Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy (DPN) is nerve damage that affects the feet, legs, arms and hands.  It’s a potential complication of diabetes, and it’s a frightening one which most people know very little about.  People experience DPN in a variety of ways. They may feel burning, shooting pain, throbbing, pins and needles,...

In high school Jay Hewitt played varsity basketball and tennis.  He was a good athlete, but not an endurance athlete.  That changed a few years later when he diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 23.  After some years of living with diabetes, Jay signed up to run a marathon in order to raise money for the ADA.  He had never...

I’m a type 1 diabetic, and I’m a climber, but just barely.  That is, I’m definitely a type 1 diabetic, but I’m a mostly-indoors, when-I-can, easy-route wannabe boulderer. I can do a few pull ups, and I’m pretty proud of that, but I don’t have real triceps or those back muscles that look like wings,...

Last month we published an essay by Ginger Vieira, A Powerlifter’s Mind in a Type 1 Body which touched on an issue that’s always on my mind- how to manage the carbohydrate intake I require to run marathons without losing control of my blood sugar level.  I enjoyed the essay very much, but I wanted to know more.  I had the...

What’s your reason for getting fit and dropping a few pounds? Like Ashton Kutcher, are you worried about a “massive world-crushing event” where only the fittest survive? Or are your concerns more immediate, such as an oversized number on the scale and a thinning wallet? Nearly 75 percent of Americans will be overweight...

I’ve lived with type 1 diabetes for 12 years and when I first began powerlifting two and a half years ago, I learned a new reason why taking care of my diabetes is so important.  Because balanced blood sugars and a true understanding of the physiology of diabetes are crucial for making advances in powerlifting, if I wanted to be a...

Melissa-Marie Kauffman is a third generation type 1 diabetic.  In 1950, Melissa’s grandmother, a sixteen-year-old single mom, received a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes.  Thirty-nine years later her son, Melissa’s father, was diagnosed with type 1, too.  He was forty-years-old.  Melissa herself was diagnosed on Thanksgiving...

In March 2008, Mari Ruddy, a recreational triathlete with type 1 diabetes and a stage IIa breast cancer survivor, started wondering about the lack of female diabetic athletes.  A number of organizations and teams of athletes with diabetes were emerging, but most of them were dominated by men and people with type 1 diabetes.  It occurred...

You probably remember that November was American Diabetes Month.  I’m sorry, I didn’t get you anything.  Then December was declared National Awareness Month – okay, that declaration was by The Onion, but my take away on these two months is that we should at least be spending 1/6th of the year focusing on our health.  And now...

Believe it or not, our bodies were made to move.  We all need exercise. Dr. Bryan Bergman, Assistant Professor in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus, explains just how much exercise we need for cardiovascular health, increasing insulin sensitivity, and weight loss. ASL: How much,...