Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Symilin: An Under Utilized Tool for Diabetes

Gary Scheiner gives some great insight into what he essentially refers to as an under-utilized tool for diabetes:  Symilin.  Symilin has been around for years.  For those of you that don't know symilin is a synthetic version of the compound amylin. In people with diabetes, the major focus for 40+ years now has been insulin.  The ties???  Both are produced in the pancreas, and especially for type 1's, this is an issue b/c their immune system has "removed" the pancreas from the game... so not only is insulin gone, but so is amylin.

I know a number of folks that have in the past and some that still utilize Symilin now in their treatment regimes.  Personally, I haven't tried it.  I've considered it many times, but largely b/c of the effects of my physical activity, I have not yet seen a major need either through bg's or weight management.  Gary points out that only about 5% of T1's are currently using Sym, and discusses many of the reasons and complicating parameters.

Take a minute and give it a look.  http://www.diatribe.us/issues/20/thinking-like-a-pancreas.php

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