Calf Cramp Cure From a Certified Diabetes Educator
By Web Team If you have diabetes, you may be all too familiar with the annoying phenomenon of waking from a sound sleep with a cramp in your calf. According to Karen Kemmis, PT, DPT, MS, CDE, writing on the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) Blog, these cramps can arise for a variety of reasons, including dehydration, potassium deficiency, neuropathy (nerve damage), or muscle overuse. Although it is best if the cause of a person's nighttime calf cramps can be determined and addressed, Kemmis notes that this is not always possible. In these cases, she has found that routinely stretching the calf muscles be...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 30, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Web Team Source Type: blogs

Pistachios Offer Protection for People With Diabetes
By Diane Fennell Research has indicated that eating pistachios along with a high-glycemic meal may help lower after-meal blood sugar response, particularly in people with metabolic syndrome (a cluster of factors that raises the risk of heart disease, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes). Now, a small new study from Penn State University suggests that these nuts may also improve heart health in people who have Type 2 by reducing the body's cardiovascular responses to everyday stress. Heart attack and stroke are the leading causes of death in people who have diabetes. To evaluate the effects of pistachios on various aspects of car...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 29, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Diane Fennell Source Type: blogs

The Outside Like the Inside
By Scott Coulter My wife and I have been updating our house this summer. We repainted about half our rooms with a new color, tore up some carpeting along our stairs to reveal the hardwood underneath (which, perhaps next summer, we might sand, restain, and get in better shape), put in new curtains, updated the window blinds to something more substantial and modern, put in some new furniture, and put in a new bookshelf that I built and stained myself (I'm somewhat proud of that one…). What started as just an idea to update the color of one room has turned into a pretty hefty makeover. Our house is currently looking be...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 28, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Scott Coulter Source Type: blogs

Control Solution = Better Control?
By Quinn Phillips Monitoring blood glucose at home is second nature to many people with diabetes. In fact, it's often so automatic that you may not stop to think about all the steps in the process that may interfere with achieving an accurate blood glucose reading. First, there's the near-automatic loss of accuracy that comes from taking a blood sample from capillaries, which is what happens with both fingertip and alternate-site testing. The blood glucose level in your capillaries is delayed compared to the blood glucose level in your veins, which is considered your "true" blood glucose level and is what lab tests measure...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 27, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Quinn Phillips Source Type: blogs

Anxiety and Grief
By David Spero My phone client Roscoe was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes three years ago. He's doing well, with an A1C of 5.9. "But I'm still scared," he told me. "And I'm still sad. Do these feelings ever go away?" I don't get that question very often. Not because people don't have those feelings, but because they're afraid to bring them up. I give Roscoe credit for being brave enough to ask, but what should I tell him? Let's face it: Even well-controlled diabetes brings loss (grief) and fear of loss (anxiety). We may lose our sense of ourselves as being healthy; as being people who never have to check blood sugar levels ...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 27, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Spero Source Type: blogs

Time for Your Annual Flu Shot
By Web Team Fall is right around the corner, which means that flu season will soon be in full swing. For people with diabetes, getting this virus can lead to serious complications (such as pneumonia), so it is generally recommended that they receive a flu shot every year. And because it takes roughly two weeks for the vaccine to become effective, the ideal time to receive it is early September. To find out what locations near you are offering the flu vaccine, type your zip code into the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services flu vaccine finder. And to learn more about flu prevention and treatment, read the piece...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 26, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Web Team Source Type: blogs

FDA Approves New Oral Drug for Type 2 Diabetes
By Diane Fennell On August 1, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the oral diabetes drug Jardiance (generic name empagliflozin) for use, along with a healthful diet and exercise, in adults with Type 2 diabetes. The medicine, a joint development of Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Company, joins Invokana (canagliflozin) and Farxiga (dapagliflozin) as a member of the class of drugs known as sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors. In the process of filtering the blood, the kidneys typically reabsorb all the filtered glucose and return it to the bloodstream. One of the main pr...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 8, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Diane Fennell Source Type: blogs

