Number 53; January 16, 2003

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Rafting down the “Green” River

This newsletter keeps you up-to-date with new articles, columns, and Web pages that I have written. I list and link most of these on my Diabetes Directory at www.mendosa.com/diabetes.htm

From time to time Diabetes Update may also include links to other Web pages of special interest.

My most recent contributions are:

• Email News
  In my current column on the Web site of the American Diabetes Association I come close to giving away the big secret of how I keep up-to-date on diabetes developments. The column covers news sources that you can subscribe to and have them come directly into your email inbox. These are pretty good sources, but frankly they don’t compare to Google News and Yahoo! News. Also, I didn’t mention What’s New With Children with Diabetes, because its presentation leaves so much to be desired. However, I always find interesting links there. It comes by email every Sunday evening, and you can subscribe at http://www.castleweb.com:81/guest/RemoteListSummary/cwd_whatsnew. The URL for my column on Email News is http://www.diabetes.org/main/community/info_news/web/default.jsp

Updates include:

• Palm GI Database
  Just added to my main glycemic index page at http://www.mendosa.com/gi.htm is a link to a database of glycemic index and glycemic load values for the Palm operating system. This is equivalent to http://diabetes.about.com/library/mendosagi/ngilists.htm for desktop computers. Thanks to Stephen Jackson for the database. You will need the Palm Mobile DB database program to view the file data. This is available free for download to your PC at http://www.handmark.com/products/mobiledb .

• New Becton Dickinson Meters
  Becton Dickinson, which until now has been in the diabetes marketplace primarily as a syringe and lancet manufacturer, will introduce two new meters in February or March (one of them has been available in Canada for a few months). Both meters—the BD Latitude and the BD Logic—will deliver your results in just 5 seconds and require a very small drop of blood—only 3µL (0.3 microliters). That’s as little blood as TheraSense meters, which, however, take 15 seconds to return a result. But unlike TheraSense meters, BD does not recommend them for alternative site testing. A customer service representative even told me that they haven’t even been so tested. The Latitude is a complete system including an insulin pen, while the Logic is a stand-alone meter.

  Personally, I just got a new Accu-Chek Compact meter. My new health insurance provider only covers meters and strips from Roche (Accu-Chek) and Abbott MediSense (Precision Xtra or Q.I.D only). I switched from an alternative site meter, the Precision Sof-Tact, which uses MediSense test strips that the insurance doesn’t cover. I was reluctant to switch from the Sof-Tact, because testing with it is almost always essentially painless even if it took more time than most new meters.

  My new Compact meter is quite fast, uses a small drop of blood, small, and very convenient with a drum containing 17 test strips, which I never even have to touch. I never thought that I would go back to testing on my finger tips, but it is not quite as bad as I remembered.

  Previously I used a LifeScan One Touch Basic, One Touch Profile, One Touch FastTake, One Touch Ultra, Bayer Glucometer Dex, Glucometer Elite XL, TheraSense FreeStyle. In addition, I tested half dozen others briefly for my articles. The Compact has to rate with me as the easiest and most convenient to use of any of these meters. Theoretically, the Glucometer Dex 2, which uses a 10-strip cartridge, comes close, but is considerably bigger and my experience with its predecessor, the Glucometer Dex, was quite unsatisfactory in terms of accuracy.

  BD has a good point (pun not intended) in emphasizing the lancet used with the company’s new meters. BD is noted as the quality (high-cost) producer of syringes and lancets. The BD Ultra-Fine 33 Lancets are the thinnest lancets on the market. My guess is that they are 33 gauge, but it is just a reasonable guess, because nowhere does the BD site explicitly make that point (a customer service representative confirms that they are 33 gauge). I have long used the 30 gauge BD Ultra-Fine II Lancets and would love to switch to the finer lancets. But BD says they will only work with the BD Lancet device and with the new BD meters. However, a customer service representative says that the new 33 gauge lancets will fit in a regular BD lancing device, which of course is the same size as most other lancing devices. Maybe the problem is that the drop of blood that the new lancets provide might be too small to use with any other brand of meter (except TheraSense meters, which use the same small blood sample), but I will certainly test the new lancets as soon as I can buy them.

  I have updated my “On-line Diabetes Resources Part 14: Blood Glucose Meters” Web page at http://www.mendosa.com/meters.htm accordingly.

