The best part of blogging for The Diabetes Blog is the steep learning curve you embark upon as you research media outlets with an eye on diabetes. I've grown up as a sister and daughter of two brothers and a mom and dad with type 1 diabetes, but the challenges type 2 diabetics face are entirely foreign.
Alarmingly, recent surveys reveal about 60% of type 2 diabetics are not reaching glycemic goals. A new book, Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes: Five Essential Health Factors You Can Master to Enjoy a Long and Healthy Life, offers type 2 diabetics tools to better manage their health. Authors Richard A. Jackson, MD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School and Amy L. Tenderich, MA, diabetes blogger, journalist and author, hope the book can guide the type 2 diabetic -- who often realizes little face-to-face time with their physician -- get a handle on these five test results for better diabetes control.
The book moves beyond the vague notion many type 2 diabetics have that "they need to eat better and exercise more." Rather, the book teaches the importance and optimal ranges of five tests ... A1C, blood pressure, lipids, microalbumin and eye examinations.
Dr. Jackson explains only about 10% of people are "A1C aware." Blood pressure awareness is a bit better, while hardly anyone has heard of microalbumin and many do not understand their eye examination results. The book stresses the importance of first understanding your baseline test results in these five areas to determine where your health currently stands.
For instance, a type 2 diabetic on oral meds with an 8.5% A1C is 35% more likely to have complications from the disease than someone with a 7.5% A1C on small doses of daily insulin. Knowing your numbers is critical, as it may overcome common reluctance of type 2 diabetics to consider using daily insulin to improve control or instituting basic food and exercise choices to improve the results. Once diabetics start focusing on the numbers and demanding their time-stressed physicians to order these tests regularly, they will be empowered to develop strategies to improve their numbers and, ultimately, their health.
I regularly hear my brothers and parents shouting out their latest A1C results at family pow-wows. Now I understand why.
1. im a tye 2 diabetic on a small dose of gliclazide (cant tolerate metformin) which i take in evenings.my fasting BS is always about 6.3 mm/L but in about one and a half hours it goes up to about 9.5. this is on one wheatabix, soms sugar free puffed wheat skimmed milk and half a banana. my BS drops to about 5.9 in about one and a half hours so i dare not take any medication in the mornings. my bedtime BS is usually around 8. i would like to get my morning BS lower after my breakfast. any hints please would be welcome
Posted at 9:28AM on Jun 3rd 2007 by martin