To think like a pancreas is to come as close as possible to matching your insulin level to what your body actually needs. This is what your body would do automatically if you didn’t have diabetes. But with a little help from insulin injections or an insulin pump and a lot of guidance about how to use insulin you can do it.
Guidance aplenty is what Gary Scheiner serves up in the completely revised and updated second edition of his most appropriately titled book, Think Like a Pancreas. When I reviewed the first edition in 2004 for my “Diabetes Update” newsletter, it was great, but this edition is both better and more comprehensive. It can guide its readers to learn how to match the amount, timing, and type of insulin that they take to their needs.
The proper timing of insulin injections has always seemed to be to be one of the trickiest aspects of insulin use. That’s why in 2007 I asked Gary to write a little article about it for my website. His article, “Postprandial Hyperglycemia: It’s All in the Timing,” covers the basics of insulin timing. But Think Like a Pancreas covers it completely.