My rather lengthy article based on our Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes Book finally appears in the Sept/Oct 2007 issue of Diabetes Self-Management magazine!

The article focus is, naturally, Avoiding Diabetic Complications.  It's titled "Nurturing Your Health Bank," (that's the online link) and you'll find it in the print version of the magazine on page 29.   Drawing from the book, the article explains how to "collect your numbers" -- A1c, blood pressure, lipid profile, microalbumin, and eye exam -- and then take appropriate action to become and stay as healthy as you possibly can be.  Lots of emphasis is placed on setting priorities, rather than trying to tackle everything at once.  

There's even a sample chart based on our "Diabetes Health Account" table.  I'm not sayin' you won't need to buy the book after reading this piece, but hey... it's pretty informative, if I do say so myself :)

Book News Flash from the blogosphere:

Christine Miserandino, who blogs about living with "invisible" chronic illness at ButYouDontLookSick.com has posted a

glowing review of Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes.

She recently discovered my blog, DiabetesMine.com, and has this to say:

"I found her writing to be easy to read and interesting (an unusual combination when reading health related writing) ... I was intrigued to see how her writing would read in book form.

"I was happy to read her book and have it contain the same style and 'voice' as her blog. This book has straight to the point facts that everyone dealing with diabetes and blood sugar issues should know.

"Dr. Richard Jackson and Amy Tenderich walk you through how to understand each of the five factors/ tests and then help you create a personalized treatment plan for optimum blood-glucose control, heart health, and general diabetes management and well being.

"I know that many of these medical tests, and numbers can be overwhelming, complicated and scary to many, especially to new patients dealing with this disease.

"This book helps you not only be more knowledgeable, but lets you know small things that you can do to improve your life, i.e.: exercise, food, and diet. It is great to have these two authors work together. You receive the medical expertise of a doctor, combined with the real life experience of a patient."

Best of all, she concludes her review this way:

"At 224 pages, this paperback book was a quick, but well worth the read. I would recommend this book for anyone you know who is living with diabetes or loving someone with diabetes."  (!)

Check out the book on Amazon, or order it with a free trial pack of ExtendBar slow-release glucose snacks HERE.

No, we're not talking about DiabetesMine.com, although that IS what makes my blog tick, I hope.  This week, a few more

authorities had a look at our book, and dubbed it equally informative:

"Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes" is an absolute gold mine of
need-to-know diabetes information and resources.  It contains the perfect
blend of basic knowledge, assessment tools, and action plans to enable
anyone with diabetes to live a long and healthy life.  Take the advice in
this book to heart!

– Sheri Colberg, PhD, Author of "The 7-Step Diabetes Fitness Plan" and "50 Secrets of the Longest Living People with Diabetes."

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And from this month's Diabetes Health magazine "what to read" section:

"(Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes) cuts away the extraneous stuff and lays bare the essentials: There are five, and only five, critical numbers that you need to worry about. If you keep these five numbers where they should be, you’ll outlive your diabetes and prosper in good health. And the big five are: A1Cs; blood pressure; lipid levels (HDL and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides); microalbumin levels; and eye exam scores...

"The authors wrote the book as a “comprehensive, hands-on guide to successfully managing your own health,” and that’s what it is. After it gets your priorities squared away, it covers just about everything you need to know, from A to Z."

Still skeptical?  Have a closer look here.

Score!!  Deb Manzella, a respected NY-based RN who writes for the New York Times Company's About.com/diabetes, has just come out giving Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes perfect marks.  Here's what she had to say:

"Cons? There are no cons. It's the perfect diabetes reference handbook."

This after she offers a meaty list of Pros for the book:

• Gives a comprehensive gameplan for managing the five most important areas of diabetes management
• Outlines the tests you need and tells you why they're important
• Gives you the science behind the numbers in easy to understand language
• Gives you the tools to bring your test results into the range you need.
• Gives additional advice about nutrition, exercise, medications, and much, much more.

"...This book is a terrific resource for diabetes management. After you learn the five most important tests, the book gives you the tools you need to keep your test results as normal as possible. Exercise, nutrition, medications, glucometers and other equipment all influence what your own personal test results will be.

"Beyond the basics, Dr. Jackson and Ms. Tenderich also address coping issues, healthcare basics, and resources to turn to for support and more information.

"Also, charts and diary pages to help you keep track of your results and your progress. This book stresses that knowing your numbers and working to improve them is the road to a complication-free life, and it gives you the tools to achieve it, too."

Read the FULL REVIEW here.

