Is there a place for lay diabetes people?

This article by Reuters and reprinted by BD Diabetes talks about something that needs more publicity. A brief summary is also located on the American Diabetes Association Site.

The title is “Lay volunteers can play a key role in diabetes care”. I do have to wonder why this has not received more publicity, There would seem to be a place for more of this to happen because of the shortage of people to help people with diabetes.

There may be an article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, but I have not found it. While this is about volunteers, it seems that there are ways to be able to help spread the word on diabetes care.

Jill Stein is the author of all three articles and seems to have exclusive control of this article and where it is published. Even going to the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and looking for information there only yielded information by Jill Stein. Even the email that I sent to the University School of Medicine has not yielded an answer.

Finally was able to locate the abstract on the ADA site so you may read it. To date I have not been able to get any other information. The article by Jill Stein says the volunteers underwent training, but nothing about the type and length of training.

Writing for other sites

There is something that does not seem quite right about writing for others. There are advantages and for some people this is important. Copyright protection covered by the place you are writing for – hopefully – and this is important. Protection from spammers and scammers which can assist the timid, but still good writers.

One advantage many people overlook in writing for others is that if one of the writers becomes successful, then by association your success will be increased if you are a decent writer.

The disadvantages are many. You generally must write within the guidelines that the editorial board of the website wants and therefore you do not control the total content of your writing. You must stay within editorial guidelines for topics, and presentation. You have little or no control over the final product that you have labored over and put your time into writing.

It is for these reasons I generally prefer to stay within my own website and keep control over my own content and my own guidelines. If I do not approve of the way the editorial people of a website edit my writing, then I would be very unhappy as I do want to be controversial at times and to be able to cover topics not permitted by an editorial policy.

Someday I may wish to write for others, but for now, I enjoy the freedom to pick my topics and cover them in my style – be they good or not.

Some of the better websites are:

http://www.healthcentral.com/   Many good writers on many topics.

http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/?ic=1102   For good writers about diabetes.

http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/Blog/   Good writers about diabetes and diabetes related topics.

There are other sites that have only one or two writers for type 2 diabetes and diabetes related topics:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/diabetes/DS01121/TAB=expertblog

http://diabetes.about.com/b/

I may have missed some of you favorite websites, so keep following them.

Interview

After having done other interviews, and not about diabetes, in person and via phone, this is the first I have done one online and about diabetes. I will admit that I like not being under the gun and being able to put on my thinking cap before answering. So for that I do thank Emilia Klapp at The Diabetes Club. Read the interview here.

Still I missed some information that a friend emailed me about. In the things to tell someone newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, I missed an important point. Something that works for one person, does not mean it will work for another person. Most of the time we just say what works for me may not work for you. That is because type 2 is such an individual disease and each person's body often does react differently to the same foods and even medications. There may be some things that will work, but don't rely on this.

Another unmentioned item is learning how to find a doctor or specialist that is a good fit for you. This is easier said than done whether you are type 1 or type 2. This is not something that can readily be talked about in an interview as each of us has a different personality. Most of us like to have the doctor talk with us and definitely not at us, but each of us defines that differently in practice.

Fish Oils and Metabolic Syndrome

Many blogs and articles extol fish oil for the heart, hypertension, and the assistance on helping control lipids. And rightly so, as there are many benefits from fish oil and I take the fish oil capsules for these reasons also, and more. While many recommend eating the fresh fish, I have to look at the economics of the fish oil capsules vs the fish I would need to consume. I do eat some fish, just not the quantity to equal what I take in fish oil capsules.

So for this blog, I want to focus on some of the other benefits of fish oil. For those of us with diabetes, insulin resistance and inflammation are two of the benefits. More studies point to fish oil helping with reducing insulin resistance and the biggest advantage is the reduction of inflammation which affects our diabetes and risk of cardiovascular disease.

Metabolic syndrome unfortunately is a contributor to type 2 diabetes. It also contributes to many of the problems associated with diabetes, fatty liver disease, microalbuminuria (the leaking of protein into the urine), depression, obstructive sleep apnea, polycystic ovary syndrome, increased risk of dementia with aging, and cognitive decline in the elderly. Fish oil works to help all of these, but the total benefit is still being studied for some of the diseases and syndromes. There is also some disagreement in the definition of metabolic syndrome.

While fish oil is a great source of omega 3 which works to improve insulin resistance, inflammations and assists with reducing other problems, especially fatty liver disease. It is the omega 6 that needs to be reduced. David Mendosa has some very informative articles about the relationships of omega 3 and omega 6 and how to increase omega 3 and reduce omega 6. Many of us do not realize how much omega 6 is in our cooking oils, especially soybean, corn, canola, and cottonseed.

There are many sources for this information and I urge you to read more about metabolic syndrome and fish oils. I have just listed a few of the articles by David Mendosa, but there are other good writers on these topics as well. Use any of the key words above on the search engine on David's site to read more.

Sites not included above.

Site 1. A recent article in Diabetes in Control issue 538 about a yet unpublished study praising omega 3 and fish oils improving diabetes control.

Site 2. A good listing of studies of fish oils and its benefits for those suffering from depression.

Site 3. A good five page article about metabolic syndrome