5 posts tagged “type 2”
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.
“What a great book! It helps you not only understand your five most essential health factors, but also guides you in setting doable action plans. You’ll find very serious topics – including the complications of diabetes – addressed in a fresh, upbeat (and even humorous) style. Dr. Jackson, a seasoned Joslin endocrinologist and researcher, and Amy Tenderich, a journalist who has type 1 diabetes, make a perfect team blending academics and real-world diabetes experience. They give readers confidence and hope that a long and healthy life with diabetes is possible. This book can be a huge help for anyone with diabetes!”
— Melinda D. Maryniuk, Certified Diabetes Educator, Joslin Diabetes Center Boston, named American Diabetes Association Outstanding Educator of the year for 2005
"Diabetes often makes people feel frightened and overwhelmed, but a good understanding of modern management and
the goals of treatment are now having major positive
impact on quality of life and health outcomes. In the end, the informed patient
makes this happen. Richard Jackson and Amy Tenderich have really hit the bull’s
eye by focusing on the key things that help people gain control over their
diabetes. I expect that many people will find this sensible, easy-to-read new
book enormously helpful."
-- Dr. Gordon Weir, former editor of Diabetes, former Medical Director of the Joslin Clinic, and chaired professor at Harvard University.
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.
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
