injection. That means that I go without medication at lunch and do not have a long acting diabetes drug in my system for most of the day.

I have been waiting to hear about a longer acting form of Byetta, but it seems that Novo-Nordisk has beat the makers of Byetta, Amylin and Lilly, to the punch.

Victoza is the first FDA approved long acting incretin mimetic. It only requires one injection per day and last 24 hours. That means that it works both after meals and throughout the day. That's good news for me, since I have something called "dawn syndrome" which causes my blood sugar to go up overnight, even though I am not eating.

I can't wait to talk to my diabetologist Dr. Anne Peters at my next appointment in April to see if Victoza is right for me. In the meantime, you can read the article I found about this new diabetes medication by clicking here: New Diabetes Drug Victoza Approved: Victoza Is a Once-Daily Injection for Adults With Type 2 Diabetes.


I'll update you if my doctors agree and allow me to try these two drugs. In the meantime, I've got that Huey Lewis and the News song stuck in my head. Is it stuck in your head too?


I want a new drug,
One that won't make me sick,
One that won' make me crash my car,
Or make me feel three feet thick.

I want a new drug,
One that won't hurt my head,
One that won't make my mouth too dry,
Or make my eyes too red.

One that won't make me nervous,
Wondering what to do...


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