We all lead busy lives, and most of us don't have time to read dozens of scientific journals every month, even if we are able to decipher what the authors are saying.
So the best way to keep informed might be to follow the popular science press and let them do the difficult work of reading complex s...
Keeping Up on Diabetes News
6/11/09 7:08pm
I know from experience we diabetics have to find out about our disease through reading and anyother way we can. Why is it that Dr's don't tell us everything we need to know? I've met alot of diabetics and have yet to find one who knows what an A/1C is which is probly the most important test for us diabetics.
6/11/09 9:05pm
Diabetes is a very complex disease, and most physicians these days are give a maximum of 15 minutes per patient. One doctor told me his HMO wanted him to spend 7 minutes per patient. With that amount of time, all they can do is diagnose something quickly, write a prescription and go to the next patient.
My book on type 2 (The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes) is more than 300 pages long, and it just skims the surface. There's no way a doctor could cover that material in 15-minute sessions.
Some practices let the nurses and CDEs do the education. Some offer classes. Many people have found that the classes aren't very helpful, however, as they usually preach the ADA high-carb diet and accept BG levels that are higher than most of us would like to see.
In addition, doctors like to cure people. Dealing with chronic diseases that just seem to get worse is not as much fun for them, so the less-talented doctors just sort of brush the patients off.
And it's impossible to understand all the stresses of trying to follow a strict diet in a world that seems to be focused on unhealthy, fattening food. That's why we can often find out more by talking to fellow patients than talking with medical people. Of course we also need the medical people. But they're not too useful when discussing lifestyle issues.
6/11/09 11:14pm
Thanks you for your promt reply. I was a Lab Technologist back when so I know about medicine that most average people don't know about. I volunteer for Senior Services taking people to Dr appt and grocery shopping,etc. I explain to them about their ailments and lab tests. I bought your first diabetic book you published and passed it around to my clients and family members who have diabetes. They all found it very helpful as I did. I am also on the Advisory Board of our Senior Center and my experiences in medicine have made some changes in their procedures. Such an important test as A1/C should be explained by the Dr if nothing else. My Dr has a 1/2hr with me and we exchange dialogue about this problem. To me it's like telling a patient they have cancer and walk out of the room. When I was diagnosed a few years back my PC just told me I had diabetes just watch what I eat. Don't mean to be rude but I don't buy the fact that Dr's are limited as to what they can do or advice their patents. Maybe in some cases but not as many as I have encountered.
6/12/09 9:04am
Going to doctor's appointments with people who can't understand the results is doing a great service. I think there should be jobs for people doing just that. The doctor could make the decisions, and then someone else could explain it all to the patient, letting the doctor see more patients.
I had a friend whose college-age daughter was Dx'd with lupus. They first accused her of being on drugs. Then the doctor came in and said, "Your daughter has lupus. It's always fatal" and walked out.
6/12/09 3:12pm
Hello Gretchen, pesty old me again. I do have something to add to our dialogue about patient information. I wonder if we, medical people, ADA, etc, could come up with some advisory literature about diabetes, does and don't, explanations etc and give it to the patient to read at their leasure and have a phone number, email for any questions. That seems to me better than no info because their Dr is too busy to explain if what you are saying is correct. Most people don't know how to find out what they need to know or that there is alot more to diabetes than they may not know about. Do your own research and ask people that are not in the medical field what they know about diabetes. You might be surprised.
6/12/09 5:00pm
6/12/09 5:42pm
I can see a few problems with that idea, nonetheless his answer was not appropriate. CDE would have to know the buddy is capable of answering correctly. I assume he would be a person that would volunteer his time for that. Also some patients can be too demanding, maybe hypochondriac, etc. I have clients in my volunteer business that try to take advantage of a good thing and end up losing their help. Not sure there are enough knowledgeable volunteers with the right personality to handle this. Nevertheless it looks like we both agree that there is a problem of some proportion that needs to be addressed. Maybe we can brain storm.
6/12/09 7:57pm
It's no different from the online help that people get on the Internet. Some people don't give advice that I'd agree with. But in many cases, there's no "correct" answer. There are many answers.
The point of a "diabetes buddy" would be (1) empathy and (2) sharing stories of what they had done in various common situations. I didn't suggest that the CDE volunteer. First of all, he doesn't have diabetes and second, he's already overworked.
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yeah, i think there's something about human nature here- that is, why do we never hear of all the negative studies?- indeed, when a study has negative results ( or verifies the null hypothesis), the experiment is a 'disappointment' on some level- objectively, the yin/yang of research balances positive and negative results- but it seems that our brains are hardwired to highlight only the positive ones
See http://www.jnrbm.com/
Forgot to mention. We have seen a lot of negative results recently. Vitamin A supplements didn't help, and in fact increased cancer rates. Hormone replacement therapy didn't reduce heart disase rates. Vitamin E supplements didn't reduce heart disease rates. Reducing homocysteine with folic acid supplements didn't reduce heart disease rates. Glucosamine didn't help arthritis (other studies were positive). etc. etc.
Other negative results don't get reported. It's sort of like the old journalism saying that "dog bites man" isn't really news but "man bites dog" is. If eating a tablespoon of grass every day prevented heart attacks, that would certainly be news. If eating a tablespoon of grass every day didn't prevent heart attacks, most people wouldn't be surprised, so newspapers wouldn't report on it.