In this week’s issue of The Savvy Diabetic:
Dexcom unveils next-gen G8 CGM system
About Aging and Exercise with Dr. Dessi Zaharieva, CEP, CDCES, and T1D
All Eyes on DME: Campaign Spotlights Eye Health & Diabetes
More Evidence: GLP-1s With Reduced Risk of Eye Diseases
Wireless battery-free oxygenation devices for immunosuppression-free islet transplantation
Makary Resigns as FDA Commissioner
News from T1Dto100
Too little sleep—and too much—associated with faster aging
Can having a dog boost your longevity?
Dexcom unveils next-gen G8 CGM system by Sean Whooley for DrugDeliveryBusiness.com, 14 May 2026.
Dexcom unveiled its next-generation continuous glucose monitor (CGM), the G8 system, at its Investor Day event. San Diego-based Dexcom CEO Jake Leach said the G8 would offer a “much smaller wearable,” representing a step change from the company’s current-generation G7 system. Leach offered more insight into the enhancements that G8 will bring, building on the G7 with a 50% smaller form factor and advanced sensing capabilities. Leach says the system strengthens “everything,” ranging from accuracy to connectivity and design.“It doesn’t just represent a step — a small change — this is a step-change. It is a completely new product platform. The improvements are very exciting, and they’re much, much more than incremental. G8 is actually going to change everything.”
According to Leach, the G8 will adapt to the physiological variability of each user. It has additional built-in technology based on a new silicon chip design and algorithm. With the new technology, G8 can measure additional signals from the sensor, going beyond glucose, allowing it to adapt to physiologic changes and reduce outliers in real-time and eliminate them. Leach said G8 combines traditional factory calibration with adapting capabilities for every user. Additionally, with the recent rollout of the G7 15 Day CGM system, Leach said 15-day wear time is the baseline for all sensors moving forward. “It’s a precise sensor that’s going to adapt to the body over time,” he said. “And we expect this to really enhance the user experience.”
Dexcom is also working on a multi-analyte sensor, which would pit it against its usual CGM rival, Abbott, which is also advancing a sensor that measures ketones. “We have some pretty strong momentum going with G7 10 Day and G7 15 Day, and we intend to carry that momentum forward into the launch of G8 in a multifaceted view of our customers,” Leach said.
Leach said the company’s G8 development points toward regulatory submissions next year. That would facilitate a launch at the end of 2027 or in early 2028, depending on regulatory timing. CFO Jereme Sylvain said the company expects more uptake on both G7 15 Day and G8 once launched. He noted that Dexcom plans for a launch outside the U.S. in 2028. “G8 is an incredible step-change in accuracy with a sensor that adapts to you,” Sylvain said. “It’s an incredible opportunity.”
Read more: Dexcom unveils next-gen G8 CGM system
Date: Monday, 18 May 2026
Time: 5:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM ET
Register via Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/yCmYAcyAR7yDd6zkhOG4jQ
Join T1Dto100 for a conversation with Dr. Dessi Zaharieva, Stanford University pediatric endocrinology researcher, Certified Exercise Physiologist, Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist, and someone who has lived with T1D for over 30 years.
Dr. Zaharieva’s research focuses on managing blood glucose around exercise, and she brings both the science and the lived experience to this conversation. Whether you’re a longtime athlete, easing back into movement, or wondering how exercise needs shift as you age with T1D, this talk is for anyone who wants to keep moving — and keep their blood sugars steady — through every stage of life.
Dr. Zahaieva holds a 2nd-degree black belt in Taekwondo and a purple belt in Jiu-Jitsu (both distinct martial arts). She won a bronze medal for Team Canada at the 2013 Taekwondo World Championships, held in her hometown of Sofia, Bulgaria.
All Eyes on DME: Campaign Spotlights Eye Health and Diabetes by Anna Brooks for diaTribe.org, 11 May 2026.
A new campaign launched by diaTribe and Genentech aims to empower and educate people about diabetes-related eye disease. Here’s what you can do today to protect your eye health. Many people live with diabetic macular edema (DME), a serious eye condition and leading cause of vision loss in people with diabetes. DME is a complication of diabetic retinopathy, another common eye condition in people with diabetes. DME occurs when damaged blood vessels in the macula of the eye leak, causing symptoms such as swelling, blurry vision, dark spots, and, in severe cases, vision loss.
