First, an update to my previous post, which was supposed to be about anti-CD3 monoclonal antibodies but was rudely interrupted when I dropped my pump in the toilet: this was a bad idea. Despite the fact that the pump had spent approximately .3 of a second dipped into the tank, it decided it had a “button error” and stopped working, leaving me stranded in Yosemite with no pump and a bottle of Lantus that expired in 2007. I got NPH from the emergency clinic (NPH can be sold over the counter — who knew?) and have spent...

I’ve got an interview up today with Dan Hurley, author of the new book, Diabetes Rising — and wanted to write a quick blog post to mention one of my favorite parts of the book: Hurley’s ear for analogies for life with diabetes that are so spot-on that I made my husband listen as I read them out loud. Consider this simile, courtesy of a systems engineer working on the software to control a closed-loop insulin pump, about why controlling blood sugar is so difficult — especially since, as Hurley points out, it...

Our family jokes about how our dinner conversation is always in regard to what is on the menu for the next meal.  We like to eat.  We like to eat almost anything, although we also consider ourselves gastronomical snobs.  None of us ever stops in at a fast food joint, even in a dire emergency.  Food is just too respected among us to ever lower ourselves to the quickie Big Mac or Double Double.  We cook from the Julia Child’s cookbooks, research epicurean specialties, and because my parents are Texans we can innately grill any...

Unlike the more aggressive form of diabetes, Type 1, where the immune system actively searches out and kills islet cells, in Type 2, the cells die through a long process of overwork and poor waste management. Insulin, as you probably know, is the hormone that  plays the important role of getting fuel (glucose) into cells.  It’s also involved in the storage of glucose, and in getting glucose out of the bloodstream. This is important because glucose is reactive. Exposing tissues to high blood glucose is like exposing metal to...