Diabetes Dad
Parents of children with diabetes have a particularly tough job of balancing their need to help their children with their desire to foster independence and self-reliance. Tom Karlya is dLife's newest voice from the diabetes community. He shares his views as a father as well as a diabetes advocate.
Comments (1) | Digg This! | Send to Newsvine | Add to del.icio.us
Byetta Back
Good news for Byetta users. The manufacturing capacity issues that threatened a Byetta shortage earlier this year have apparently been addressed, and Symlin is reporting that there is now an adequate supply of the drug available for physicians to begin prescribing it again.
RELATED: More on Byetta
Comments (1) | Digg This! | Send to Newsvine | Add to del.icio.us
By Request
From dLife Community member JasonJayhawk, in response to the most recent episode of dLifeTV:
"My wife and I were rolling on the couch in laughter during the interview sequence with random people on the street. The man's response to the question about intimacy problems was something I would have expected to see on Dr. Drew's shows, but on dLife, it just had us laughing! I think that clip should make it to YOUTUBE!"
Well, your wish is our command, Jason. Check out the never-before-broadcast, uncut version of this segment here. And make sure you stick around for the guy at the end - he's priceless.
Comments (0) | Digg This! | Send to Newsvine | Add to del.icio.us
Tell Your Diabetes Educator
Are there times when you wish you could reach your diabetes educator anytime, anyplace? Now, dLife is offering a way to do just that. myDiabetesEducator.org is a brand new customizable web tool that offers diabetes educators their own professional website -- powered with multi-media content and tools from dLife and personalized by each educator -- at no cost to them. As soon as your educator sets up their site, you have access to it 24/7 to get diabetes information; check support group and class topics, times, and locations; make appointments; download logs and charts; tune into dLifeTV segments; and read blogs and expert columns. Tell your educator about it today!
Comments (0) | Digg This! | Send to Newsvine | Add to del.icio.us
Air Travel and Insulin
On Thursday, August 10th, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised the national security level to High (Orange) for all U.S. commercial flights. In addition, new travel restrictions have been put in place – including a ban of all liquids, gels, lotions, and creams of any kind in carry-on luggage. According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), all necessary medications, including insulin, are exempt from this ban. Prescription medications should be labeled as such, and the name on the label must match the name on the passenger ticket.
To ensure a smooth passage through airport security, keep insulin vials and pens in their original packaging and let security personnel know you have diabetes and are carrying insulin and testing supplies. Give yourself adequate time to get through security (as of this evening the TSA is suggesting three hours in advance of your flight) and call your airline before traveling to check on any additional restrictions that may be imposed at the carrier level.
RELATED: Travel and Diabetes
Comments (0) | Digg This! | Send to Newsvine | Add to del.icio.us
Seeing Clearly
Diabetic retinopathy is a frightening diagnosis. Hear about one man's experience, and how it changed the course of his life and his diabetes control.
Comments (0) | Digg This! | Send to Newsvine | Add to del.icio.us
The 24-Hour Glucose Channel
Curious about the new continuous glucose monitors out there? This month, dLife columnist Amy Tenderich offers her first-hand experience with 24/7 monitoring in "The 24-Hour Glucose Channel."
Comments (0) | Digg This! | Send to Newsvine | Add to del.icio.us
Obesity Immunizations?
Keeping weight off once you've lost it is a challenge for many. Now, scientists at Scripps Research Institute have successfully tested an anti-obesity vaccine that helps stop the weight loss yo-yo effect in animals.
The vaccine targets ghrelin, an endocrine hormone produced in the stomach. Ghrelin production goes up when body weight goes down, and high levels of ghrelin slow down fat metabolism, encourage eating, and promote fat retention, changes which normally make it difficult to lose weight and keep it off. In the Scripps study, the adult rats given the vaccine ate normally yet gained less weight and body fat.
RELATED: Weight Management and Diabetes
Comments (0) | Digg This! | Send to Newsvine | Add to del.icio.us
Jockeying for Control
Nikita Beriman is a rising star on the Australian horse racing circuit. As one of the country's leading apprentice jockeys, she has a total of 57 wins under her belt already this season. Nikita has dreamed of becoming a jockey since she was growing up as a young girl on a Victoria stud farm. Almost as long as she's lived with her type 1 diabetes.
But like many other 20-year-old girls, and almost every jockey, Nikita worries about her weight. Because excess weight can slow down a horse, racing commissions around the world have strict guidelines on what a jockey can weigh. Being even a half kilogram above the weight range can lead to fines and potentially suspension. Add diabetes to the mix and you see the overwhelming pressure this young female jockey faces.
On Sunday, Nikita was charged with her tenth weight offense in twelve months. She was 1.5 kg (or just over three pounds) above her registered weight. According to Australian news outlet The Age, Beriman "explained to stewards that her diet proved to be unreliable as her sugar levels appeared to rise, even though she had very little to eat. "I was 52½ on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and I've only had a sandwich before the races today, and I'm a kilo-and-a-half over that. It's so hard to regulate.""
Racing stewards were lenient with Beriman, bypassing a suspension with a $500 fine and a directive to work with a sports nutritionist. But she won't be allowed to return to racing until she has medical certification to prove her weight is back on track.
Not a New Problem
The pressure to drop pounds for racing has led to starvation diets, laxatives, sweat boxes, purging, and other dangerous practices by jockeys. Eating disorders are rampant. The subject of jockey weight has long been controversial in the racing world; the guidelines are controlled on a state-to-state basis and in recent years there has been legislation proposed to relax long-held standards. In 2005, the California Horse Racing Board approved a proposal to up the weight scales for jockeys and establish a minimum body fat content of 5% for men and 10% for women in an effort "to promote better health and to help prevent the cycle of self-abuse caused by jockeys engaging in unsafe weight-reduction practices." Traditionally, such efforts have met with resistance from horse and track owners, who see any move that may slow a racehorse as a potential financial hit to horseracing as a whole.
Interesting Horsey Fact Of The Day
George Woolf, the renown jockey who rode Seabiscuit to fame in the late 1930s, had type 1 diabetes - a fact he kept hidden from all but his closest friends in the competitive world of horse racing. Those that knew him reported Woolf would frequently and suddenly nod off to sleep, a sign of chronic high blood sugars. It's likely that Woolf was persistently running high -- insulin was new and dosing adjustments and testing were in their infancy at that time. But given what we know about the life of a jockey and Woolf's own public struggles with weight, it's also quite possible that he had discovered the weight loss potential of running chronically high blood sugars by cutting back on insulin - a phenomenon known as "diabulimia" today.
RELATED: Diabetes and Eating Disorders
Comments (1) | Digg This! | Send to Newsvine | Add to del.icio.us