A new report says physical activity is critical for kids with type 1 diabetes because it helps prevent heart trouble later in life. The German and Austrian researchers behind the study reached this conclusion after crunching the numbers for more than 23,000 kids between ages three and eighteen, comparing their health with activity levels. As you would expect, the most active kids had the healthiest hearts and lower levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. By comparison, thirty-six percent of children who were active only once or twice a week had high cholesterol and triglycerides.

For type 1 kids, activity levels relate to HbA1c levels: fit children had lower HbA1c levels. High HbA1c levels in childhood practically guarantee your child will experience heart problems down the road. Says lead researcher Antje Herbst: "Clearly, getting off the couch and out of doors, where they can be more physically active, is good for all kids. But for children with type 1 diabetes, the need to stay physically active is even greater due to the increased risk for heart disease."

Parents: you don't have to sign your little ones up for triathlon training, boot camp or anything like that. Vigorous exercise is not necessary to reap the benefits. Regular periods of normal play are adequate. Even half an hour a day can make a difference, the researchers say. Common sense, however, suggests this is a case where more is definitely better.

The results of this study appear in the latest Diabetes Care (August 2007).

Studies in Sweden and by the Harvard School of Public health may have found a link between breastfeeding and protection against Type 1 diabetes.

The study showed that children who were breastfed exclusively for longer periods of time may have natural protection against developing diabetes. It was particularly true in children who were breastfed exclusively for longer than five months.

The Harvard study also found that breastfeeding helped protect children from diabetes regardless of whether their mothers were overweight or had health problems. This certainly will be another reason to breastfeed babies for longer periods of time, as the Harvard study also indicated that babies that were breastfed for at least a year had the best protection.

Think the real world -- New York to California. That is exactly what Gina Capone did to capture the attention of a girl like myself, ransacking search engines for some refreshing diabetic websites. Gina, with her friend Jon, copiloted the launch of DIABETEStalkfest.

Focusing on the forgotten generation, young adults between the ages of 18-35, DIABETEStalkfest is an online community built by people with diabetes for people with diabetes.

Gina, a type 1 diabetic and native New Yorker, and Jon Schlaman, who has a son with type 1 diabetes and lives in California, met on a diabetes message board. Jon and Gina realized there was a shortage of good, fun, diabetes-related sites on the internet. Gina and Jon, formed a lasting friendship and business partnership, communicating only through message boards and IM's.

The inviting thing about DIABETEStalkfest is that you can find real friendships and support. Express yourself at their message board, or connect with other people in their online chat or even catch a live chat with professionals in the field. Join the unscripted fun on DIABETEStalkfest!

Ian Gibson, a former chairman of the Commons Science and Technology Committee, has apologized if he offended anyone with the comments he made earlier suggesting that the cause in increased childhood diabetes cases diagnosed in his Norfolk constituency could be the result of residents inbreeding.

"I would imagine it is linked to the fact that people in Norfolk are quite inbred, with many not leaving the county," Dr. Gibson, Labour MP for Norwich North, told his local newspaper, the Norwich Evening News. "It is something that needs to be looked at as a priority, especially as many cases are linked to obesity too."

Diabetes experts have come forward to call his suggestion disgraceful, inappropriate and wrong. Genetics do not work that way and to even suggest that diabetes is linked to inbreeding is an insult to people with type 1 diabetes and their families and it's an insult to people in Norfolk. That's an understatement.

I don't think Dr. Gibson can use being drunk as an excuse for his outrageous remarks, and he clearly isn't apologizing for what he said -- only to anyone that might be offended by the comments. That could be six billion people minus one.

Baltimore researchers from Johns Hopkins University have concluded a study indicating that being short -- specifically having short legs and a low leg length-to-height ratio -- is linked to an increased type 2 diabetes and obesity risk in middle age. It all goes back to childhood nutrition, as short leg length translates into the lack of proper nutrition during the formative years of physical growth.

According to the researchers, "Insofar as adult stature is an indicator of development and growth during early life, the risk of obesity and diabetes in adulthood might begin to accrue before puberty." They recommend early intervention to improve childhood nutrition in diabetes prevention.

This is observational on my part, and not the result of any study, but I do not believe this will apply to type 1 diabetes. My father-in-law was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and he reached an adult height of 6-foot 4-inches. My sister-in-law was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and she reached an adult height of 6-foot. 

Shannon Lewis, whose little boy Brendon was diagnosed with diabetes while still a toddler, blogs Mom Wants A Diabetes Cure ... pure and simple. In a recent post, she shared the moment of realization of what she needed to do to be the mother Brendon needed her to be.

Shannon did all the rights things that mothers do when they are pregnant and avoided all the things mothers are supposed to avoid when they share the same heartbeat with another human being, sustaining their life until they enter the world and can sustain life on their own.

When your baby is born, you listen for the cry. Then you check the fingers and toes. Then you wait while the doctor and nurses run your newborn through a quick series of tests. Brendon was born with all his fingers and toes, and he aced the APGAR. Brendon was home-free to the beginning of a healthy life. Shannon's efforts during her pregnancy to be healthy for both herself and her baby had served them well.

Two and a half years later, Brendon lay on a gurney in the ER, limp, seemingly lifeless, with shallow breath and sallow skin. What had gone wrong to such a perfect beginning for Brendon? He was diagnosed with diabetes and Shannon's idealistic concept of motherhood and her child's health became forever altered. She writes poignantly about the threshold from one reality to the next and touches your heart in the passage. It's a must-read post for all mothers.

Kerri Morrone, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was six years old, blogs the typical life issues of a bright and full of light twentysomething woman at Six Until Me. The blog tagline reads diabetes doesn't define me but it helps explain me. And the blog is true to the tagline in posts that are filled with a daily life where diabetes is never far away.

Bloggers begin blogging for a number of reasons. Morrone began blogging as a means of creating an online community for herself with other diabetics. As she tells it, one spring afternoon, she goggled diabetes looking for the personal voices in the world speaking out, reaching out, and connecting to others who understood on an intimate level what it means to be diabetic. She found them blogging. Morrone has a delightfully engaging way with words and is a natural-born storyteller. The better blog seems to invite you in with a comforting welcome that makes it easy to stay awhile and come back often. Six Until Me is a better blog.