Sometimes I think this blog should have a category called “It’s worse than you think” or “I’m really not exaggerating,” or maybe just “More scary news.” Sometimes I even get the feeling that people think I may be overstating the urgency of the diabetes epidemic. So I gathered together a few statistics for you. Continue reading
Tag Archives: diabetes
Giving Your Body the Help it Needs
Some years ago, when my patient, Mrs. Price, heard me say that her blood sugar measurement had come back from the lab at 204, a single tear ran down her cheek as she said, “My eldest granddaughter is getting married next year.” A blood sugar measurement over 200 is one way to confirm a diagnosis of diabetes. Both of Mrs. Price’s parents had died in their 60’s from complications of uncontrolled diabetes, or chronically elevated high blood sugars. This is what I told her. Continue reading
Learning to Keep Your Blood Sugars Normal
As a doctor, it’s easy enough for me to think I understand a disease state, and then to know how to manage it with medication to be taken two or three times daily. I spent hours and hours studying that problem. I talked with patients who were diagnosed with that illness, and learned how it changed their lives. But it’s still not the same as having someone close to you diagnosed with it. Continue reading
My TEDx Talk
It’s been about ten years since I gave this talk at Ursuline College in Cleveland, Ohio. That’s quite a long time. I remember there weren’t enough spaces for the whole title, so it was changed from Your Health to Our Health. That also works. There’s a lot here that I still use, Continue reading
I Like My Patients to be Vertical
Throughout my years of practicing medicine, I liked to say that I preferred my patients vertical. As opposed to horizontal.
If and when I could help it, I wanted to make sure that no one got a disease that could have been prevented. Sure, accidents happen. And illnesses, sometimes serious, are diagnosed every day in the lives of people who did nothing to deserve them, and who could have done nothing to prevent them. But not all illnesses. Continue reading
Back to the Basics
Lately I’ve been feeling a desire to return to talking about the basics. The question of how I personally began thinking about wellness, prevention and nutrition is as basic a place to start as any. And while it is very true that my own parents’ commitment to nourishing food, their common sense approach to life, and the fact that they lived their values for almost 45 years on their farm in the New Jersey’s Watchung Mountains set a sure foundation for my interest in fresh food and good health, today’s post is the story of how I made these passions my own. Continue reading
Inspiration & Motivation for Your Reading Pleasure
On a regular basis, I have to tell a new patient that their blood sugars are too high. But please don’t shoot the messenger: It’s nothing personal. Not when the latest statistics reveal that fully one-half of the population over age 65 is now diabetic or prediabetic. And certainly not when the stats show that the majority don’t even know. Unbelievable, right? But it’s true. It’s either you or your spouse. You or your next-door neighbor. You or your best friend. Fifty percent. It doesn’t have to be this way. Continue reading
The Glycemic Index
Many people have heard of the glycemic index (GI), but they are not exactly sure what it means, or how it works. A low glycemic index diet is thought to significantly lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, coronary heart disease and even certain cancers. This is probably true, but not for the reasons people think. Continue reading