We're especially pleased with Deb's response knowing that she has extensive experience helping patients with diabetes, from teaching the newly diagnosed, to providing continuing care for diabetic patients in the hospital.  She's a strong advocate for "Knowledge Is Power" -- a lady after our own hearts...

Wow, more high praise from the ultimate source: a very knowledgeable and articulate patient.  Allie Beatty, who reports on all things diabetes over at TheDiabetesBlog.com and lives with Type 1 herself, has published a glowing review of "Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes."  Here's what she has to say:

"The book is a priceless addition to any diabetic library. It begins by explaining the five tests that are the cornerstones for monitoring your overall health with diabetes. These tests are: A1c, blood pressure, lipids, microalbumin, and an annual eye exam. You may think you know it all because you've been there, done that. But do you really know - what it tests, why it's done, and what your numbers should look like....?"

"I was impressed beyond my expectations... I was looking for a good guidebook on diabetes care. No ma'am. This book is AWESOME!"

See the full review HERE.  Thank you kindly, Allie and the Weblogs, Inc., team. 

        *        *        *

In addition, see our latest Virtual Book Tour appearances at these fine blogs:

Diabetes Notes - Rob Rummel-Hudson says "I’m not saying that your very SURVIVAL depends on you going and purchasing Amy’s book just as soon as you finish reading this. But really, why take the chance?" (~grin~)

GruntDoc - Dr. Robert Allen kindly notes, "If it at all interests you, please get a copy!"

Our Virtual Book Tour for the Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes Book has begun!

Have a look at our first stop over at Healthy Concerns.com.  Elisa Camahort reports on "health care from the patient's point of view."  She features an interview with Dr. Jackson on a variety of topics, including:

* Don't patients know the symptoms of pre-diabetes?
* Do insurers cover the basic health risk tests?
and
* What about vegetarian and vegan diets and diabetes?

Check it out!

Next stop is at the interesting and highly influential Health Care Blog by Matthew Holt. This expert on the in's and out's of the health care system was kind enough to invite me to shed some light on diabetes care and why our book represents a turning point.

It's a do-it-yourself (DIY) disease, after all. 

Commenters have some interesting things to say:

"Physician-centered chronic disease care works poorly."  Yup.

"... the actual quality measures right now mean very little in regards to the actual day-to-day care of a chronic disease. Just a big disconnect."  Agreed!

"One thing this book won't do is change the junk food crap and industrial food crap causing diabetes."  Weeelll...

I responded to that last one by saying we actually do include a big, fat chapter on dealing with food (pun sort-of intended).  It's harder, of course, when people have grown up with unhealthy eating habits and are used to overindulging.  But we're working to chip away at this epidemic with some very practical advice.

Also see my latest column on dLife.com: "Good Health by the Numbers: A DIY Approach."  This pretty well sums it up.  Stay tuned for more Virtual Book Tour. 
 

We got our official first book review a few days ago.  Manny Hernandez, bilingual healthcare blogger and Top Amazon reviewer, had this to say:

"Since the publishing of Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, I haven't encountered such a compelling and intuitive title for diabetics. I highly recommend it."

Quite the compliment!!  We are honored, to say the least.

Here's the full text of Manny's review:

I am a type I diabetic. Then again, I am also an Amazon.com reviewer. So whenever I can get my hands on a good book on diabetes or its treatment, I do. The most recent book on the topic I've had a chance to read has been Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes: 5 Essential Health Factors You Can Master to Enjoy a Long and Healthy Life.

The book, which takes a little under 300 pages, combines the medical knowledge of Dr. Jackson with the real life experience of Amy, who dedicated herself to writing about diabetes after being diagnosed with type I diabetes in May 2003, in her mid-thirties. The result is an amazing title aimed at focusing the diabetic patient on five fundamental factors to help him/her lead a long and healthy life. These factors are: your A1C, your blood pressure, your lipids, your microalbumin and your eye exam, to discard retinopathy.

After showing readers through the five main indicators, the authors present courses of action to track them and maintain them in control through exercise, food/diet, medications and monitoring. Towards the end of the book, there are chapters dedicated to the understanding of both type II and type I diabetes, as well as the so-called metabolic syndrome and the actual dangers faced by children of diabetics. The last few chapters deal with travel, feet and mouth care, emotional care and alternative treatment options for diabetics.

Though the book has a slight emphasis on type II diabetes, honestly all diabetics can find useful information in it. Since the publishing of Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, I haven't encountered such a compelling and intuitive title for diabetics. I highly recommend it.

Last week, Forbes reported that a good half of the estimated 21 million adult Americans with diabetes now rate themselves as having only "fair" or "poor" health, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

"People with diabetes are three times more likely than others to say their health is flagging," the CDC report found.  Which means, of course, that a great number of people in this country are headed toward a future of diabetes-related complications, including blindness, kidney failure, cardiovascular disease, and lower extremity amputation.  Ouch!!

