Red and green, the colors of Yule: the poinsettia and the evergreen, the holly berry and the ivy, the winter coats and cycling helmets...

Winter coats and cycling helmets????

In early on the 11th for my shift, I walked over to the supermarket at the other end of the strip mall to pick up a few things. On the checkout line next to me, I noticed a woman shorter and older than me, wearing a bright red cycling helmet.

"I'm glad to see I'm not the only person who cycles to my errands," I said.

"It's new," she said, referring to her helmet. "It's red, so I hope they can see me." 

  (READ MORE)

The topic for July's DSMA blog carnival is "diabetes technology", springing from a discussion in which we dissed the downsides of our Borgified selves and collated a wishlist of things we'd like the diabetes device industry to provide us with. Topping the list were more accurate glucometers, more reliable CGMs, sensors, and infusion sets, more accurate (smart?) insulins, and affordable (read: under ten cents each) glucose test strips. Somewhat further in dreamland were noninvasive testing methods (tattoos, retina scanners, "mood" watches, and so on).

The more interesting question is that of disillusioning those who think some of this technology wishlist is already here.

  (READ MORE)

You may be at risk for diabetes if...

Anyone else here bristle when you are presented with these statements?

I mean, no $4!†, Sherlock. I have diabetes. I am no longer at risk for the condition, it exists in me.

So why does my lab's A1c, if it exceeds 5.8, say "You are at risk for diabetes" rather than "You are within guidelines for someone with diabetes"? Did my diabetes suddenly go away just because I don't need to take pills or shots to control it?

Now, I know I'd be really peeved if I didn't have diabetes and a 5.8 A1c read, "You have excellent control of your diabetes" -- but come on, some contextual information, please -- or better yet, placing 5.8 in the "higher than reference normal" category and letting my doctor do the talking.

  (READ MORE)

At the same time that most of the diabetes online community was shocked and saddened to learn of last week's sudden, inexplicable death of a 13-year-old teenager, The Other Half's family also had a visit from the Diabetes Reaper. While Diabetes was at-cause with its sneaky tricks in both cases, the passing of the two women could not have been any more different.

  (READ MORE)

I feel a shift taking place in the world today.  Its happening as we speak, and I feel it happening within me, on this site and others, before the world.  Slowly, more and more people are realizing the power of their minds.  The power to be at peace with life and whatever happens in it, the power of the ability to watch our thoughts and to not be affected by them completely.  I watched another documentary recently called, “The New Medicine”.  It touches on this very point.  More and more, people who fall ill to various things are finding the healing benefits of their own thoughts and states of consciousness while enduring the sicknesses their experiencing.  (READ MORE)