SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Type 2 diabetes reversal leader Virta Health and U-Haul International, Inc. announced 90-day outcomes from their partnership, including blood sugar reduction, weight loss, and medication deprescription for participating U-Haul Team Members.
Amid skyrocketing employee medical expenses, employers are struggling to control costs. Diabetes medications are seeing some of the steepest increases, with insulin prices rising more than 50% between 2014-2019. Meanwhile, under the standard of care, patients are typically prescribed more medications each year to manage their diabetes as it progresses, leading to a vicious cycle of rising costs and worse health outcomes.
Virta flips that trend, by helping patients normalize blood sugar while reducing or eliminating the need for diabetes medications. After just 90 days, participating U-Haul Team Members saw transformative results, including:
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Medication Deprescription: Team Members eliminated 34% of diabetes-specific medications (not including metformin). 83% either reduced or completely eliminated their insulin.
- At baseline, 1 vial of insulin lasted 17 days. At 90 days, 1 vial now lasts 40 days.
- Clinically Significant Weight Loss: Team Members lost a combined 1,125 pounds, averaging 5% weight loss (considered clinically significant). Nearly a third achieved >10% weight loss.
- Blood Sugar Reduction: Estimated A1c improved by 1.9% on average. Every one-point decrease in A1c (a measure of blood sugar) reduces the risk of long-term diabetes complications—such as eye, kidney, and nerve disease—by up to 40%.
One early success story comes from Jeff, a U-Haul Owner's Representative from Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Since starting the treatment in February, Jeff has lowered his A1c from 7.5% to 5.9%—far below the diabetes threshold—while reducing his daily insulin dosage by over 85%. He has also lost more than 30 pounds.
Says Jeff, “No matter what I tried, my weight and insulin dosage kept going up. I imagined myself at 350 pounds, with an amputated leg or foot, unable to work or be productive. I wasn’t willing to put my wife, children, and family through that. With Virta, I’ve seen a huge improvement in my health and can focus on doing the things I love again. Virta helped me get my life back!”
Following the success of Virta’s type 2 diabetes reversal treatment, U-Haul recently expanded its partnership to offer Virta’s obesity and prediabetes treatments to Team Members at no cost.
“We care about providing our team with the tools they need to succeed, and we partnered with Virta because they offer the best tool on the market to make disease reversal a reality,” said Monique Harty, U-Haul Wellness and Recruiting manager. “These initial outcomes endorse that Virta offers a real solution to help our Team Members get healthier while reducing the cost burden of type 2 diabetes.”
To learn more about Virta’s work with U-Haul and to review eligibility requirements, visit: https://virtahealth.com/join/u-haul/90dayoutcomes
About Virta Health
Virta Health helps people reverse type 2 diabetes and other chronic conditions. Current approaches manage disease progression through increased medication use and infrequent doctor visits. Virta reverses type 2 diabetes through innovations in technology, nutrition science, and continuous remote care from physicians and behavioral experts. In clinical studies, 94% of patients reduce or eliminate insulin use, and weight-loss exceeds FDA benchmarks by nearly 150%. Virta works with the largest health plans, employers, and government organizations and puts 100% of its fees at risk based on clinical and financial outcomes. To learn more about how Virta is transforming lives by reversing type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases, visit www.virtahealth.com or follow us on Twitter @virtahealth.
About U-HAUL
Since 1945, U-Haul has been the No. 1 choice of do-it-yourself movers, with a network of more than 23,000 locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 offers secure access to U-Haul trucks every hour of every day through the customer dispatch option on their smartphones and our proprietary Live Verify technology. Our customers' patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to approximately 186,000 trucks, 128,000 trailers and 46,000 towing devices. U-Haul is the third largest self-storage operator in North America and offers 895,000 rentable storage units and 76.6 million square feet of self-storage space at owned and managed facilities. U-Haul is the largest retailer of propane in the U.S., and continues to be the largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive aftermarket industry. U-Haul has been recognized repeatedly as a leading “Best for Vets” employer and was recently named one of the 15 Healthiest Workplaces in America. uhaul.com
