UPDATE

The man was finally found and is in the Hospitol now according to azcentral.com:

Man missing after being thrown off Amtrak train located

This is great news! Now for Amtrak that is another story…

If you’d like to contact AmTrak:

Let them know how you feel http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/ContactUs

California Headquarters: (510) 238-4360
Main Headquarters: (202) 906-3000 FAX (202) 906-3306
Media Relations: (202) 906-3860 EMAIL mediarelations@amtrak.com

Information from:
http://finance.google.com/finance?cid=5956442
News Releases
Media Contacts

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Wow, this is pretty crazy. A 65yr old man was kicked off Amtrak last Sunday night at 10pm because they thought he was drunk when he was actually going into diabetic shock according to his family.

“A 65-year-old St. Louis man is missing after Amtrak personnel, mistaking his diabetic shock for drunk and disorderly behavior, kicked him off a train in the middle of a national forest, according to police in Williams, Ariz.

Police said Roosevelt Sims was headed to Los Angeles but was asked to leave the train shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday at a railroad crossing five miles outside Williams, reported KPHO-TV in Phoenix.

“He was let off in the middle of a national forest, which is about 800,000 acres of beautiful pine trees,” Lt. Mike Graham said.”

I understand that one of the closest things to appearing drunk is having low blood sugar, but is this really standard practice to just “drop off” people like this? At 10pm in the middle of a 800,000 acres national forest, 2 miles from the nearest crossroad and at 8000ft elevation? I have to agree with Lt. Mike Graham said:

“whether drunk or not, no one should be dropped off there.”

Yet again highlighting the need for diabetes awareness, this time not just for the police but the public in general (In this case Amtrak).

I haven’t heard of any updates as of right now, hopefully he has been found but the last report that he is still missing in the forest. I’m hoping for the best.

You can find the full story here along with a video: KiroTV: Diabetic Man Kicked Off Train, Now Missing

We have a great addition to the SugarStats blog: Manny Hernandez. Not only is Manny a diabetic himself, he is a very passionate SugarStats user and the creator of the great social networking site for diabetics: www.tudiabetes.com

So we wanted go give Manny a big welcome as he’ll be contributing some good stuff from time to time.

We’re Growing!

While we’re passionate about greating a simple and easy to use sugar tracking and diabetes management app, we also want to provide great articles, news and discussions here on our blog. So we’re growing our blogger network.

If you are passionate about these issues, are a diabetic and wish to contribute to SugarStats then let use know: info@sugarstats.com

SugarStats.com Launched! – Simple Blood Sugar Tracking. Online

We’re happy to announce we’re launching our blood sugar tracking and diabetes management website, SugarStats.com, to the online diabetic community.

Check out our shiny press release

With 194 million people worldwide and 21 million in the U.S. alone coping with diabetes daily, hopefully we can help make a difference and utilize all this great technology at our disposal to help keep things under control.

We built SugarStats to be simple and easy to use. You input and access your info via a web browser for easy access no matter where you are. So whether at home, on the road or in the office, you’re connected. You can then easily share your stats with your family, friends or health-care professional.

With SugarStats you will be able to:

• Bring your readings online. Get rid of that pen & paper log!
• Track & manage meds, foods/carbs and physical activity
• Drill down into specific time frames to get a clear overview
• Visualize your progress with easy to read graphs and trends
• Share your statistics with your family, friends or doctor
• Access your info from any modern web browsers
• Have a clear and easy-to-use interface to view your stats

Sign up Free – Takes less than 30 seconds

To create your free account simply go to:

http://manage.sugarstats.com/subscriptions

For more info on SugarStats go to http://www.sugarstats.com
or
Take a screenshot tour of at http://www.sugarstats.com/tour

Questions, Inquiry or Support

Any questions or troubles just email us at support@sugarstats.com
Need help? Drop by the Help Wiki: http://wiki.sugarstats.com/

Privacy Policy: http://manage.sugarstats.com/ToS.html#pp
Terms of Service: http://manage.sugarstats.com/ToS.html

We’ve been getting some great feedback recently and I must say it is great to hear. I know using SugarStats personally has made a huge difference in my life but hearing it from other people really confirms how it was all worth In a few weeks of simple tracking and bringing his awareness to it his average dropped 10%!

