Number 90; January 1, 2006

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My most recent articles are:

• Blogging: RSS Feed
  My blog at http://blogs.healthcentral.com/diabetes/david-mendosa now has an RSS feed. So it’s a real blog now! What this means for you is that now each of my blog entries will automatically come into your blog reader as they go online once you subscribe by clicking on the “RSS” at the end of the third column of each of my blog entries. Among the many excellent (and free) blog readers are Bloglines, which I use to keep up with all the blogs that I follow.

  My new blog entries for December are:

  • Double-Blind Studies at http://blogs.healthcentral.com/diabetes/david-mendosa/double-blind-studies-2005-12-16. The double-blind placebo-controlled trial is one of the major scientific advances of the 20th century.

  • Foot Saving Gadgets at http://blogs.healthcentral.com/diabetes/david-mendosa/foot-saving-gadgets-2005-12-06. Three new devices and one that is on the way can prevent needless amputations from diabetic neuropathy.

  • Taming the Dawn Phenomenon at http://blogs.healthcentral.com/diabetes/david-mendosa/taming-the-dawn-phenomenon-2005-12-06. We have several strategies to avoid having higher blood glucose when we wake up than when we have gone to bed.

  • Overcoming Burnout at http://blogs.healthcentral.com/diabetes/david-mendosa/overcoming-burnout-2005-12-06. Of course you will get burned out from constantly dealing with diabetes. It’s what you do next that counts.

  • Searching MEDLINE at http://blogs.healthcentral.com/diabetes/david-mendosa/searching-medline-2005-12-24. Where do you go if you are trying to check out a mainstream drug or treatment for diabetes? The answer is MEDLINE.

  • The Best Grain at http://blogs.healthcentral.com/diabetes/david-mendosa/the-best-grain-2005-12-24. The best grain is certainly a certain form of barley.

  • Reese’s Peanut Butter Bluff at http://blogs.healthcentral.com/diabetes/david-mendosa/whither-reeses-2005-12-24. I was so excited to read that there is now a sugar-free version of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. My excitement is gone.

  • Learning with Grillo at http://blogs.healthcentral.com/diabetes/david-mendosa/learning-with-grillo-2005-12-26. The Grillo Health Care Information Center is a great resource for anyone with diabetes and anyone else seeking health information. And it’s free.

• Meter Variability

  Our blood glucose meters are too variable. I have been writing that for years, and it’s not just my opinion. Now experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have studied a representative sample of the available blood glucose meters and their test strips. They found way too much variability. They published their results in a highly technical article full of statistics in the journal Clinica Chimica Acta. I did my best to explain their findings in normal English. For my article about meter variability please read it in the January 2006 issue of Diabetes Health magazine or read it on my website at http://www.mendosa.com/variability.htm

• Educational Materials: Meters

  For those of us who are looking for educational materials about diabetes, it’s only people like us who use the Web are in luck. For my article about educational materials on meters please read it in the Fall 2005 issue of Diabetes Health’s “Diabetes Educational Resource Guide” or read it on my website at http://www.mendosa.com/educ_materials.htm

Book Reviews:

• Fit and Fat

  You can stop worrying about your weight. It’s more important — to say nothing of being more realistic — to become more active every day. Fitness trumps weight loss for people with diabetes, almost all of whom are overweight.

  This is the welcomed and inspiring message of Sheri Colberg, PhD. You can be healthy even if you have excess body fat. No matter what you weigh, regular exercise will make you healthier. Dieting probably won’t because it usually fails because of subsequent rebound in weight. This yo-yo dieting isn’t good for anyone’s health.

  As I read Dr. Colberg’s book, I kept thinking that it is even more important for overweight people with diabetes to exercise than it is for those of normal weight. Since I didn’t remember that she made that point, I asked her.

  “Yes, I would agree with that,” she replied. “Although it is better to be ‘fit and fat,’ it is always best to be ‘fit and thin’ if possible.”

  Her new book, The 7 Step Diabetes Fitness Plan, is the third book of this exercise physiologist and associate professor of exercise science at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Last year I reviewed her second book, Diabetes-Free Kids, here.

  Dr. Colberg is not only an academic specializing in exercise. Equally relevant credentials are the diabetes that she has lived with most of her life and her own exercise regimen.

  When is the best time to exercise? I was fascinated with her report of a study showing that blood glucose levels of some men with diabetes who had moderate control dropped dramatically when they exercised two hours after eating breakfast. When they exercised before breakfast, their levels hardly dropped at all. These finding are based on “Prior meal enhances the plasma glucose lowering effect of exercise in type 2 diabetes” by Paul Poirier and his associates at Quebec’s Laval University. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise published this report in its August 2001 issue.

  Even if dieting is a mistake, a good diet certainly isn’t. Dr. Colberg in fact devotes as much of this excellent book to a healthy diet as she does to healthy exercise.

  Sheri R. Colberg’s 7 Step Diabetes Fitness Plan is a 262-page trade paperback listed at $15.95. Marlowe & Company in New York will publish it on January 10, 2006. The ISBN is 1-56924-331-X.

• Joslin Guide

  The oldest and most prestigious diabetes clinic is the first in the United States to endorse the concept of the glycemic index and glycemic load.

  Last year the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston published its diet and exercise guidelines for overweight people with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes. This “Clinical Nutrition Guideline For Overweight and Obese Adults With Type 2 Diabetes, Prediabetes or at High Risk for Developing Type 2 Diabetes” seems to be to be the soundest and most up-to-date of any such recommendations.

  Dr. Colberg’s 7 Step book, which I reviewed above, brought this breakthrough in American acceptance of the glycemic index to my attention. And now the Joslin clinic has come out with the second edition of its Joslin Guide to Diabetes, which also endorses the glycemic index.

  The Joslin Guide has its roots in Joslin clinic founder Dr. Elliott P. Joslin’s Diabetes Manual. The first of 12 editions appeared between 1918 and the 1970s, when it evolved into the Joslin Guide.

  This is a first-rate reference book, but not something that you will want to read straight through. It’s so packed full of information that it’s not a book that you can read for pleasure.

  By Richard S. Beaser, M.D., and Amy P. Campbell, The Joslin Guide to Diabetes is a 431-page trade paperback listed at $16.95. It is a Fireside Book published by Simon & Schuster on November 1. The ISBN is # 0-7432-5784-7.

Announcements:

• This Newsletter
  Diabetes Update keeps you up-to-date with new articles, Web pages, and books that I have written about diabetes.

  I list and link most of these on my at Diabetes Directory and in the site’s menu.

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

• HTML Format
  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.

• My Guarantee
  This newsletter:
  1. Is and will remain free.
  2. Will never include advertising (except targeted Google ads at the bottom of the web page and not in the email newsletter).
  3. Nor will I ever sell, rent, or trade your e-mail address to anyone.
  4. I will link sources of information.
  5. I will disclose any conflict of interest.
  6. If and when I learn of any errors of fact, I will correct them.

Archives:

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© Copyright 2006 David Mendosa. All Rights Reserved.

David Mendosa
A Writer on the Web: www.mendosa.com
E-mail: mendosa@mendosa.com
Office: 993 E. Moorhead Circle Suite 2F, Boulder, CO 80305