Just a few months ago, shortly after I began to introduce solid foods to my baby Adam’s diet, I noticed a fruity smell on his breath. Almost any mother in such a situation would have said to herself, “I’ve just fed my son banana-and-apple mush, therefore, he smells fruity.” My reaction, however, was different. I leaned in close to Adam’s face, sniffing at his breath the way I sometimes sniffed at his rear to check for a dirty diaper. He grabbed my cheeks and put his mouth on my nose as though I were inviting...

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, working in collaboration with colleagues from Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the University of Brighton, have used a unique collection of pancreas specimens taken from patients who died soon after diagnosis of type 1 diabetes to show that they respond to the ongoing process of destruction by inducing their islet cells to proliferate. The research is published on-line at Diabetologia and is funded by Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, according to Eurekalert. The findings are important...

In February, Newsweek published a report by Sharon Begley, “The Depressing News About Antidepressants.” Begley, citing a recent study in The Journal of American Medical Associations, and the previous work of psychology researchers, Irving Kirsch and Guy Sapirstein, argues that in most cases a placebo pill can be as effective in treating depression as an antidepressant – or in Begley’s words, “antidepressants are basically expensive Tic Tacs.” As someone who suffers from depression and has taken Prozac on and off since...

It is a cloudy Monday morning and I am about to head to UCSF’s Diabetes Teaching Center for my first afternoon in a 3 1/2 day insulin workshop. On the agenda for this afternoon? Diabetes-focused consultation and physical exam with an diabetologist Consultation with certified diabetes dietitian educator Consultation with certified diabetes nurse educator You might be wondering, as I am, why I have signed up to spend four full days learning about insulin a mere week and a half before I have to pack up all my belongings and move...

The other day I participated in an interview with Riva Greenberg about living with diabetes (more on our conversation later) and, as tends to happen when two diabetics start talking, we ended up on the subject of breakfast. “It’s my hardest meal,” I told Riva, confessing that after eating Fage 2% Greek yogurt nearly every morning for oh, the past five years, I have finally reached my breaking point. Maybe it’s the Symlin, maybe it’s general fatigue, but I can no longer make it through a cup full of the...

Bridget McNulty is a South African writer and journalist, and a Type 1 diabetic. Her first novel, Strange Nervous Laughter, was published in South Africa in 2007 and released in the USA in May 2009. She has written articles for a number of South African magazines, including ELLE, Real Simple, the Oprah magazine, Psychologies and Woman & Home, and frequently writes about diabetes. In 2008 she was voted one of Cosmopolitan magazine’s Awesome Women, an award extended to 30 South African women who are making a difference in their...

I just returned from a trip to Tokyo for work and am finally over my jet-lag and settling back into my old routine.  It was a crazy week: not much sleep, constantly walking, and encountering carb-laden foods wherever I turned. Soba noodles for breakfast, tempura with rice for lunch, dough-covered sweetened chestnuts for a snack — it was a recipe for disaster. And indeed that’s what I thought I’d be writing about for my first post upon my return. (I ate more noodles last week than I have in years.) But here’s...

I just had a lovely dip down to 38 mg/dl, so when I first saw a headline indicating that scientists had figured out a way to derive insulin from safflowers, I thought it might be time for another glucose tablet. But now that my blood sugar has rebounded, I can confirm that I was not, in fact, hallucinating: according to Canada’s CTV News, researchers at the University of Calgary have figured out a way to genetically manipulate safflower flowers to produce insulin. According to the article, “By inserting a human insulin...

Today’s a big day for anyone with Type 1 diabetes: JDRF just announced a partnership with the Animas Corporation to develop what they’re calling a “First-Generation Automated System for Managing Type 1 Diabetes.” Translation? They’re trying to make the first-ever artificial pancreas. Very, very exciting. To quote from the JDRF press release: The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation today announced an innovative partnership with Animas Corporation to develop an automated system to help people with type...

Having diabetes makes me pay attention to all sorts of things that, in my previous life, I could have cared less about. Like, for example, the different ways that cottage cheese and plain greek yogurt affect your blood sugar levels. Or how many grams of carbohydrate are in an avocado . This morning, I’m surprised to say that I am interested in pig pancreases. I was looking through my google news alerts and came across this article from the daily student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh (bookmarked in my browser right...