A few months ago I wrote about Eva Saxl, a type 1 diabetic who managed to survive World War II in the Shanghai ghetto by making homemade insulin. After immigrating to the United States, Saxl became a spokeswoman for the American Diabetes Association. During the era in which Saxl lived, there was a serious stigma attached to having diabetes. As a result, most diabetics went to great lengths to hide their condition from others. Saxl’s willingness to speak openly about diabetes was revolutionary. As I researched Saxl’s life, I was...

Kirstie Alley has battled her weight very publicly for the last few years. You may remember she went on Oprah a few years ago at nearly 230 pounds and was Jenny Craig’s celebrity spokesperson until Valerie Bertinelli took the baton. We saw Alley lose weight through a montage of timely commercials. After losing 75 pounds she modeled her new svelte figure on Oprah in a bikini. Then she gained back the 75 pounds, and 10 more. Now Kirstie’s back with the hope to lose it all again and document it through a reality show,...

Dear Oprah, I’ve been thinking about what I said to you and Gayle in my last letter. You know, about doing another show on diabetes. One where you don’t scare anyone and you actually have a few diabetes experts on. I’ve heard from a lot of people that they would really love that. They’d also love to see some people with diabetes who did use it as a wake-up call to get healthier and how they did that. Since my mind was just racing about this last night, I wrote down a few notes about how it could go. I...

Oprah’s program last Thursday, “Diabetes: America’s Silent Killer” began a buzz in diabetes communities, and a roar in some. I follow up my post last week, Oprah Takes On Diabetes — I Still Have a Request, with people’s reactions and a heart-felt plea. Dear Oprah and Gayle, I’m emboldened by all the comments my article received on your show last Thursday about diabetes, to write to you directly. Just in case you haven’t had time to look, you got a lot of comments too. Ordinarily...

I give Oprah two thumbs up for the intervention she attempted a few days ago on her Oprah Winfrey Show, “Diabetes: America’s Silent Killer.” She reached her arms out as if embracing the 80 million Americans who have diabetes and pre-diabetes, and declared it’s time for a wake-up call. I hope it will be for the millions who struggle to manage their diabetes and for the six million Americans who have diabetes and don’t yet know it. By her side were Dr. Oz, heart surgeon and health guru, who got us...

A few weeks ago, I woke up at 3 a.m. with excruciating chest, arm, neck, and back pain.  It was the kind of pain that resembled everything I’d ever read or heard about the pain which precedes a heart attack. I don’t know what the typical response is for a man who senses that he’s experiencing a cardiac emergency, but my response was probably a textbook example of what not to do: I stayed in bed and let my thoughts run wild. This can’t be a heart attack. I’m not breaking out in a cold sweat. I’m a healthy...

credit: © RD / Kabik / Retna Digital Oh, Dr. Oz, what has happened that you are adding to the myths of diabetes? For you to say, “Type 1 is also called juvenile diabetes and you are born with it” here on the HuffPost? Type 1 has not been called juvenile diabetes for years, says pediatric endocrinologist Francine Kaufman in her book, Diabesity: The Obesity-Diabetes Epidemic That Threatens America, and much more important, you are not necessarily born with it. According to the International Diabetes Federation “The...

I’ve continued to think about a topic from Oprah’s show last week “Diabetes–America’s Silent Killer,” that I didn’t mention in my last post: the ways in which type 2 diabetes can insinuate itself into the culture of an ethnic or racial group. We learn how to eat as children. If our parents eat unhealthily, and later develop type 2 diabetes because of it, chances are that we will also become diabetic if we continue to eat our childhood favorites. One of Oprah’s guests mentioned that many people who have parents...

I give Oprah two thumbs up for the intervention she attempted a few days ago on her Oprah Winfrey Show, “Diabetes: America’s Silent Killer.” She reached her arms out as if embracing the 80 million Americans who have diabetes and pre-diabetes, and declared it’s time for a wake-up call. I hope it will be for the millions who struggle to manage their diabetes and for the six million Americans who have diabetes and don’t yet know it. By her side were Dr. Oz, heart surgeon and health guru, who got us “oohing”...

Yesterday’s episode of the Oprah Winfrey show, which focused on diabetes, was subtitled “America’s Silent Killer.” Diabetes is a “silent” killer, according to Oprah, because so many diabetics are either unaware that they have the disease, or simply live in denial of the seriousness of their condition. Unlike most other life-threatening diseases, diabetes often does not pose an immediate danger to those who have it. This allows diabetics to have a “I’ll change tomorrow” rather than an “I’ll change today” approach...