• So far I have written 482 articles for the Health Central Network about all aspects of diabetes. In July this website published six more of my new diabetes articles:
  

• The Chia Controversy. More people probably read my first article about chia seeds than any other post at HealthCentral. I recommended chia seeds, and so did most of the 112 people who commented so far at HealthCentral and 156 people who so far have made comments on the article that I mirror on my own website. But now after reading a report by Professor Loren Cordain of Colorado State University's department of health and exercise science, I am beginning to question whether we are wise to continue to eat chia seeds. In my attempt to resolve the questions about chia seeds I sponsored a sort of debate between Dr. Cordain and Dr. Wayne Coates, the main force behind chia seeds. The post on the Chia Controversy is their debate. Anyone who regularly eats chia seeds or is considering doing so needs to read ! their arguments. I don't claim that your decision will be an easy one. I still haven't totally made up my mind.
  

• Losing Weight the Easy Way. Taking a pill to lose weight would be the easy way -- if the drug were safe and if it worked. Unfortunately, for the 85 percent of people with diabetes who are overweight as well as the other 15 percent of us who like me struggle to keep their weight in check, the FDA probably won't be approving the most promising pill. Nevertheless, we already have two diabetes drugs that really work to help us both control our blood glucose and our weight. Even more important is the strategy of following a very low-carb diet to lose weight.

• Potato Poison. Many people with diabetes have already stopped eating potatoes for several reasons. Now we have one more.

• Social Media Summit. Getting together with 35 other people who have diabetes and write about it online is one of the best things about my work. I spent a full day with them at the second annual Social Media Summit sponsored by Roche Diabetes Care. I still find myself invigorated by having spent hours in the company of so many passionate people.
  

• Standing Up for Your Heart. Just standing up seems to work independently of physical activity to reduce your chance of dying from heart disease, the biggest complication of diabetes. Reading the research on which I based this article has persuaded me to get a desk where I can work on my computer while standing up. Does this persuade you too?

• Drug Interactions. My latest post simply links a directory of those drugs that can cause us to have hypos or high glucose levels or can mask hypos. This is a good list for all of us to keep handy.

If you have any interest in controlling your diabetes by low-carb eating, one of the best resources is Dr. Richard K. Bernstein's monthly webcast. It's an hour of excellent diabetes education.

Dr. Bernstein's next live tele-seminar is Wednesday, August 25, at 8:00 PM EST, 7:00 PM CST, 6:00 PM MST, and 5:00 PM PST. He designed it to answer your most important questions concerning diabetes and to offer his thoughts on the latest developments in this area. Dr. Bernstein's special topic this time is "According to the ACCORD Study, Tight Control May Increase Your Risk for Death." Counter Point: Dr. Bernstein will explain: "Why Tight Blood Glucose Control Will Not Kill You."

The seminar is free. You can click here to register: http://www.diabetes911.net/askdrb/index.php. It's also available as a live webcast both on the Internet and by phone.

Whenever you want to find anything that I have written about diabetes -- whether on my website or on the Health Central Network -- the easiest way is to use the search tool on my site. You can search for all of the articles on my site or for the "Diabetes Developments" blog or the "Fitness and Photography for Fun" blog or what I have written at Health Central.

Just go to mendosa.com/search and check which one of the four sites you want to search and enter what you want to find in the search block.

Announcements

Each month I describe and link my new Health Central articles here. But you can also use a blog reader to keep up with my articles more quickly. I use Bloglines, as I describe in my article, “Reading Health Blogs.” Go to Bloglines, click on feeds, click on add, (both in left pane), then in center pane enter at “Blog or Feed URL” click on www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/rss/. Alternatively, you can subscribe to my new articles at Health Central by taking your browser to http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/.

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