James Hirsch, a type 1 diabetic, agonized when his three-year-old son started showing the symptoms of diabetes. His agony took the form of remarkable brilliance in his book, Cheating Destiny: Living With Diabetes, America's Biggest Epidemic. The book portrays diabetes from the perspective of someone living with the disease. He explains how diabetes is treated in this country, the shortfalls in the governance, both economically and physiologically.

Hirsch, a former reporter for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal asks the editor of a hugely popular web site about the quality of care for diabetes in this country. The response he received: "It stinks." Hirsch details the physical complications that arise from diabetes and health insurance companies' reluctance to fully reimburse relatively low-cost education programs. These programs are designed to prevent the high-cost diagnostic testing and hospital care resulting from diabetes complications. Makes you wonder if it's unintuitive bureaucracy or intuitive capitalistic malfeasance. Don't be silly -- it's nothing personal, it's just business.

Being a person with diabetes is never simple. Hirsch explains, "insulin and food, food and insulin. I imagine them like armies in the night, battling inside a diabetic's body,"..."the battles never produce a winner. The armies simply live to fight another day." Fight the good fight, James. Thank you for sharing your perspective with remarkable brilliance and enlightening reality.