Receiving the Diabetes Diagnosis
“Did anybody ever tell you that you have diabetes?” Since you are reading this, my guess is that somebody gave you this diagnosis.
On February 7, 1994, Dr. Joseph Blum, my primary care physician at the VA Clinic in Santa Barbara, California, broke the news to me with those words. He added that my A1C level was 14.4. Before that nobody had even hinted that I had diabetes.
I didn’t know enough about diabetes to... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - July 3, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Mindfulness and Meditation for Diabetes Management
Last night my thoughts returned again and again to a missing package. The sender had written me that my order had been delivered, but I hadn’t received it. I tried and tried to suppress that thought and to get back to sleep. Finally, meditation helped.
This was for me a painful example of what psychologists call “thought suppression.” Like many people, I have experienced thought suppression lots... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - June 26, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Gentle Testing for Diabetes
Nobody ever dared to claim that drawing a drop of blood to check our blood sugar levels could be gentle. Until now.
A new company named Genteel has just started shipping its “gentle lancing instrument.” The box that it comes in says right on it that it give us “blood testing without pain!”
For many of us who have diabetes using a blood glucose meter and lancing device is the most painful thing we have to... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - June 19, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Sleep More, Weigh Less for Diabetes Control
This study used state-of-the-art methods to estimate energy intake and output and then compared these... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - March 17, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Diabetes Help on the Internet
Recently a fellow passenger asked me what I missed most about home. We were on a small ship and were out of contact with the rest of the world.
I realized that besides missing my friends and my usual food and drink, being able to use the Internet was what I wanted most. In fact, just as my shipmate asked that question, a devastating rainstorm had hit my hometown. I didn't learn about it until the end of the week, when I could check my email... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - March 10, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
The Safety of Diabetes Drugs
A possible connection between one of our newest and most important classes of diabetes drugs and pancreatic cancer has frightened many of us. But people with diabetes can now breathe easier.
The United States Food and Drug Administration and its European counterpart just released their joint findings concluding that these drugs, which include Byetta, Victoza, Bydureon, and Januvia, have “no compelling evidence of an increased... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - March 5, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Managing Erectile Dysfunction with Diabetes
Of the many possible complications of uncontrolled diabetes, erectile dysfunction is the one we talk about the least. Unlike essentially all of the other complications, it doesn’t bring us physical pain, but the emotional trauma it often brings can be devastating.
It doesn’t have to be that way. If you were the only guy who had erectile dysfunction, having it might well embarrass you. But now we know that perhaps 30... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - February 26, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Why We Take Which Diabetes Drug
Although I have managed my diabetes by eating low-carb ever since 2007 and enthusiastically recommend it to anyone who has diabetes, I certainly recognize its limitations and the importance of diabetes drugs.
Low-carbing isn’t easy. The transition from fueling our bodies with carbs to one of burning fat can challenge us in seven ways as I wrote here last month. Even then, when we get through the transition period, many people find that... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - February 21, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Prepare to See Your Diabetes Doctor
When we learn how to manage diabetes without drugs, we rarely need to see an endocrinologist, a doctor who specializes in diabetes and the rest of the endocrine system.
I haven’t had an appointment with an endocrinologist in more than 10 years. I do have regular checkups that we all need with an opthamologist, a dermatologist, a podiatrist, and a dentist. I also go to my primary care physician at least once a year to get an annual... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - February 11, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Drugs or Blood Sugar Control for Diabetic Neuropathy
Is managing diabetic neuropathy so difficult that we need more drugs? Some, but not all, of our diabetes professionals say that it is.
"We have no licensed treatment for diabetic neuropathy,” Rayaz A. Malik, professor of medicine at the University of Manchester, in December told the World Congress of the International Diabetes Federation World. “We have witnessed failure after failure of numerous clinical... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - February 5, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Help Arrives for Diabetes Supplements
Sixty-eight percent of American adults take nutritional or dietary supplements, according to a 2012 customer survey by the Council for Responsible Nutrition. That percentage may be even higher for those of us who have diabetes.
Diabetics have two separate challenges with supplements. The first is to decide which ones we need. The second is to find those that are safe, effective and the best value.
I have long argued that... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - January 28, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Why and How to Track Diabetes Health
Most people who have diabetes track their blood sugar levels. Many of us also track our weight, what we eat, and our exercise. But not many of us do anything useful with these numbers.
If we want to improve them, just writing them down and studying them will get us part of the way there. That’s because of the observer effect, where simply observing something can change what we do.
But only when we act in... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - January 22, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Seven Diabetes Challenges When You Low Carb
Those of us who have diabetes have many good reasons to eat few carbohydrates. Two of the best reasons are better blood sugar control -- getting a very low A1C level -- and losing weight -- getting down to a low BMI.
But getting started has its challenges. Here are some tips to make it easier.
1. Decide why you want to follow a very low-carb lifestyle. It can be to reduce your blood sugar or your weight. It does both. It will also... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - January 14, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Diabetes Diets Don't Work
Diets are shortcuts to weight loss, which is to be high on the priority list of almost everyone who has diabetes. But like all shortcuts, they can take us astray and fail to get us to where we want to go.
Diets don’t work. But don’t give up, because we can still lose weight and keep it off. Whether you call it a behavioral change or a lifestyle adjustment, we have to dig deeper than just what we put in our mouths,... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - January 8, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
