Happy Friday everyone. Here are some cool thinking happening in the Diabetes world as well as some interesting resources:

The New OneTouch UltraLink Wireless Meter

For those who don’t already have one or haven’t heard of it yet:

“The NEW OneTouch UltraLink Meter wirelessly sends your test results to your MiniMed Paradigm® insulin pump, making bolus dosing easier and more accurate.

Some advantages of the UltraLink:

• Wireless communication of test (more…)

Gestational Diabetes, Pre-Diabetes and Endocrinologists versus General Practitioners for addressing diabetes.

Interview with Dr. Anita Ramsetty, Endocrinologist Part 1
Interview with Dr. Anita Ramsetty, Endocrinologist Part 2

SugarStats’ host interviewer, Nedrra Lanakila, continues her talk with Endocrinologist Dr. Anita Ramsetty of EndocrineHelp.com. In this third and final post from their first interview, Dr. Ramsetty talks about Gestational Diabetes, signs of pre-diabetes and some of the factors to consider when determining your physician of choice to provide medical diabetes care.

N (Nedrra Lanakila): You mentioned about gestational diabetes. How do you treat your patients diagnosed as gestational diabetics?

A (Anita Ramsetty): We always end up in a somewhat odd situation because these women are split between the endocrinologist and their obstetrics teams. It can be a little bit dicey at times, trying to get all the communication loops closed but it gets done and quickly.

As an example, my case of gestational diabetes was fairly mild. I was pregnant with twins at the time so I sort of saw it coming. Between having the twins, gaining lots of weight and then having a strong family history I had seen it coming from afar and wasn’t too surprised.

In my case, I ended up checking my blood sugars very (more…)

Wow.

So the new figures are in and they’ve concluded the annual cost for diabetes in the U.S. for 2007 hit *$174 Billion dollars*, up 32% since 2002. That is 1 in every 5 health care dollars going to diabetes care. These figures are only for the U.S., worldwide the estimates go over $300 billion.

This number shadows the $150 Billion in damages from Hurricane Katrina and some say it is about as much as the cost of the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts (though who knows the real numbers on that).

This is really getting out of control, they say last year the diabetes related death toll in the U.S. was over 284,000. There are 1 million new cases each year.

These figures also did not take into account the undiagnosed diabetes population in the U.S. which is estimated at over (more…)

The new year is approaching and for many that means a whole slew of goal setting and resolutions.

I had the great pleasure to be able to physically join Charlie Cherry and the gang in the studio for an episode of the DiabetesPowerShow a few weeks ago and now that has just been released.

The topic of the show was goal setting and diabetic resolutions for this upcoming year. It was also great as we had Manny from TuDiabetes.com join us on the phone and we all went over the various tools out there, especially online, which we can utilize to make those goals a reality.

It is a great episode with of course lots of motivation and enthusiasm so definitely check it out.

You can download it directly here: http://www.diabetespowershow.com/

I know my main goal has been to get my A1c into the 5-6.0 range. Though I am quite happy over the last 6 months I’ve got it down over 3%!! Almost there What are your diabetes goals for 2008? Share them over at TuDiabetes.com

I had the great opportunity a few weeks ago to talk with and be interviewed by Charlie Cherry of the DiabetesPowerShow.com Podcast, in my opinion one of the best online diabetes podcast out there.

Today they released the interview in their latest show, episode 34, in which they discuss some of the latest and best online resources for diabetes and diabetes management.

Chris, Chris and Theresa do an excellent job also of showcasing some other amazing resources, tools and websites out there that every diabetic can benefit from. They also chat about our favorite diabetes social networking site TuDiabetes.com

You can find and subscribe to the show here:
http://diabetespowershow.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=271503

Or download it directly here:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/diabetespowershow/34_34_On-Line_Resources.mp3

What a great bunch, I have to thank Charlie for having me on and Chris, Chris and Theresa for producing such a great show all the time. I can’t wait to be on the show and meet them all when I’m in Vegas.

Diabetic? Have an iPod? If you aren’t already subscribed then run, not walk, and subscribe to the biggest, best and most informative Diabetes podcast online. www.diabetespowershow.com

SafeSittings.com is an interesting site that aims to make the search for diabetes babysitters easier nationwide.  On the site teens with diabetes can find matches in their area for parents with diabetic children.

The service was founded by Kimberly Ross and since being covered in the Wall Street Journal has grown to get major interest nationwide for people in this niche, both families and sitters alike.

The site acts as a bulletin board system where families and sitters can pair up to make a match. Sitters can post their profiles and skills/experience while families and parents can put out ads to find an available babysitter in their area.

From the website:

“SAFESITTINGS is a nationwide website that makes available teens with Type 1 diabetes as babysitters for children with diabetes. These teens have been managing their own care for many years. They understand the dangerous highs ands lows inherent in the disease and have the skills to test blood sugars, give insulin injections, adjust insulin pumps and treat hypoglycemia.”

If this is something you’re interested in then check them out at www.safesittings.com.
You can also find their FAQ at: http://www.safesittings.com/faq.php

Tags: DiabetesBabysitters, Diabetic Babysitting, SafeSittings.com, Diabetes Babysitting Service

Bernard of BernardFarrell.com was able to produce a very nice and informative video demo of a Animas 2020 Insulin Pump he was able to get a hold of.

He goes through various settings and hows how the pump even comes with its own food and carb database built in to help with Bolus calculations before meals.

For all you deciding on which pump to get or to get a pump at all take a look:

Here you can find his full review of the Animas 2020 Insulin Pump

Tags: Animas2020, Animas 2020 Insulin Pump, Animas 2020 Review, Insulin Pump Review, Basal, Carb Counting

A cool little project has popped up called Diabetes365. Originally started by Beth of insearchofbalance.wordpress.com, other diabetes bloggers like Bernard of www.bernardfarrell.com have joined in too.

What is Diabetes365? In Bernards words:

“Diabetes365 is an idea that I got from Beth of insearchofbalance. She started her Diabetes365 photo project a few days ago and I couldn’t think of a better way to inform people of what it’s like to live with diabetes 365 days a year.

The idea behind this Diabetes365 project is that I’ll take one picture every day of the year. I’ll post it to the flickr Diabetes365 pool and blog about it briefly.

Would you like to take part in Diabetes365? You can join the flickr pool provided that you post a picture there each day (or wait a few days and post several pictures, one per day). Each picture must be tagged with diabetes365 and titled with the date taken and which day of your year of photos it is. If you’d like to blog your photos, feel free to do that also.”

Are you part of flickr and want to find out more? Go to the Diabetes365 Project Flickr Group or check out his first post.