A Fall Hike
Taken by my friend Tim Kline and used with his permission

My most recent articles are:

• The DexCom Continuous Sensor
  DexCom’s short-term sensor got quick FDA approval and even quicker distribution. I interviewed a most satisfied user, Aaron Kowalski of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In addition to telling Aaron his glucose values every five minutes, the DexCom sensor also gives him high and low alerts and a low glucose alarm. But he especially values the trend data, and feels in control of his diabetes for the first time in his life. My article originally appeared in the September 2006 issue of Diabetes Health and is now also online here.

• My Diabetes Blog
  It’s too hard to keep up with blog articles without subscribing to their RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. An RSS feed aggregator makes it easy to keep track of blogs you want to read on a regular basis. I use Bloglines to keep up with the blogs that I like to read. Please read my blog entry on “Reading Health Blogs” for exactly how to set up Bloglines and to subscribe to RSS feeds like my blog.

My new blog entries for August are:

• Controlling Nausea on Byetta. The biggest problem for many people with taking Byetta is the nausea that it often causes. The good news is that there are many strategies that will help you avoid the nausea. I describe them here.

• Reading Health Blogs. If you are reading this without having subscribed and without using a news reader, you’re doing it the hard way. This article is step-by-step advice on the easy way to read this and other blogs.

• My Byetta Progress Report. After my first six months on Byetta I lost a total of 68 pounds. And that’s not all. My other numbers are all better too.

• Byetta is Back. When I wrote the previous blog entry about my success on Byetta, I felt a little guilty. Byetta has been so good for me. But it wasn’t available then for new patients. It is available again now for people with diabetes in the U.S.

• Refrigerating Insulin and Byetta. When you are travelling, the temperature requirements for most types of insulin aren’t as strict as many people think. But they are for Byetta.

• Mindless Eating. Much of our eating is mindless. Eating right is just too daunting for most of us. It seems so absolute and so joyless. But the idea of eating better is do-able. Eating mindfully and better entails small steps.

• What’s so Hard about the Glycemic Index? I have a hard time understanding why so many people think that the glycemic index is hard to follow. It isn’t. The higher the numbers the faster the food is digested and therefore the higher your blood glucose will spike, which those of us with diabetes want to minimize. That certainly seems simple to me. The main thing is to avoid the worst starches  —  most potatoes, wheat flour, and most rice  —  and the worst sugars  — glucose and maltose.

• Spice Up Your Life. Some good things are also good for you. According to the latest research, this includes the caffeine in coffee and espresso as well as capsaicin, black pepper, ginger, and mixed spices.

Announcements:

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

  I list and link most of these on my at Diabetes Directory and in the site’s menu at the upper left of all my Web pages.

  From time to time Diabetes Update may also include links to other Web pages of special interest.

• HTML Format
  I send out Diabetes Update e-mail in HTML format, which all Web browsers and most modern e-mail programs can display. HTML has live links to all the sites named in the text so that with a simple click of a mouse you can connect to the site you have just been reading about.

• My Guarantee
  This newsletter:
  1. Is and will remain free.
  2. Will never include advertising (except targeted Google ads at the bottom of the web page and not in the email newsletter).
  3. Nor will I ever sell, rent, or trade your e-mail address to anyone.
  4. I will link sources of information.
  5. I will disclose any conflict of interest.
  6. If and when I learn of any errors of fact, I will correct them.

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