Talking Ketamine Podcast

Ketamine and Diabetes


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    Patients with diabetes often face a brutal “syndemic”—a tangled web of chronic illness, Relentless nerve pain (neuropathy), and severe depression, all fueled by a common biological enemy: metabolic inflammation and Advanced Glycation End-products (AGEs). In this episode, we explore why ketamine, with its rapid antidepressant and non-opioid painkilling properties, looks like the perfect “two birds, one stone” solution on paper.

    But in practice, it requires walking a high-stakes “metabolic tightrope.” We dive into the complex risks:

    • The Glucose Rollercoaster: Ketamine can trigger a stress response that spikes blood sugar (hyperglycemia), yet in Type 1 diabetics, it has also been linked to dangerous, delayed drops (hypoglycemia).
    • The Liver “Traffic Jam”: In Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease can clog the body’s filter, slowing down drug clearance and potentially turning a normal dose toxic.
    • The Metformin Paradox: We discuss preclinical warnings that metformin—the most common diabetes drug—might actually blunt ketamine’s antidepressant effects.
    • The solution? A move away from “one-size-fits-all” medicine toward Model-Informed Precision Dosing—using a patient’s kidney function, liver health, and genetics to calculate the perfect, safe dose.

      Reference:

      Sukhram, S. D., Sanchez, M., Anidugbe, A., Kupa, B., Edwards, V. P., Zia, M., & Yilmaz, G. (2026). Ketamine in diabetes care: Metabolic insights and clinical applications. Pharmaceutics, 18(1), 81. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics18010081

      The post Ketamine and Diabetes – The Metabolic Tightrope appeared first on Talking Ketamine Podcast.

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