My New Book

Over the years since then Matthew and I have kept in touch regularly by email and telephone as he asked me to review his new books. Under Matthew, Marlowe has become the biggest independent publisher of books about diabetes. I often argue that the books that he publishes are much more important and relevant to us that those of any other publisher.

So, when I suggested in September 2006 that he publish a book on Byetta that I would write for Marlowe to publish, I was optimistic. I had already written what were essentially the first drafts of several of the chapters in many articles here at HealthCentral. But we ran into a couple of problems.

The first was Matthew's fear than a book my just Byetta might look like I "crossed the line from information and even patient advocacy to promotion." He did not want me to be seen as "simply a shill for Amylin," the company that developed Byetta.

Matthew also correctly noted that the Food and Drug Administration has not approved Byetta for weight loss. In fact, spokespeople for Amylin have steadfastly and appropriately refused to discuss the weight loss effects of Byetta, although they continue to work with me as I write about other aspects of Byetta, including its first-phase insulin release.

But Matthew had a couple of excellent suggestions. He thought the book would work if I recast it to include a discussion of all the current diabetes drugs to help us to lose weight and also if I made Byetta the "featured player" but not the only one.

I readily agreed. But by November 2006 it seemed that his enthusiasm for the book had waned. Fortunately, at that time I was in mid-town Manhattan, just a few minutes from Matthew's office, which was then near the World Trade Center. The honchos of HealthCentral, who sponsors these articles of mine, had invited me to accompany them to New York to accept the Freddie Award in diabetes for the best international health and medical media.

When I visited Matthew in his office, enthusiasm for the book immediately rekindled -- as long as I enlisted an M.D. as my co-author. I thought that was a good idea.

But that turned out to be a problem almost torpedoed the book. The doctor was willing, but we had a serious disagreement. I argued then -- as I continue to do, including an article here on "Diabetes Guilt" -- that being overweight or even obese doesn't cause diabetes. The doctor and I had such a profound disagreement on this point that I called Matthew to say that the book was dead.

But Matthew surprised me. This time he said I didn't need an M.D. as a co-author. I just needed to get one to write a foreword. He would publish my book in his "patient-expert" series along with outstanding books like The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes by my friend Gretchen Becker.

I replied immediately that I knew the perfect person to write the preface, Dr. J. Joseph Prendergast. Dr. Joe is the endocrinologist in the San Francisco area who inspired me to start taking Byetta.