Did you know it’s National Diabetes Awareness Month? Take this opportunity to get answers to your questions. It’s also a great time to share information with others about diabetes.
Want the facts? Check out the NDEP Diabetes Facts webpage.
http://www.ndep.nih.gov/diabetes-facts/index.aspx
Halloween…a holiday totally focused on consuming candy. It is a rough holiday for people with diabetes. JDRF has some Trick-or-Treat tips to help you survive the holiday.
http://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=BE230D09-1279-CFD5-A781BCE9D66E6061
Check out the Holidays and Special Events module of HealthSims Type 1 Diabetes Training for more tips!
Interesting discussion on the Diane Rehm show today:
A journalist turns to a clinical trial in hopes of curing his diabetes. A discussion about the risks and benefits of experimental medical treatments.
Alex O’Meara: Chasing Medical Miracles (Walker & Company)
Guest: Alex O’Meara, freelance journalist who has worked for the City News Bureau of Chicago, Newsday, and the Baltimore Sun
Source: wamu.org
There’s some good news on the diabetes front! By closely monitoring your diabetes and intensively managing your glucose, you might be protecting your health years down the road. Read what you can do to stay on top of your diabetes today and how it can help in future years.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/27/diabetes.better.control/index.html
Tip of the Week:
When your child has diabetes, you might feel that the only way to control things is to do everything yourself. You might actually have better results by transitioning some responsibility to your child. Here are some tips from parents who have involved their child in the day-to-day diabetes responsibilities like carb counting and how they feel their children have “bought in.” Find more like this in the HealthSims Type 1 Diabetes training course.
My son knows how to count carbs for each meal. He reads the nutrition label and knows where to find the serving size for the carbs. He also knows his limit of carbs for each meal. If you don’t stick to the diet planned, you will not be able to get your diabetes under control! - Melissa, mother of a 9 year old with diabetes
We taught our son how to read the food labels as soon as he was able to read. We had him look at the “Total Carbs” section and the “Sugars” section on the label. He knew he could not eat foods where the sugars were more than half of the total carbs for snacks - especially at bedtime. We also taught him the same process for selecting a breakfast cereal. They should be low in “Sugars” compared to “Total Carbs.” - Dana mother of a child diagnosed at age 3
Tip of the Week:
Did you know that warm weather can affect blood sugar levels? The effect of outside activity on blood sugar numbers can be compounded in warm or hot weather. Playing or exercising outdoors in the summer may cause your blood sugar vary more than you expect. Remember to take into account the weather when planning your day or vacation this summer and pay special attention to how the heat affects your blood sugar levels.
Can you imagine a world in which children receive a vaccine to ward off type 1 diabetes? It may one day be a reality. Follow this link to learn about the research in this area: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31619202/ns/health-diabetes/
There is promising news that aggressive intervention can help stop type 2 diabetes symptoms in children. Check out this link to read more about the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes and what is being done to address the growing problem.
Tip of the Week:
Summer is here and so is vacation packing anxiety. In addition to making sure you include swimsuits, sunscreen, and snorkle, if someone in your family has type 1 diabetes, you have a lot of other supplies to pack. Here are some tips to ease your packing stress so you can concentrate on building sandcastles and snapping photos instead of stressing about where you packed the lancets. Find more like this in the HealthSims Type 1 Diabetes training course.
Pack insulin and other diabetes supplies across multiple people’s carry-on luggage, so that if someone loses a bag, you don’t lose all of your supplies. Also, take copies of your prescriptions for critical supplies, and always bring with you the contact information for your physician(s), diabetes educator, clinic, and/or any other people who are involved in your diabetes care.
Everyone is talking about Sotomayor this week and whether or not she’s the right choice for the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice. All that aside, have you seen the news that she has Type 1 Diabetes? Is it relevant to her nomination? Many people are weighing in on it, and the discussion has Type 1 Diabetes (and the related healthcare advancements) in the news.