Research News

• C-Reactive Proteins
  A new study by physicians at the University of California, Davis, is the first one to conclusively link C-reactive proteins to the formation of blood clots. The study will appear in the January 25 edition of the journal Circulation, a publication of the American Heart Association. Previously, CRP had been recognized as a risk marker for heart disease.

  “The effect of CRP is especially acute for patients with diabetes and metabolic syndrome,” Sridevi Devaraj, a co-investigator and assistant professor of pathology at UC Davis, says in the university’s press release.

  There had already been considerable concern about CRP among some of us who have diabetes. One of the diabetes mailing lists that I subscribe to has included several messages encouraging us to get our CRP level tested. So, last week I asked my endocrinologist why he hadn’t ordered a CRP test for me. His reply was interesting and persuasive.

  “I wouldn’t know what to make of the results,” he replied. “Because you have diabetes, I already know that you are at risk of heart disease.”

Book Review:

• The New Glucose Revolution
  I just reviewed this book two issues ago, so I’m not going to repeat it here. This is just an update to tell you how well it’s doing. “New Glucose has been #1 on Amazon since yesterday afternoon,” Publisher Matthew Lore wrote me this morning. He added later that BN.com also had it as #1 (when I looked, it was #2). He knows of my interest in the book because he discovered the original Australian edition on my Web site before publishing U.S. editions himself. Undoubtedly, sales got a major boost from Jean Carper’s “EatSmart” column in this past weekend’s USA Weekend magazine. Her column is also online.

Boilerplate:

• I send out Diabetes Update e-mail in HTML format, which all Web browsers and most modern e-mail programs can display. HTML has live links to all the sites named in the text so that with a simple click of a mouse you can connect to the site you have just been reading about.

• This newsletter is free and will never include advertising. Nor will I ever sell, rent, or trade your e-mail address to anyone.

Archives:

I send out Diabetes Update about twice a month. Previous issues are online:

• Diabetes Update Number 1: Diabetes Genes of December 10, 2000
  
• Diabetes Update Number 2: DiabetesWATCH of December 18, 2000
  
• Diabetes Update Number 3: Starlix of January 3, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 4: Native Seeds/SEARCH, Tepary Beans of January 17, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 5: Insulin Makes You Fat of January 31, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 6: Available and Unavailable Carbohydrates of February 15, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 7: Dates of March 1, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 8: Quackwatch of March 15, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 9: The Cost of Insulin of March 30, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 10: Sof-Tact Meter of April 2, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 11: iControlDiabetes of April 16, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 12: Cinnamon, Tagatose of May 2, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 13: Glycemic Index of May 15, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 14: Eat Your Carrots! of May 31, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 15: Glycemic Load of June 21, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 16: Homocysteine of July 2, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 17: Chana Dal Tips of July 15, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 18: Lag Time in AlternativeLand of August 2, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 19: Fiber of August 15, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 20: How Diabetes Works of August 30, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 21: Insulin Resistance of September 14, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 22: Trans Fats, Honey, CU of October 1, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 23: Pedometer Power of October 15, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 24: Is Glycerin a Carbohydrate? of October 31, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 25: Kill the Meter to Save It of November 15, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 26: Protein, Fat, and the GI of December 1, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 27: Insulin Index of December 14, 2001
  
• Diabetes Update Number 28: Fructose of January 4, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 29: Aspirin of January 14, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 30: Stevia of January 31, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 31: Gretchen Becker’s Book of February 19, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 32: The UKPDS of March 4, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 33: Financial Aid of March 18, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 34: Pre-Diabetes of April 1, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 35: More Glycemic Indexes of April 15, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 36: Gila Monsters of April 30, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 37: Is INGAP a Cure? of May 15, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 38: Native American Diabetes of June 3, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 39: FDA Diabetes of June 19, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 40: Diabetes Support Groups of July 1, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 41: New GI and GL Table of July 15, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 42: Diabetes Sight of August 1, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 43: DrugDigest of August 18, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 44: Hanuman Garden of September 3, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 45: Guidelines of September 16, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 46: Trans Fat of October 4, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 47: Nutrition.Gov of October 16, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 48: Our Hearts of October 31, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 49: Our Kidneys of November 15, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 50: A1C<7 of December 2, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 51: Diabetes Searches with Google of December 16, 2002
  
• Diabetes Update Number 52: e-Patients of January 2, 2003

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© Copyright 2003 David Mendosa. All Rights Reserved.

David Mendosa:
A Writer on the Web: www.mendosa.com
E-mail: mendosa@mendosa.com

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