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Flatirons with Poppies, Boulder

Number 87; October 1, 2005

My most recent article is:

• Setting Performance Standards for Continuous Monitors
  For the vital but unheralded work of determining how the new continuous sensors should function, please read my current “Meter News” column in the October issue of Diabetes Health magazine. You can also read it on my website at http://www.mendosa.com/standards.htm

Updates:

• When to Go to an Endocrinologist
  Dr. Bill Quick is my favorite endocrinologist and a good friend. We have worked together for the last 10 years to bring accurate and helpful information about diabetes to the Web. He has one of the very best websites about diabetes at diabetesmonitor.com.

  Back in August 1998 an editor at the former Diabetes Interview magazine (now Diabetes Health) assigned me to write an article about “When should a patient with diabetes be referred to a specialist?” I thought that it would be a great subject, and so did that editor. But as often happens in the publishing world, a new editor came in and killed the article.

  Meanwhile, I had asked my friend Bill for some of his thoughts on the subject. Bill’s response was so good that I suggested he turn it into a Web page on his site. Ever since then I have referred many people to it. Now, you can read it here at When to Go to an Endocrinologist.

• Even More Strategies for Controlling the Dawn Phenomenon
  Nothing has stirred up more interest here lately than the several proposed strategies for controlling the dawn phenomenon (where morning blood glucose levels are higher than when we went to bed). And nothing has been more frustrating for those of us who have tried to control it. Here are some excerpts from messages that correspondents wrote me this month on the subject:
  Raub in Arcadia, California writes:
  Reading your article about the reader with the dawn phenomenon who claimed her blood sugar results were improved in the morning after taking vinegar pills at bedtime got me curious enough to try. I went out and bought the same GNC Apple Cider Vinegar pills. Typically, my glucose numbers in the morning are 250 plus; however, last night was the 5th night in a row that I took 4 Vinegar pills at bedtime and found my morning blood sugar readings to range from 88 - 103.

  Cindy writes:
  I tried the vinegar supplements mentioned in your last message. It took about 1 week before it began to work, but when it did my blood glucose readings dropped by about 10 and has remained that way. I am heavy, so I took two pills in the evening after dinner and both my night blood glucose reading and my morning fasting blood glucose reading each went down by at least 10. I can’t wait to see what my next A1C blood work will show! You may want to give it a try again but use it for a longer period of time instead of alternating days of using it and not using it.

  hmasher writes:
  I tried those pills for 2 weeks now & my dawn nos just keep getting worse.

  Linda in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, writes:
  My physician suggested I have a bedtime snack of 1/2 oat bran English muffin with 1-2 tsps. of natural peanut butter, and it has put an end to my high morning readings.

  Stan writes:
  I tried the apple thing, no help.

  But one-self study of me: If I eat after 8 pm, I have the problem. Nuts are the worst. But, if I finish by 8, 7:30 pm is better, then only a minor problem, or none at all. [In a subsequent message he says that he goes to bed “Anywhere from 11-11:45 pm, 90% of the time. Later the other 10%.”] It’s all in which foods provoke the liver more. I suspect fats the most, carbs next. Don’t usually have a high protein snack in the eve. Examples: Late snacks (9-11 pm) of cheese and nuts are bad, EXCEPT mostt of the time for pine nuts; if I have about 1oz (pine nuts) 11-11:30, little effect, but if have the same thing 10-11:00, then there is a significant effect!

  I am type 2, 65, 3.5 years a discovered diabetic. Well controlled by diet, 2000 metformin. But the key IS diet! A1c varies 5.5-5.8.

  I do encourage more correspondence on this subject. So many of us really need to get a handle on the dawn phenomenon!

Book Reviews:

Stress, Depression, Hostility

• The Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution

  And now for something completely different.

  Just when I thought that I couldn’t possibly read a book about diabetes with a totally new approach, along comes one that is not primarily about diet, exercise, or medication — the three standard components of diabetes treatment. Richard Surwit’s Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution adds a fourth component — mental diabetes. He is vice chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and chief of the division of medical psychology at Duke University Medical Center.

  He deals first with stress, which can raise blood glucose and may well be the most important mental factor. The other two are depression, which is well known to be correlated with diabetes, and then with hostility, including cynicism, anger, and aggression.

  Most people with diabetes probably know stress, depression, and hostility all too well. If any of them are your regular companions, you might well study this book with special concentration on the two mind-body techniques that Richard Surwit advocates — progressive muscle relaxation and cognitive behavior therapy. If you apply one or both of these techniques, you will almost certainly be rewarded with better control over your diabetes.

  Originally published in a 2004 hard cover edition, Marlowe & Company published this 267-page trade paperback in September 2005 for $14.95. The ISBN is 1-56924-363-8.

• Low-Carb Potatoes
  A few days ago Peter in Florida called me to ask some questions about the glycemic index, which he is trying to follow more closely. Along the way I mentioned the wonderful low-carb Dreamfields Pasta. That was exciting to him, but in return he mentioned something that was just as exciting to me: low-carb potatoes. He says they are delicious, and asked his wife to grab the bag they came in so I could check them out.

  These “SunLite All Natural Low Carb Potatoes” come from SunFresh of Florida Marketing Cooperative Inc. The website says:

  Members of the group consulted Dr. Chad Hutchinson, program leader at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Research farm in Hastings, Florida, in search of a better tasting potato. Hutchinson and his team screen about 400 new varieties of potatoes a year for taste, shape, color and skin quality.

  They eventually tested and suggested the SunLite variety, developed by Netherlands-based seed potato company HZPC, because it consistently led all others in taste, texture and appearance. Researchers later discovered that the new variety has 30 percent fewer carbohydrates and 25 percent fewer calories than the standard Russet potato.

  If you live in Florida, like Peter, you can probably buy SunLite potatoes in your local supermarket. Otherwise, you can order them from the SunFresh website. They cost $16 for 9 pounds, including tax and shipping.

  I followed up with emails and a call:

  1. SunFresh’s Hank Whetstone wrote, “Sorry, we don’t have that number and have not tested [their potatoes for their] glycemic index.”

  2. The one previous time I heard about low-carb potatoes was from Dr. Jon Anfinsen, the inventor of Dreamfields Pasta. When I interviewed him in April 2004, he told me that they were also working on a low-carb potato product. So I was curious whether Dr. Anfinsen was involved with the SunFresh potato or knew of it. He told me that he wasn’t involved with SunFresh, but was aware of their potato. “The only problem is that the SunLite potatoes are high in moisture level,” he said a few days ago. He added that when you fry these potatoes, they splatter a lot.

     However, Mr. Whetstone denies that. SunLite potatoes, he says, “have slightly higher moisture. But they don’t splatter any more than other potatoes. Moisture comes out a basically the same rate as other potatoes. It just takes proportionately longer to boil out the additional moisture.”

     As for Dr. Anfinsen’s research, he says that they are working on mashed and extruded potatoes, looking at two new technologies to reduce the digestibility of starches. “The work is going very well, and we will launch next year,” he concluded.

  The website for SunLite potatoes is SunFresh of Florida Marketing Cooperative Inc..

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  Diabetes Update keeps you up-to-date with new articles, Web pages, and books that I have written about diabetes.

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© Copyright 2005 David Mendosa. All Rights Reserved.

David Mendosa
A Writer on the Web: www.mendosa.com
E-mail: mendosa@mendosa.com
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