Since I started my practice as an endocrinologist, I’ve had tens of thousands of office visits, mainly seeing people with diabetes. Here’s my wish list of some of the things people with diabetes should know, and do, to succeed.
Category: Health
It is entirely possible that your teen heads out the door at 6:30 a.m. and does not return until 7 p.m. With sports, clubs, drama, jobs, and more, teens are busy—and away from watchful parents—often 50 percent of the day or longer. So how do you keep them safe?
That’s right. While I worked hard and constantly not only to keep my daughter with diabetes healthy: blood checks, doctors appointments, the seemingly endless battle with insurance, educating others, setting things up so she could embrace the life of a “normal” child, etc, I forgot to focus on me.
No matter the season, Mother Nature can wreak havoc in our lives. Other emergencies can turn our world upside down. For those people with type 1 diabetes,…
Diet, exercise, and herbs couldn’t cure my diabetes. I was eager to know if he did know what would cure me. The doctor's take on my health was that I was overly sensitive due to environmental factors. Electromagnetic frequencies were affecting my blood sugar levels and the heavy amounts of supplements I was taking were damaging my liver.
Worry in itself is anxiety-inducing, and with diabetes I am constantly worried and feeling guilty for every high and low reading that I get. The apprehension I get from the numbers make it hard for me to not regret decisions I’ve made. I get a lot of nausea with my high and low readings, and those trigger anxiety attacks.
I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression issues for as long as I can remember. When I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes twelve years ago at the age of 22, I began to experience prominent physical symptoms of anxiety and depression, which often manifested as uncomfortable GI and stomach upset. Some months ago I had a colonoscopy and a gastric endoscopy. There was nothing clinically wrong with me, except the one place nobody looked. My mind.
10 Skills and Strategies for Healthier Restaurant Eating targets common behaviors we all have and suggests ways we can set ourselves up for success when we do eat out.
Morning sickness sucks for everyone, but for women with pre-existing diabetes, it can be dangerous: if you eat food and take insulin – and then throw up the food you took the insulin to cover – you’re at risk of a serious low blood sugar. (And unfortunately, “morning sickness” can occur at any time during the day, contrary to its name.) Making things even trickier, many women with morning sickness find that easy-to-digest carbs like saltines and pretzels are the easiest thing to keep down – foods that are hardly a diabetic’s best friend.
The hospital provided Finn with that break, not from chronic illness, but from being different. Diabetes camp is often celebrated for offering kids exactly this—much needed relief from being different. Although in the hospital, he was the lone patient with Type 1 diabetes, he was by far the most regular kid on the unit. So even though he had to get an injection before each meal, he was surrounded by kids who had much more cumbersome treatments.