Walmart Sells $25 Insulin – So What?

Walmart offers a low-cost insulin option without a prescription, but it’s far from ideal for all patients.

According to Vox, doctors and diabetes advocates point out that while ReliOn may help patients in a pinch, especially those without health insurance, it’s also a formulation (known as “human” insulin) that came on the market in the 1980s, more than a decade before more refined insulins started to emerge.

The newer insulins, known as analogs, appear to be more effective at preventing dangerous blood sugar swings in people with Type 1 diabetes or those at a higher risk for severe low blood sugar. (The evidence of insulin analog’s benefits is less clear for Type 2 diabetes, but the studies are also low quality so it’s difficult to make conclusive statements.)

There’s one more problem: Because it’s available without a prescription, patients can get the drug without the supervision of a doctor, and they sometimes get into trouble as a result. So stories have surfaced about patients who required emergency care because of severe blood sugar highs and lows after self-dosing with Walmart insulin, or even dying as a result.

The cost of the four most popular insulins has tripled over the past decade, forcing many of the millions of Americans with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes who rely on the drug to skimp on or skip doses.

We’re talking about ‘HUSH HUSH’ topics in diabetes wellness such as insulin’s staggering costs, intimacy issues, fears, and food issues on Diabetes Late Nite with musical inspiration from H.E.R. courtesy of SONY Music.

H.E.R. chooses to keep her true identity a secret but that’s proving harder to do after winning Best New Artist and Best R&B Song Grammy Awards this past year.

Guests include Janis Roszler LMFT, RD, LD/N, CDE, FAND, Cheryl Farley “Food as Medicine” Nutritionist, Dr. Dugan Maddux and the Charlie’s Angels of Outreach. Throughout the podcast we will be playing music from H.E.R.’s “I Used To Know Her: The Prelude” album courtesy of SONY Music.

Diabetes Late Nite is a fast-paced, full-filled hour of diabetes education and wellness advice that encourages listeners to “laugh a little, learn a lot’.