Manny from TuDiabetes.com has been using it himself for only a few weeks and posted a review with some great things to say, he even made a video!

If you don’t see the video here is a direct link to it on YouTube

If any of you have experiences or feedback of SugarStats you’d like to share then we’d love to hear it, send it over to info@sugarstats.com

We’re pretty excited over here as we’ll be shortly be launching SugarStats to the public. As a thank you to the community and those who have wanted to help with the BETA testing we’re going to offering something special for the next 6 days:

Free? Premium? Beta? Huh?

The free account in SugarStats includes pretty much all of the features we’ve spent the last year building up. We want to make it as widely available to the Diabetes community as possible. Our goal is to keep as much of the feature set included in the free plan now and in the future.

At launch we’ll also be introducing a Premium accounts upon launch for those wanting more for a low monthly/yearly cost. This plan includes everything the free plan has but adds a few more features (such as food intake and physical activity tracking) and convenience benefits such as being ad free and having secure SSL encryption.

Beta accounts are exactly the same as premium accounts, but as you’ll see below, include a little something special

Big thanks to all our BETA testers

Along the same lines as above, as a token of our appreciation in helping test and polish SugarStats, all current Beta testers will get all premium features free… Forever. This means all current premium features and all future features you’ll get free.

Thank you to the early adopters

Let me at it!!

Just go to:

http://manage.sugarstats.com/users/new

and fill in your info. We’ve made the validation string the same for everyone and it should be filled in when you go there. If it isn’t, type in: aloha. Complete the sign up form and you’re in.

Now whenever you want to login just go to:

http://manage.sugarstats.com/

Spread the word

This offer is open to every and anyone. Tell your friends, family, doctor, dogs, cats etc. Email it, digg it, share it, whatever (click the “share this” button below). Tell any diabetics you know might want to track their Sugars online, any one you know who might be interested. They are all welcome. Enjoy!

There has been a lot of stuff going on lately over here. We’ve been doing various research over the past year regarding online diabetes research and have come across a lot of great stuff. I thought it would be worth collecting all these snippets of info up in one post to share with you all what we’ve found. It is more of a reference list in case you’re interested in looking them up, we’ll work on trying to find links if any of these studies are online.

There have been at least 16 scientific studies done over the last few years showing the positive affects that an online diabetes management system like SugarStats.com would have on diabetics. These studies have been published by prestigious organizations such as the NIH, JAMA, Diabetes Care(American Diabetes Association), and several others. The following are some of the studies we’ve found, enjoy