Toughen Up, Kids
By Scott Coulter So I've been codirecting a jazz camp this week for the school where I teach piano. It's a weeklong camp, with about 15 students. Most of them are beginners, while a few are on the cusp of being in the intermediate stage in their musical development. Already, we've had a few quit because they felt they weren't up to the challenge. And this has got me to thinking about the idea of facing challenges in a broader context. I see a lot of parallels, actually, between the process of learning how to play jazz and living with diabetes. Both involve great patience, both involve high tolerance for "not knowing," and...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 7, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Scott Coulter Source Type: blogs

Doing Your Own Research
By David Spero Doctors used to be the only source of medical information. Not anymore. You can get much of the same information on the Internet. Problem is, not all of the information you'll come across online is good. Here are some ways to empower yourself with good Internet research: • It's good to have some general "search engine" sites as a starting point on your quest for information. I usually start with Google. Yahoo and Bing are also good. Search engine sites will give you a list of more specific sites where you can get the information you seek. For example, a Google search for "diabetes" gives over 70 milli...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 6, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Spero Source Type: blogs

Pills vs. Programs
By Quinn Phillips It has often been observed that our health-care system is designed, first and foremost, to provide treatment for acute conditions — that is, conditions that can be treated and cured, leaving the patient healthy until the next illness or malady comes along. Chronic conditions such as Type 2 diabetes and obesity often receive less attention than they deserve, given that they account for a large share of health-care costs in the United States and many other industrialized countries. For example, many insurance plans will cover only a few hours of diabetes education, while fully covering amputations due...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 6, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Quinn Phillips Source Type: blogs

Dispelling the Myths of Insulin Therapy
By Betsy Carlisle In my position as a pharmacist and certified diabetes educator, physicians often assign me the task of starting their patients with Type 2 diabetes on insulin therapy. Unfortunately, in most situations, insulin has been presented to these patients as a last-ditch treatment option, after target glucose goals have not been achieved or maintained with lifestyle modifications and other therapies. Not surprisingly, I encounter people who are upset at the news that insulin is now necessary. Others feel anxious or overwhelmed by the prospect of fitting insulin into their lifestyles. Many people believe that ins...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 5, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Betsy Carlisle Source Type: blogs

Beer and Health: Nine Questions Answered
By Amy Campbell In honor of International Beer Day, an unofficial holiday that was observed on August 1, I thought I'd take the opportunity this week to focus on this well-loved beverage. Beer has been around for a long time. Evidence of beer dates back about 5,000 years (those ancient Sumerians surely knew how to have a good time). Archeologists have unearthed vessels from about 3,400 BC lined with beer residue. And the ancient Egyptians enjoyed beer as part of their daily lives — even children drank this bubbly brew. What is beer? According to the website A Perfect Pint, beer is an alcoholic beverage usually made f...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 4, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Amy Campbell Source Type: blogs

Children With Diabetes "Focus on Technology" Conference
By Web Team If you have a child with Type 1 diabetes and are feeling overwhelmed by all the technology that's available to help him manage his condition, then you may be interested in the Children With Diabetes "Focus on Technology" conference, taking place from October 24–26 in Anaheim, California. The conference, which will be located at the Disneyland Hotel, will include top experts in the diabetes industry who can "help you and your family gain a better understanding of the technology currently available to people with Type 1 diabetes, as well as technology which may be coming shortly down the road." There wil...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 2, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Web Team Source Type: blogs

Shift Work Tied to Increased Type 2 Diabetes Risk
By Diane Fennell Shift work is linked to an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to new research from China. An estimated 25.8 million people in the United States and 108 million people in China now have Type 2, with a predicted total of 380 million people expected to have the condition worldwide by 2025. Previous research has linked shift work to a variety of health problems, including cardiovascular disease, digestive disorders, and certain cancers, as well as to both reduced glucose tolerance and an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes in women. The results regarding diabetes, however, have been incons...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - August 1, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Diane Fennell Source Type: blogs

I've Said It Beforeā€¦
By Scott Coulter I read today that the GOP is pretty much set to sue Obama. Now, I don't want to get into the politics of that here — let's not get into who did what, who's right, who's wrong, or any of that. Read any comments section in any online paper and you see how quickly things devolve to vitriol, mudslinging, name-calling, and personal attacks. Let's just say this: When one branch of our government is literally SUING the leader of the other party, the system has broken. It isn't "in trouble," it isn't "off balance," it's broken. What happened? We've never agreed on everything, but we were never SUPPOSED to a...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - July 31, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Scott Coulter Source Type: blogs