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Permalink Reply by Brian (bsc) on December 22, 2012 at 3:23am

I was on Byetta for about a year. I considered the risks low. As you note, a small number of patients had pancreatitis and it was associated with previous bouts of pancreatitis. But the number of adverse reports was actually quite small given the millions of people taking the drug and thus the relationship has not been found to be strong and confident. I did not worry about the risk given the small rates, but it may be a consideration for you.

I think a better question is whether it is indicated. Byetta (and the other GLP-1 analogs) do two major things, increase your insulin release in response to eating and they curb your hunger. I always ate a low carb diet, so Byetta never really helped me, I didn't have poor glucose control because of after meal highs and I didn't have weight or overeating problems. In the end, insulin really helped. But I have to ask you, have you tried a low carb diet? Did it help?

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