To help address these barriers, diaTribe and Genentech partnered to launch All Eyes on DME, a new campaign that aims to spread awareness and educate people at-risk for or living with diabetes-related eye conditions like DME. Also partnering in the campaign is actor and comedian Damon Wayans, who wanted to share his journey (and, of course, a joke or two) with type 2 diabetes to open up the conversation about what is often a stigmatized or less talked about topic: eye health and diabetes.
Read more: All Eyes on DME: Campaign Spotlights Eye Health and Diabetes
More Evidence Linking GLP-1s With Reduced Risk of Vision-Robbing Eye Diseases by Charles Bankhead for MedPageToday.com, 11 May 2026.
Patients taking GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) had a lower likelihood of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) compared with patients using other glucose-lowering medications or lipid-lowering drugs, a large retrospective cohort study showed. Compared with users of lipid-lowering medications, patients taking GLP-1 agonists had 2- and 3-year hazard reductions for nnAMD of 16% and 20%, respectively. The impacts on hazards for nAMD were even greater, 30-40% reductions for each year.
The findings add to other reports and warrant prospective clinical trials to validate the observations, reported Aleksandra V. Rachitskaya, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and colleagues in Ophthalmology Retina. “Here, we show that these medications seem to have no impact on conversion to neovascular AMD in patients with established nonneovascular disease at baseline. Together, these findings suggest that GLP-1RAs do not promote conversion to neovascular AMD. “Most of the evidence accumulated to date has come from retrospective studies, and as such cannot be used to support recommendations regarding use of GLP-1 drugs in clinical practice, said Rudrani Banik, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
Read more: More Evidence Linking GLP-1s With Reduced Risk of Vision-Robbing Eye Diseases
Wireless battery-free oxygenation devices enable extended immunosuppression-free islet transplantation in minimally invasive sites, as reported by Cell.com/device, 26 March 2026.
Successful pancreatic islet transplantation could offer a functional cure for type 1 diabetes. Currently, islet transplants require lifelong immunosuppression to prevent graft rejection. Encapsulation devices could address this challenge by excluding components of the host immune system, but oxygen limitations frustrate long-term cell survival in these devices.
Here, we develop a next-generation wireless, battery-free, oxygen-generating O2-macrodevice and a wearable power-transfer platform that can enable long-term immunoprotection and subcutaneous function of therapeutic cells. We demonstrate that this device supports xenogeneic islet transplantation in C57BL/6J mice, as evidenced by 90-day reversal of diabetes and in vivo glucose responsiveness. We also show partial glycemic control via high-density (>8,000 islets/cm2) human stem-cell-derived islets (SC-islets) without immunosuppression in subcutaneous sites for 90 days. Additionally, we confirmed that the device supports allogeneic islet cell survival and 90-day reversal of diabetes in rats. Finally, we demonstrate 1-month islet survival in a nonhuman primate in the subcutaneous space without immunosuppression. Collectively, these results indicate that the device supports cell survival and function across multiple transplant models in three species without the need for any immunosuppression or external user intervention. These results represent an important set of advances toward immunosuppression-free, minimally invasive islet transplantation.
Read more: Wireless battery-free oxygenation devices enable extended immunosuppression-free islet transplantation
Makary Resigns as FDA Commissioner by Kristina Fiore for MedPageToday.com, 12 May 2026.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, MD, MPH, resigned on 12 May 2026 after just over a year at the agency and days of speculation about whether he’d be fired. Kyle Diamantas, the agency’s deputy commissioner for food, was named as the acting FDA commissioner. The news was first reported by Politico, though the Wall Street Journal reported last week that President Trump had signed off on a plan to fire the embattled commissioner.
