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Manage Your Diabetes with Diabetes University

Ever since 1969 when Richard K. Bernstein became the first person with diabetes to use a blood glucose meter and discover the huge impact that carbohydrates have on our blood sugar, he has been committed to helping the rest of us manage our diabetes. He has helped thousands of patients who have diabetes, written nine books and more than 100 articles about it, and continues to offer free monthly webcasts.

But only now has he established a diabetes university.

Dick Bernstein suffered from type 1 diabetes beginning in 1946 when he was 12 years old. He was an engineer in 1969 when he spent $650 for the first Ames Reflectance Meter, as I wrote at “Diabetes Wellness Letter.” That’s at least $4,000 in today’s money and, depending on the index you use, perhaps much more.

Before then, nobody realized the damage that carbs do. But even though he found out by regularly checking his level and then wrote about it, as a layperson he wasn’t able to convince the medical establishment. There was only one other thing that he could do.

So in 1979 at the advanced age of 45 he went back to school and became a medical doctor. In 1983 he became an endocrinologist sub-specializing in diabetology and has practiced near New York City ever since then.

Medicine is finally coming around to recognize that carbs, not fats, are the enemy of diabetes (as well as of obesity, PCOS, and perhaps many other illnesses including Alzheimer’s disease). More than anyone else, Dr. Bernstein has led this revolution, which I personally accepted many years ago to my great benefit that I have documented here.

Like Dr. Bernstein himself, his new diabetes university is not the usual thing. It doesn’t have any fees, exams, or stress. It is nothing but videos of him imparting the best information that exists about how to manage your diabetes.

The first two sessions are online now. You can start studying immediately when you go on YouTube to “Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes University: A Video Guide to Normal Blood Sugars.”

I have watched both of them with great interest and continue to learn from Dr. Bernstein even though I have worked with him for years. Since we have only talked on the phone and exchanged correspondence, I was delighted to see him in the videos.

When I interviewed Dr. Bernstein for another article a week or two ago, he mentioned to me in passing that his Diabetes University was finally getting off the ground. A few days later when I found it online, I noticed that the producers are R.D. Dikeman and his son David, 11.

R.D., who has a Ph.D. degree in theoretical physics, is chief scientist at Lockheed Martin in Honolulu, Hawaii. David was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in March 2013. As they documented on David’s journey with diabetes, he suffered from the high-carbohydrate diet that the doctors at the hospital had him on until the Dikeman family discovered Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution.

Dr. Bernstein’s guidance in the book saved David’s life, and he began to manage his diabetes, R.D. told me. “My son, David, has tested his A1C levels this year at 4.4, 4.9, 4.7, 5.1, and 4.9. His blood sugar records with his Dexcom continuous glucose monitoring system have him at a 82.8 mg/dl average.”

“Dr. Bernstein’s laws of small numbers really resonated with me,” R.D. told me. The Dikemans began to listen to Dr. Bernstein’s free teleseminars. “In one of them Dr. Bernstein said that he wanted to expand his social media presence. So I called him.”

Each of the videos will be 10 to 15 minutes long, R.D. told me. He expects that they will eventually have about 50 of them.

So that I will be able to see each of the video sessions as soon as they go online, I subscribed to them, once R.D. explained how. “To be advised of new videos you need tell YouTube that you want to subscribe and also go to the ‘my subscriptions’ checkbox at the top of the YouTube.com home page and then click on the ‘send me updates’ checkbox by clicking on the wheel icon next to the ‘subscribe’ button.”

The videos on Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes University are a gift from him and the Dikeman family to the diabetes community. At this season of giving, they can be the biggest gifts of all. They can save your life.

This article is based on an earlier version of my article published by HealthCentral.

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  • saddaf at

    hello David

    what is your take on barley ? i know dr. bernstein does not allow any grain in his book but any studies that you may have read??
    barley is widely acknowledged in my country as beneficial for diabetes as well as daal channa
    regards

    • David Mendosa at

      Dear Saddaf,

      Barley, particular hullless barley, must have a quite low glycemic index and therefore have less effect on our blood sugar. But be careful. While whole barley has a GI of about 28, Indian barley for some reason has a GI of about 48 and barley porridge has a GI of about 65, which certainly is not low. Hullless barley is probably the lowest, but nobody knows for sure what it’s GI is, because it hasn’t been tested for it. Anyway, the GI of any barley is considerably higher than that of chana dal, which is about 10, one of the lowest of all carbohydrate foods. Barley is great — but only because it substitutes for rice, which will raise our blood sugar a whole lot. Barley certainly isn’t as good for our blood sugar as those foods that are lower GI.

      With metta,
      David

  • Philip Thackray at

    David,
    I was just catching up on Peter’s Hyperlipid blog when I saw this post:
    http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2014/12/accord-and-musings-on-insulin.html
    The comments are interesting as well.
    Perhaps you have seen this post.
    Regards,
    Phil

    • David Mendosa at

      Dear Philip,

      Thanks for sharing this excellent post.

      With metta,
      David