Although I’m no longer upset about my last A1c I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. I’m a target oriented person. I need a target to keep me motivated. In my running I always have a next race, usually a marathon, in mind even if it’s a while away. Without this target I have a much harder time getting up early to run and find I give myself a break a little too often. My next big target is the Amsterdam marathon which will take place October 21s. I registered for The NY city marathon, but for the second...

I feel like a failure.  I got my latest blood test results yesterday and I was so disappointed with my hemoglobin A1C that I just can’t get over it. After holding steady at 6.4% for the two previous blood tests, my latest result is up to 7%. I know this is not a horrible result, and that many doctors consider a hemoglobin A1C of 7% to be in the norm for people with type 1 diabetes, but to me this feels like a huge personal failure.   And it wasn’t the only disappointing result I got.  Against my doctor’s advice, I stopped...

Whenever I run a race, no matter what the distance, I always want to do better than before.  I want to set a new personal record. It doesn’t matter how much better, as long as I shave off a little time from my previous time. It’s as if the last race is always a bench mark for the next. (Had I started racing when I was in my 20’s this would not be possible.)  Although I know there is a limit on how fast I can be, and that one day I will run my fastest marathon, half or 10K, I think I will always feel this way when I compete. I...

My HbA1c has been around 7% (6.8%-7.2%) for the last few years. Last year I tried terribly hard to get it down. I cut out almost all carbs, checked my blood sugar obsessively, and did everything I could think of to get tighter control of my blood sugars. I succeeded in getting my A1c as low as 6% but I couldn’t keep it up, not only because running meant eating more carbs (I was running much less during that period) but also because I just couldn’t do it.  It was too hard. I was very frustrated with myself when I got the results...

After putting it off for a week I went to do my blood test on Monday morning.  This morning I got the results and I feel like I a failure. I was expecting my HbA1c to be higher than my last result but somehow I hoped it wouldn’t be that far off. After improving my HbA1c in two consecutive blood tests, going from 6.8 to 6.3 and then to 6%, I found myself this morning staring at the results on my computer in disbelief.  My A1c is 6.8 again. I thought I  was off to a new start and now I find myself back where I was 9 months ago....

Last Monday I went to the doctor for my quarterly visit to get new prescriptions and paper work for my 3 month blood work. I could have gone on Tuesday to get the blood work done, but decided that I’d go Wednesday morning instead. Then I decided to run Wednesday morning and postponed it to Thursday. That didn’t work out either and neither did Friday. Over the weekend I realized I wasn’t putting it off because I don’t have the time (it usually takes no more than an hour and it’s only 5 minutes away). The reason I’ve...

When I went on the Paleolithic Diet 4 months ago I was amazed at the reduction in my insulin requirements.  I found myself using less and less insulin, and even after allowing for some complex carbohydrates like quinoa and sweet potatoes, the drop  was unbelievable. I also found myself having fewer highs and lows and except for the troubles I’ve been having during my runs — drops in BS levels – I had a feeling that I had found a new way of life that would help me manage my diabetes. During the first year after being diagnosed...

Until this year, the glycated hemoglobin or hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) test was used only for monitoring patients once they had been diagnosed with diabetes. In January 2010, however, the  American Diabetes Association Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes added the measure of HbA1c  6.5% as a criterion for the diagnosis of diabetes, in addition to the fasting glucose test and the oral glucose tolerance test.  Whether HbA1c should be used as a diagnostic tool has been questioned by some, and studies have shown that African...

Low vitamin D levels have been linked to an increased risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, depression and rheumatoid arthritis, among other diseases.  And a study published in 2009 in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that 70% of Caucasians, 90% of Hispanics and 97% of African Americans in the US have insufficient blood levels of vitamin D. The best way to determine whether or not you are deficient is to have your vitamin D blood levels measured, and you can ask your doctor to check...

Novo Nordisk announced results of its STEPwise™ trial, which identified a method of intensifying insulin treatment with NovoLog® (insulin aspart [rDNA origin] injection). The study, presented at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 2010 Scientific Sessions, demonstrated a reduction of A1c levels in type 2 diabetes patients when a dose of NovoLog® was introduced at meals, using two approaches that start with the largest meal of the day, in addition to once-daily Levemir® (insulin detemir [rDNA origin] injection) plus...