1. De Leo G,Krishna S,Boren S,Fato M,Porro I,Balas EA.Web and computer telephone-based diabetes education: Lessons learned from the development and use of a call center. Journal of Medical Systems.29(4):343-355.
2. Jay A. Johnson, MD, FACC, attending staff physician with Stanford University Rahul Singal, MD 2005. Impact of a Web-Based Diabetes Program and Personal Health Record on Diabetes Quality of Care, Journal of Managed Care Medicine Vol. 9, No. 2
3. Baker AM, Lafata JE, Ward RE, Whitehouse F, Divine G. 2001 A Web-based diabetes care management support system. Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, USA. 2001 Apr;27(4):179-90
.
4. McKay HG, Feil EG, Glasgow RE, Brown JE. 1998. Feasibility and use of an Internet support service for diabetes self-management. Diabetes Educ. 1998 Mar-Apr;24(2):174-9.
5. Bell JA, Patel B, Malasanos T. 2006. Knowledge improvement with web-based diabetes education program: brainfood. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2006 Aug;8(4):444-8.
6. Deo SS, Deobagkar DN, Deobagkar DD. 2005. Design and development of a web-based application for diabetes patient data management. Inform Prim Care. 2005;13(1):35-41. Inform Prim Care. 2005;13(1):42-4.
7. Kwon HS, Cho JH, Kim HS, Lee JH, Song BR, Oh JA, Han JH, Kim HS, Cha BY, Lee KW, Son HY, Kang SK, Lee WC, Yoon KH. 2004. Development of web-based diabetic patient management system using short message service (SMS). Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2004 Dec;66 Suppl 1:S133-7. PMID: 15563964
8. Ferrer-Roca O, Franco Burbano K, Cardenas A, Pulido P, Diaz-Cardama A. 2004. Web-based diabetes control. J Telemed Telecare. 2004;10(5):277-81. PMID: 15494085
9. Riva A, Bellazzi R, Stefanelli M. 1997. A Web-based system for the intelligent management of diabetic patients. MD Comput. 1997 Sep-Oct;14(5):360-4. PMID: 9308344
10. James B. Meigs, MD, MPH1,2, Enrico Cagliero, MD3, Anil Dubey, MD4, Patricia Murphy-Sheehy, MPH1, Catharyn Gildesgame, MBA2, Henry Chueh, MD2,4, Michael J. Barry, MD1, Daniel E. Singer, MD1,2 and David M. Nathan, MD3. 2003. A Controlled Trial of Web-Based Diabetes Disease Management. The MGH Diabetes Primary Care Improvement Project. Diabetes Care 26:750-757, 2003 © 2003 by the American Diabetes Association, Inc.
11. Christopher D. Saudek, MD; Rachel L. Derr, MD; Rita R. Kalyani, MD. 2006. Assessing Glycemia in Diabetes Using Self-monitoring Blood Glucose and Hemoglobin A1c. JAMA. 2006;295:1688-1697.
12. Does Diabetes Disease Management Save Money and Improve Outcomes? Diabetes Care 25:684-689, 2002 © 2002 by the American Diabetes Association, Inc. Epidemiology/Health Services/Psychosocial Research
13. Glasgow RE, Strycker LA. Preventive care practices for diabetes management in two primary care samples. Am J Prev Med 2000;19:9—14.
14. Chien-Tsai Liu, PHD1, Yu-Ting Yeh, RN2, Ting-I Lee, MD3 and Yu-Chuan Li, MD, PHD1© 2005 Letters: Observations on Online Services for Diabetes Management by the American Diabetes Association Diabetes Care 28:2807a-2808, 2005
15. Hyuk-Sang Kwon, MD1, Jae-Hyoung Cho, MD1, Hee-Soo Kim, MD1, Bok-Re Song, RN2, Seung-Hyun Ko, MD, PHD1, Jung-Min Lee, MD1, Sung-Rae Kim, MD, PHD1, Sang-Ah Chang, MD, PHD1, Hee-Seung Kim, RN, PHD2, Bong-Yun Cha, MD, PHD1, Kwang-Woo Lee, MD, PHD1, Ho-Young Son, MD, PHD1, Jin-Hee Lee, MS3, Won-Chul Lee, MD, PHD3 and Kun-Ho Yoon, MD, PHD1. © 2004 by the American Diabetes Association. Establishment of blood glucose monitoring system using the Internet. Diabetes Care. 2004;27:478-483
16. Graham T. McMahon, MB, BCH1, et al. 2005. Web-Based Care Management in Patients With Poorly Controlled Diabetes. Diabetes Care 28:1624-1629. © 2005 American Diabetes Association, Inc.

TuDiabetes.com is a new social networking site/forum for Diabetes. I ran across it a few weeks back and had the chance to meet the TuDiabetes founder Manny Hernandez, a really great guy. TuDiabetes now has over a hundred members!

The site itself is a little different from the traditional diabetes forum in that it offers many more well integrated features such as your own personal page, photo/video sharing, friend networking, news blog along with user forums all rolled into one. TuDiabetes.com is built of the highly successful ning.com platform. Ning.com is a web application made specifically for people to create groups on any topic to build a community on.