Why should this be the case in a World Power nation like the USA?  Poor quality and in many cases poor availability of health care are certainly issues.  And perhaps more importantly, the fact that our health care system is focused on the treatment end, rather than prevention.  HMOs stand more to gain from patients once they've developed kidney disease or retnal damage than they do from educational programs to prevent these problems.  Crazy!

This brings me to why we wrote this book.  Dr. Jackson, in his decades of patient interaction at the legendary Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, has seen thousands of patients struggling to get a handle on their health with diabetes. He has a lot of practical advice for them, starting with determining and understanding their own biggest health risks -- a simple matter of taking 5 standard lab tests.

Trouble is, many of the patients Dr. Jackson sees have had diabetes for years and have already developed complications by the time they've either discovered Joslin's program, or gathered the motivation to go there.  The damage to their bodies is already done.

How much better off these people would've been if they'd just had some very basic health instruction early on!  Why not package this golden preventative advice into a book that will serve as a hands-on guide?

Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes helps you chart and understand the 5 most important values (your personal “Essential Health Factors”) for living a long and healthy life with diabetes. That makes them pretty darn important!  They are:

·        Hemoglobin A1c—a measure of the average amount of glucose in your blood over the last several months

·        Blood Pressure—a quick, painless armband test to determine the force of blood flow through your body

·        Lipid Profile—a group of blood tests measuring your cholesterol and triglycerides (another type of fat), which is used to determine your risk of heart attack or stroke

·        Microalbumin—a urine test that is an early indicator of kidney damage

·        Eye Exam—a yearly exam that consists of dilating your pupil, allowing the doctor to see the back of your eye

Now, be honest.  If you have diabetes, or are newly diagnosed, when was the last time you had these tests? Do you know the result numbers?  Do you know what they mean?  One thing you can be sure of: If everyone tracked and acted on these values regularly, those depressing CDC results -- as reported by Forbes -- would look a lot rosier today.

Stay tuned for more tidbits from the book. 

 

So you all know we've been working on a "mystery book" for a while.  Well, it's time for the wrapper to come off! Even though the publication date is still a few months off.

I've been privileged to co-author this book with Dr. Richard Jackson of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.  We're calling it the "first-ever, hands-on guide to achieving a long and healthy life with diabetes." It actually tells people in plain language what they need to do to get a handle on their own personal key health risks. 

In essence, this book is meant to address the great number of people with Type 2 diabetes who might not have access to the best information or care.  But this do-it-yourself guide can be useful for all of us, who often neglect to get our test results regularly or do anything about the numbers even when we know them.  The book also includes very useful chapters (in my no-BS style) on exercise, food, traveling with diabetes, how to scour the Internet, foot and mouth care, complementary and alternative medicine, the newest diabetes devices and more.

Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes will appear in book stores in January 2007.

Click here to reserve your copy now.

Five Essential Health Factors You Can

Master to Enjoy a Long and Healthy Life

From our initial book brochure:

The first-ever guide to 5 crucial tests that everyone living with diabetes needs to have and monitor on a regular basis—by an MD at Joslin and Harvard Medical School and a diabetes patient-expert.

Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard University professor Dr. Richard Jackson and diabetes patient-expert and blogger/journalist Amy Tenderich walk readers through how to:

    * understand each of these factors
    * determine which are the most important for you to focus on (based on your family history and other risk factors)
    * create a personalized treatment plan for optimum blood-glucose control, heart health, and general diabetes management and well-being.

This is a path-breaking book that will be required reading for every single person with diabetes aspiring to manage his or her condition as successfully and fully as possible.

Five tests are the cornerstones for monitoring one’s diabetes and developing a daily management plan—yet few of the more than 21 million people in the US living with diabetes know their results on all five of these. In April 2006 USA Today reported that just under 42% of adults with diabetes had had these tests.

The five factors are:

    * A1c
    * Blood pressure
    * Lipids (HDL, LDL, triglycerides)
    * Microalbumin
    * Yearly eye exam

“Often people focus on the stuff they feel guilty about (usually weight or food), when that may not even be their most critical health issue.

“What people don’t usually do is get the hard facts on where they stand in terms of their own diabetes health risks. They either haven’t had the five essential diabetes health tests, or they have no idea what the results are or what they might mean. But these five tests — your A1c, blood pressure, lipids, microalbumin and eye exam — provide the essential information you need to understand and manage your own health with diabetes.”                     — from the Preface