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[–] ohgoodlord 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

It's almost like when demand goes waaaaayyy up, a shortage can legitimately happen. Fucking fats. The naturally occurring autoimmune Type 1 disease is bad enough. Doing this to yourself is inexcusable.

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[–] glassuser 2 points 2 points (+4|-2) ago 

You know what's cheaper than insulin? Eating less.

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[–] mybrotherans 3 points 0 points (+3|-3) ago 

I'd like my Type 1 friend to stay alive, thanks

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[–] mmmmdonuts ago 

Pretty sure they were referring to the fatties.

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[–] tadiabeteslover 1 point 0 points (+1|-1) ago 

I'm a Type 1, and yes, eating less means using less insulin. Specifically, a 'keto' or low-carb diet works great, because insulin usage is mostly tied to carbohydrate intake, with a little to deal with glycogen breakdown/release in the liver. Seriously. I've counted carbs for the last 20 years, and never had a doctor mention any other purpose for insulin besides its function in dealing with blood sugar.

Now, is that what @glassuser was saying? Maybe. Most modern American diets are heavily biased towards carbohydrate intake, so there's is a lot of room to cut out foods that ratchet up the needed insulin intake.

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[–] Mumbleberry 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

Where are these theories? I wanted a good laugh.

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[–] PenguinOrgy 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago  (edited ago)

What they're doing to type 1 diabetics is absolutely appalling.

You ever think the price went up because demand went through the fucking roof?

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[–] Carsandsarcasm 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

I wish it was genocide. Then we could cut to the chase and be done with this problem.

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[–] mmmmdonuts 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Yeah! Kill all the fats! I'm down.

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[–] HugoFord 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

Type 2 diabetes is a dietary problem. Stop eating carbs and fast 36 hrs a couple times a week. Pretty soon you won’t need insulin.

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[–] suenas_sacrifice 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

Tbf they do have a point. A days worth of insulin is 2€ in Germany cuz we have regulations that forbid the pharma and insurance companies to make near infinite profits from people's life or death situations.

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[–] tadiabeteslover ago 

2€ also because of nationalized healthcare, so it's like everyone has insurance. With insurance in America, I pay $10 for 3 bottles of insulin, which lasts me about 45 days. So what's that? $0.45 per day? Clearly not comparable situations.

Two more things, though. 1. What's a 'days worth of insulin' actually mean? If you eat more carbs, you're going to need more insulin. Are they like me, and eat a low-carb type diet so insulin needs remain low? Or are they stuffing their face with McBeetus, Starguzz, and bakery/cakery options? 2. Of course, like others have said, I use the most generic type so my insurance company pays the majority, but I choose to do that rather than go for the most expensive types.

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[–] wanderingblade 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Don't kid yourself. It's subsidies. Sure there's corruption and greed but people don't understand how much drugs cost to develop research and produce. Even insulin which is long past any patents, has to be made in vivo. It's more scalable than pig pancreases but still. Cells don't make a lot of insulin even under optimized conditions, then you have to purify it. I would guess that $2.5 dose costs more like $50 to make. I work in pharmaceuticals and most of the money is spent well. Where I work anyway

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[–] wanderingblade ago 

Oh and also: human insulin is cheap, but most people use insulin analogs. I can elaborate but the cost is 10x as high

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[–] suenas_sacrifice 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

Congrats that's literally what insurance is for who don't work for profit here which is the reason why it's so cheap (:

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[–] DakotaJane 0 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago 

there are over 5 million type 1 diabetics in the United States. (That's "childhood diabetes" - people who got it from other than being fatties.)

Those people are paying $1000 a month to stay alive. That insulin works out to about $40,000 a pound. Doesn't seem right does it.

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[–] Annoyingaardbei ago 

That's sickening.

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[–] tadiabeteslover 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Honestly, most Type 1 diabetics need to switch diets as well. Insulin usage is tied very closely to carbohydrate intake. Some insulin goes to deal with the steady release/breakdown of glycogen in the liver (the reason for which is because the system is a reverse-feedback system where the glycogen stops being broken down when the body naturally produces insulin. In Type 1s, there is no more natural production, so the body is constantly breaking down glycogen into sugar and releasing it, so a small steady amount of insulin is needed to keep blood sugars stable, even when not eating.) The rest of the need for insulin is to deal with incoming sugars (carbohydrates) in your meals. The endocrinologists will tell you that the ratio of insulin taken for food compared to insulin take for the glycogen release should be around 50-50 or up to 2-1.

That's on a typical Western, high-carb diet though. I've had success in switching to a 'keto' or low-carb diet, and only have to take a very small amount of insulin when I eat. So I've cut my insulin usage by around 60%. I think saving ~$600 a month is possible for the majority of diabetics. Even with the bullshit 'eating healthy is expensive' line that gets tossed around, I think for $600 a month you can afford some more vegetables and less rice/pasta/bread/cakes/pies/donuts/snacks.

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[–] wanderingblade 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Yes it does. It's a complex protein that has to be made in vivo, although bacterial systems can be used its still a matter of biomass and still getting functioning protein. They used to take pig pancreases for it. If you think $40,000 a pound for protein is bad lol. You should see scientific supply catalogs. Obviously more esoteric proteins but try more like $40,000 for 10mg

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