Through the past few weeks I’ve gotten to meet many other great people with diabetes to share stories and experiences with. I think TuDiabetes has created a great resource as a diabetes support system for diabetics. If you’re diabetic defintely go over to http://www.tudiabetes.com/ and create a free account. You’ll be networking with other diabetics in no time

Feel free to Add me.

Diabetes stem cell cure

Via http://www.timesonline.co.uk/

“Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again.

In a breakthrough trial, 15 young patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes were given drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by transfusions of stem cells drawn from their own blood.

The results show that insulin-dependent diabetics can be freed from reliance on needles by an injection of their own stem cells. The therapy could signal a revolution in the treatment of the condition, which affects more than 300,000 Britons.”

Using honey on diabetic ulsers to save amputation?

Via http://www.scienceblog.com/

“The sore on Catrina Hurlburt’s leg simply wouldn’t heal. Complications from a 2002 car accident left Hurlburt, a borderline diabetic, with recurring cellulitis and staph infections. One of those infections developed into a troublesome open sore that, despite the use of oral antibiotics, continued to fester for nearly eight months. Then Hurlburt’s physician, Jennifer Eddy of UW Health’s Eau Claire Family Medicine Clinic, suggested she try using topical honey. Within a matter of months, the sore had healed completely.”

Blood sugar measurement without needles using freakin’ lasers!

Via http://www.healthdecisions.org/

“Hong Kong scientists have invented a device to help diabetics measure their blood sugar painlessly for the first time without pricking their fingers. The size of a mobile phone, the instrument emits a weaker form of infrared, or near-infrared, which penetrates the skin on the finger and homes in on the bloodstream.”

Hospitalizations of Diabetic U.S. Children Surging

Via http://www.bloomberg.com/

“The number of U.S. children hospitalized by a form of diabetes almost tripled from 1997 to 2003, largely because of obesity, according to a study.

Children admitted with the ailment, Type 2 diabetes, had longer stays in hospitals and more diagnoses on record than patients with a different form of diabetes, researchers said in an abstract to be presented today at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual conference in Toronto. Children ages 9 to 12 years old had the highest hospitalization rates.”

Commentary: This is really sad to hear and something hopefully we as a diabetic community can change through education and better management. As someone who has been hospitalized for diabetes before I don’t wish this upon anyone, especially children.

Continuous Glucose Management (CGM) to change diabetes therapy

Via http://www.huliq.com/

“The convergence of small-scale electronics and sophisticated biocompatible product designs is giving hope for a better future to millions of diabetes patients worldwide and may provide possible future diabetes treatment and therapy.

Glucose monitors that are designed to be implanted and can continually measure glucose levels have the capability to improve glycemic control and patient wellbeing. By integrating the sensing element, electronics, and a power source in a single package, implantable glucose monitors are creating new options for caregivers and their diabetes patients.”

Commentary: This is something I’ve been pretty excited about lately. There has been a lot development and more and more devices being passed by FDA. It opens up a huge door to compile massive amounts of info daily on what is affecting your blood sugars and when. Hundreds of readings per day without having to poke your finger each time, awesome! I can’t wait to see what that will look like in SugarStats.

FDA passes approval for Dexcom’s 7-day Continuous Glucose Management System

Via http://www.shareholder.com/

“DexCom, Inc. (NASDAQ: DXCM) today announced that it has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for SEVEN™, its 7-Day STS® Continuous Glucose Monitoring System. SEVEN is DexCom’s second generation device designed to help people with diabetes better manage their diabetes and control their glucose levels. Widely recognized as one of the leading causes of death and disability in the United States, diabetes is a chronic disease with no known cure that afflicts approximately 20 million people in the U.S., according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). In the U.S., diabetes is the leading cause of adult blindness, end stage kidney failure and lower limb amputations. People suffering from diabetes are also more significantly at risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke.”