Makary’s 13 months at the agency have been marked by turmoil, including mass layoffs and significant churn among top agency officials, including the firing, then re-hiring, of Vinay Prasad, MD, MPH, as the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Prasad left the agency last month for a second time. The agency’s top drug regulator position has been a revolving cast under Makary’s leadership, with brief tenures from George Tidmarsh, MD, PhD; Richard Pazdur, MD; and Jacqueline Corrigan-Curay, MD. Currently, Tracy Beth Hoeg, MD, PhD, holds the position of acting director. Makary, a former editor-in-chief at MedPage Today, also faced a host of pressures from every direction — pharmaceutical companies, Kennedy, Republicans, and even Trump himself.
Companies grew frustrated with what they’ve described as inconsistent reviews of their products. Makary had to consider Kennedy’s interests in scrutinizing the safety of vaccines, drugs, and food additives. Republicans want the agency to restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone (Mifeprex), a review of which some have alleged Makary is slow-walking. Trump wanted Makary to authorize flavored vapes and other nicotine products — which he finally did earlier this month.
Makary also oversaw a number of controversial initiatives at the agency, including the creation of the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher; cutting the number of required studies for drug approval from two to one; and incorporating Bayesian statistical methods into clinical trials of drugs and biologics. He and Prasad also developed a new approach to COVID vaccine approvals, allowing immunogenicity endpoints for high-risk groups, while calling for randomized controlled trials for those at lower risk. They also rolled back wider approval for COVID shots, adding limitations for certain groups. And in perhaps their most controversial move, Prasad claimed — without evidence — in an internal memo that the agency had linked COVID shots to the deaths of 10 kids.
Read more: Makary Resigns as FDA Commissioner
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Too little sleep—and too much—associated with faster aging by Sadie Harley for Columbia University Irving Medical Center and published by MedicalXpress.com, 13 May 2026.
An analysis of biological clocks throughout the human body suggests that too few hours of sleep—and too many—may speed aging in the brain, heart, lung, and immune system, and is associated with a wide range of diseases. “Previous studies have found that sleep is largely linked to aging and the pathological burden of the brain. Our study goes further and shows that too little and too much sleep are associated with faster aging in nearly every organ, supporting the idea that sleep is important in maintaining organ health within a coordinated brain-body network, including metabolic balance and a healthy immune system,” says study leader Junhao Wen, assistant professor of radiology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. The research was published in Nature.
Aging clocks are increasingly popular for digitizing how many years a person ages faster or slower than their chronological age using machine learning, based on the biological data (e.g., proteins from a minimally invasive blood test) from the person. Though most aging clocks measure aging across the whole body, organs age at different rates—a fact well-known to women facing ticking biological clocks due to fast-aging ovaries.
Wen’s group has been at the forefront of constructing aging clocks for specific organs in the body that could provide more specific and personalized information to patients. “Everyone is excited by these aging clocks and their ability to predict disease and mortality risk,” Wen says. “But to me, the more exciting question is, can we link aging clocks to a lifestyle factor that can be modified in time to slow aging?”
Read more: Too little sleep—and too much—associated with faster aging
Can having a dog boost your longevity? Here’s what science says by Steven Petrow and published by WashingtonPost.com, 13 May 2026.
Dog owners appear to live longer than non-dog owners, according to quite a bit of research. In a 2019 meta-analysis of nearly 4 million people published in the journal Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes, researchers found that having a dog was linked to a 24 percent lower risk of death from any cause during the study period compared with people who lived canine-free. The benefit seemed especially strong in those who had previous heart attacks or other coronary problems and seemed to be associated with a lower risk of dying of cardiovascular disease regardless of a person’s health history.Of course this type of study can’t prove dogs help us live longer. People who choose to own a dog may be in better health, or have more disposable income, than people who do not — just two dog-related factors that might confer a cardiovascular and longevity benefit on their own.
The theory is that the longevity benefits conferred by canines might be due to all the walking that a dog requires. Numerous research studies suggest that dog owners are more likely to achieve the recommended 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week, or roughly 20 minutes a day, rain or shine.
Dogs also might provide a longevity benefit by boosting our social connections. “When people walk their dogs,” she explained, “they often engage with other people. A dog is an open invitation for conversation.” From the Michigan survey, more than 8 in 10 pet owners over 50 said their dogs gave them a sense of purpose. Seven in 10 reported finding greater joy in life because of their pets, and 63 percent said having a pet helps reduce their stress.
