In the  next few weeks, parents across America will be worried about sending their little ones back to school. It will be even more scary for parents of a diabetic child. Now is the time for the parents of a diabetic child to be contacting their schools and setting up meetings with the administrators, teachers, coaches, substitute teachers, nurses and even the bus driver. Dont assume that any of them know anything about diabetes. You should also update your childs 504 plan (American Disabilities Act).

The JDRF has kits and help for how to build your childs 504 plan. You can go to www.jdrf.org .

You are your child’s best advocate, no one will look out for your child like you will….....

Keep going….........Cheers,    Bob

People of all backgrounds and nationalities coming into my clinic ask questions about an herb or tea they think can cure their diabetes. In many cultures, there are medical schools dedicated to training people on herbal medications and other non-western forms of healing like acupuncture and rakhi. Their knowledge is based on hundreds of years of experience, so this is no small thing.

Before you get riled up and ready to rake me over the coals about the herbals in your own medicine cabinet, let me say that I do not doubt that certain herbs have medicinal properties. A lot of the medicines in a standard pharmacy actually first came from a plant. And I myself drank about five gallons of what we called “bush tea” as a child, made lovingly by my grandmother, whenever I had a cold or a bellyache. In general, I have no problem with patients taking herbal supplements but I do have concerns.

One is that people often do not realize that THESE ARE MEDICINES. For some reason, a lot of folks are happy to take anything they think of as natural, even if it means taking a cup full of pills everyday (I have had some patients bring me their list of 20 herbs/supplements), but the one diabetes pill from their local pharmacy they think of as poison. Please listen well: ALL MEDICATIONS, whether directly from the earth or not, have a potential for side effects. Whether it came from a laboratory or your backyard, it has potential to do both good and bad. Natural does not mean harmless.

My other concern is when patients take only herbs and no prescribed medicine at all. As a group, doctors like evidence: before we give a pill to someone in our clinic, we need to know that thousands and thousands of people took this medication and it helped their blood sugars. Conservative and stodgy? Yes, but most of us operate that way anyway. In western medicine we do not have vast amounts of data about many herbs. But stay tuned: attention on herbal medications is growing by leap and bounds so this will likely continue to change and evolve as more data becomes available.

So I cannot tell you yes or no about your herbs, because I, having received classic western medical education, know very little about herbal medicine. I have not asked patients to stop their herbal remedies for diabetes unless I see a potential side effect happening, or their diabetes is not controlled on it. Then we start fresh again with standard medications. There are some natural supplements like Chromium that are being studied to see if they really do treat diabetes. Cinnamon showed some promise for a while but a recent study published in 2007 now calls the extent of the benefit into question. When my patients tell me about supplements or herbs they take, I research them, so I can offer some advice. It is your decision, but please at least be up front with your doctors about any herbal or / natural medicines you are taking. Whether they agree or disagree, it is important for you to be on the same page.

Until next time!

Andreina Davila, Manny Hernandez and the folks over at the Diabetes Hands Foundation (http://diabeteshandsfoundation.org/) have produced a great diabetes awareness video called Drawing Diabetes.

Definitely an amazing and interesting perspective on diabetes and how it affects children. Something I think we can all learn something from.

Check it out:

Also check out the DrawingDiabetes TuDiabetes Group – http://tudiabetes.com/group/drawingdiabetes

Hi Everyone, this week we handle Myth Number 2: Diabetes only happens to old or really overweight people, or those with a family history-FALSE

This is a favorite of mine because I hear it all the time, usually from a patient who just cannot believe they really have Diabetes.

Now, it is true that many people with high sugars are very overweight or obese. They also are more likely to have a family member with diabetes. It is also true that your chances of developing diabetes increase as you get older. HOWEVER, it is very (more…)

Hi Everyone!

This week we start addressing some of the common myths floating around about diabetes. In my practice I have found that wrong information is responsible for a number of cases of “Diabetes gone bad.” I apologize to those of you who will find this information very basic, but starting from the ground up always seems like the best way to go.

This first idea, “Diabetes comes from sugar”, is one of the most widely (more…)

We’re pleased to welcome Dr. Anita Ramsetty, Endocrinologist as the newest blogger for SugarStats!

We’re delighted to share her expertise and viewpoints with our community. She’ll be sharing her words of wisdom, her experience and professional/personal insights on diabetes with us regularly, so do stay tuned in.

You can address questions to Anita at: endodocs@endocrinehelp.com. On behalf of all of us here, thanks to Anita for her commitment and accessibiity!

Hi All,

One of the most interesting(frustrating, saddening etc) aspects of diabetes is the number of misconceptions in the general public, and sometimes within the medical community also.  I know many of you have heard some questions or comments that made you cringe—I certainly have myself. Right now the one that tops my list was  question online from a husband asking whether or not he could “catch diabetes” from “relations” with his wife. THAT took me a few seconds to recover, let me tell you! But it made me realize that I am quite biased by what I see in my Endocrine clinic. Many people I see are quite knowledgeable about diabetes and know at least some basics about how it happens and how it is treated.  But that is not necessarily the case in general. 

So with that intro, I will plan on starting a short series of myths about diabetes. Some of this will be so basic that many of you will just look at it and say , “Uh huh, that’s not news!” But there may be a few out there who need info from the foundation upwards, so stay tuned next week…

Have a great one, stay safe and healthy.

Cheers!