Lately the news has seen a lot of devastating diabetic events due to hypoglycemic unawareness. Hypoglycemic unawareness is commonly defined as an inability to recognize the symptoms (sweating, tremor, hunger, anxiety, and palpitations) of decreased blood sugar or a failure of the warning signs to occur before development of neuroglycopenia, which means a shortage of glucose in the brain. Curiously, this term was not coined for diabetes until 10 years after the introduction of genetically modified human synthetic insulin and insulin analogues.

I hate to say it but diabetes is a crapshoot. You never know what you are going to get, but you can sure try your best to keep your eye on the ball. Removing the inherent dangers of hypoglycemic unawareness would make me a happier diabetic, and improve the lives of all those I care about (diabetics like myself). The answer might lie in the only type of treatment available nowadays, insulin analogues. Diabetics who do not take any form of drug to control blood sugar do NOT have hypoglycemic unawareness.

It's called human but it is nothing like natural human insulin. It may be faster acting or longer lasting but I'm sure He didn't intend for insulin to break sound barriers or last three moons. If Big Pharmaceutical companies were asked to compare insulin analogues with natural human insulin you'd hear crickets. I promise you NO Big Pharma will fund a study that would become the antithesis of their marketing campaigns, human insulin is better. It's not better, it's just different -- totally different! Natural insulin is fat-loving. Insulin analogues are water-loving. The global command center of the body (the brain) is one big blob of fatty material. This means as your blood sugar is dropping, your brain is last fed, if it eats at all. Here in the United States we are victims of circumstance in hypoglycemic unawareness. Sorry brain, no soup for you.

There was a close call for a sixty-eight year-old gentleman in the UK yesterday. The man in question has diabetes. According to a report in the British paper The News Shopper, he was cooking dinner for himself at his home in Charlton when he went into a diabetic coma. Now, often in stories like this, there always seems to be an adorable child or super-smart dog who dives in and dials 911. In this case, however, the man's dinner saved the day! Yes, his dinner, which was cooking on the hob (don't you love the British?) of his stove and was left unattended after he collapsed. Eventually it went on fire and very fortunately this set off his fire alarm. Phew! A monitoring system also alerted a council worker who assists this fellow. Paramedics rushed over and took him off to hospital. No word on how he's doing now, but that's what you call a close one. Also, a good reminder on the value of smoke alarms. Get 'em. They're cheap and easy to install.