Diabetes Basics

Many of us who have diabetes worry whether we have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. But particularly for those of us who take insulin, it may not be worth the stress. And for many of us it certainly can’t be diagnosed definitively.

Determining which of these two main types of diabetes we have isn’t easy even for endocrinologists, much less the primary care physicians who most often try to help us manage our diabetes. For some of us, none of the tests can tell us for sure whether we have one type of diabetes or another.

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If we had a cure for diabetes, we would be so happy.

No more needles or pills! We wouldn’t have to consider how every tasty morsel we put in our mouths would raise our blood sugar or remember to exercise even when we would rather sit on our easy chairs. We wouldn’t have to do regular fingersticks, despair over our A1C levels, or moan about our BMI. We could relax.

Graphic courtesy of Ginger Viera

When Dr. Frederick Banting isolated insulin in 1922, the world hailed him for discovering the cure for diabetes, awarding him and Professor J.J.R. Macloud the 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine.  Life saving for anyone with type 1 diabetes, insulin certainly is, but we all now know that it is no cure.

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“Did anybody ever tell you that you have diabetes?”  Since you are reading this, my guess is that somebody gave you this diagnosis.

On February 7, 1994, Dr. Joseph Blum, my primary care physician at the VA Clinic in Santa Barbara, California, broke the news to me with those words. He added that my A1C level was 14.4. Before that nobody had even hinted that I had diabetes.

I didn’t know enough about diabetes to be shocked, to panic, or go into denial. These the reactions that many people have when they learn that they will have to live with this disease for the rest of their lives.

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We have known for a long time that vitamin D is important for our health. Recently scientists discovered that it helps us stave off heart disease and regulate our diabetes. But until now they couldn’t tell us how much vitamin D we need to get each day to help us manage our blood sugar levels.

The Sunshine Vitamin on the Yellowstone River

Just a week ago I pointed out in my most recent article here, “Best Vitamin D Choices for Diabetes,” that “the experts still haven’t decided on precisely how much vitamin D we need.” They just did.

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Scientists and doctors have begun to recognize that almost all of us need to get more vitamin D. Those of us who have diabetes often have very low levels of vitamin D in our systems.

The experts still haven’t decided on precisely how much vitamin D we need or the best ways to get it. But two massive new studies have shed much needed light, including a finding that the type of vitamin D that doctors usually prescribe doesn’t help at all.

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The twin epidemics of diabetes and obesity might be connected with our increasing sleep deprivation. But how?

A professor at UC San Diego’s School of Medicine and her colleagues determined to find if they might be related. Ruth Patterson, Ph.D., led a unique study that just came out and finally offered some tested answers.

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