Ozempic, Chronic Kidney Disease, and Diabetes
In January 2025, the FDA approved Ozempic (semaglutide) to help treat patients with chronic kidney disease and diabetes. Semaglutide belongs to a group of drugs called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP1-RAs), which were originally approved to help control blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes. Other forms of GLP1-RAs include Mounjaro, Wegovy, semaglutide, and […]
New Hope for Lowering the Risk of Dementia
Just this week, I was asked by a colleague to comment on a fairly technical article, and I was struck by the exact wording used in its opening question: Are cardioprotective glucose-lowering agents associated with reduced risk of dementia? I spend a fair bit of time reviewing and replying to questions and requests from our […]
How to Understand Blood Glucose Level Results
Managing blood sugar has always been a balancing act for me, especially when I was first diagnosed with diabetes. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the readings of my blood glucose levels and thinking, “What’s ‘normal’, what’s ‘too high’, and what’s ‘too low’?” It didn’t help that the term “normal” blood sugar often seemed to refer […]
Introducing the Dawn Phenomenon
The dawn phenomenon (DP), also known as the dawn effect, refers to an observation that just over one half of people with diabetes, and nearly one-third of prediabetics, are experiencing early-morning surges in blood glucose, between 3:00 and 8:00 AM, despite not having eaten anything for several hours. This can make it harder to keep […]
The Truth: Diet and Exercise Vs. Obesity Medication
If there’s still some doubt in your mind about whether you can lose more weight with a simple diet and exercise program than you can with the highly popular new weight-loss medicines, then you should pay some attention to the following quote that puts this issue to rest once and for all. According to Dr. […]
Prediabetes Doesn’t Always Look Like You Think It Does
Whenever it is time for my annual checkup with my doctor, she seems concerned about my blood sugar levels, and she always tests for prediabetes. Whether it is because I carry some excess weight around my midsection or because she is just doing her due diligence, I appreciate this about her because I am a […]
Are Your Kidneys OK?
The human body can manage with reduced kidney function for a long time, often without showing any signs. This is why World Kidney Day 2025’s theme is, Are Your Kidneys OK? Detect early and protect kidney health. While chronic kidney disease has no cure, if it is caught early enough, measures can be taken to […]
How Wartime Sugar Rationing Shaped Health
We have all heard the phrase “You are what you eat,” which I think is probably accurate regarding nutrition. However, this does imply that we have a choice in what we eat and that simply changing it can solve most diet-related issues. But what if “you are what you eat” starts earlier than our ability to […]
Understanding and Managing Semaglutide Side Effects
Our friendship group contains a woman we call our very own Kim Kardashian. She knows about all the latest beauty and weight loss trends when they’re just whispers on the market and is always the first to try them. This bombshell had been talking about Ozempic for years before the shortage. Eventually, she was one […]
World Diabetes Day: What You Need to Know
Want to hear some pretty shocking statistics? According to the IDF Diabetes Atlas (2021), 10.5% of adults aged 20 to 79 have diabetes, and nearly half of them don’t even know they have it. By 2045, it’s predicted that 1 in 8 adults, or about 783 million people, will have diabetes, which is a 46% […]
