Our friend Mary Hunt was kind enough to pass me this in review of my experiences at Michigan State as a Spartan back in the '60s when they told me that smoking was better for me than eating with my diabetes! Many of you may be the beneficiaries of Mary's and my work over the years as we were adjusting insulin to our life-styles and eating habits many years before this was considered "medically acceptable." Heck the Brits and Germans are only coming to grips with this now, some 40 years after my US MDs had not only accepted it but demanded it! Pleaseobserve the date of this © Reuters article from London.
Anyhow, this was Mary's response:
Yes, I've raised some hell over there (at Michigan State University) at least three times now. 2 endos and a pediatrician and a bunch of people that stopped to listen. One of those endos lambasted me for not following the strict diet his dietician came up with, but when he saw my A1c result (6.7) the office call came to an abrupt halt. He was the one that wanted to put me on a pump and Humalog. I wish I had his email address, I'd send him this:
Diabetics
Can Fit
Insulin
Doses
Around
Lifestyle
October 04, 2002 02:51 AM ET © 2002 Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - More diabetics will soon benefit from a program which trains them to adjust insulin doses to suit their lifestyle and eating habits, giving them more freedom from the constraints of the illness, experts said on Friday.
A program called DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating), which was developed in Germany, lets diabetics adjust their insulin injections to fit around their eating habits, instead of organizing meals around treatments.
"You have to be sensible about what you want to eat but if you want to miss a meal or eat extra food this shows you how to control your insulin," said Simon O'Neill of the charity Diabetes UK.
The program is widely available in Germany and O'Neill said eight diabetes centers in Britain will also begin training courses soon. The approach is also being taken up by other European countries but in slightly different ways.
A trial of the program reported in The British Medical Journal showed it gives people with Type 1 diabetes, which accounts for about 10 percent of cases, the opportunity to have a more spontaneous, normal life.
"We
have
shown, in
a group of
volunteers,
that
skills
training
in insulin
adjustment
that
provides
patients
with the
ability to
fit
diabetes
into their
lives rather
than their
lives into
diabetes
improves
quality of
life,"
said Simon
Heller of
Northern
General
Hospital
in
Sheffield,
northern
England.
The doctors randomly divided 169 patients to receive normal treatment or to be part of a five-day DAFNE training course to learn to adjust their insulin doses to match their food choices.
Heller said the DAFNE patients were happier with their course of treatment and reported good blood sugar control. They also said it had improved their quality of life.
Diabetes affects about 130 million people worldwide and kills 2.8 million a year. Experts estimate the number of sufferers will increase to 220 million by the year 2010.
The illness can cause kidney failure, strokes, heart attacks, blindness and nerve damage.
Patients with Type 1 diabetes, do not produce insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy.
Those with Type 2 diabetes, the more common and milder form of the illness, cannot metabolize insulin properly.
There is much to be said for this Reuters Article! They comprehend the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 and the fact that taking insulin is NOT the distinguishing factor. They also seem to understand that glycemic control is a function of insulin, diet, and exercise, the tripod of diabetes care for all diabetics regardless of type.
This article is presented here as a public service to our fellow diabetics.
Life was so much easier on beef, beef-pork and pork insulins!