They’re kind of like Frisbees.  But with diabetes awareness benefits. And you can trace their whereabouts all over the globe.

These flying blue circles are part of the Unite for Diabetes campaign led by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), which of course just celebrated a great victory in the passing of the first-ever United Nations Resolution on diabetes. 

The New York Times is at it again, with yet another in-depth and provocative feature story on what it means to live with diabetes.  This one focuses on discrimination on the job: “Diabetics Confront a Tangle of Workplace Laws.”

Happy Friday, and enjoy your holiday, everyone!  I’d like to share a few good reasons to smile (in no particular order):

Yesterday morning at the gym it happened again.  I had to make frequents stops for water during my cardio kick box class. (No really, I didn’t welcome the interruptions!)  As usual, I surveyed the room full of sweating people and rhetorically asked, What’s the matter with these people?  Why don’t they drink?? 

First off, Happy Holidays, everyone!  Here we are smack in the middle of Hanukkah and I’m getting nostalgic already.  Was 2006 a big year for people with diabetes?  I’d say so, yes.  Although as a relative newbie (approaching my 4th anniversary of dx), I’m sure many of you have seen years that held at least as much promise for new treatments and potential cures, only to be “stuck in the realm of possibilities” for years to come.  Still, I made myself a nice list of what I thought rocked the (or at least my) Diabetes World this year.

For those who didn’t catch it last week, this is a jaw-dropper all right: worldwide, diabetes now claims more lives per year than even our most-feared modern-day epidemic, AIDS. 

Diabetes now affects 5.9 percent of the world’s adult population and accounts for 3.8 million deaths a year, according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), at its annual World Diabetes Congress earlier this month in Cape Town, South Africa.

Huge news in diabetes research today, folks.  (Thank you to everyone who shot me the heads-up via email).  Scientists in Canada have apparently cured mice of Type 1 diabetes by injecting them with capsaicin (the active ingredient in hot chili peppers), and a neuropeptide substance, which seemed to reverse the disease.

Welcome, one and all, to the dozenth edition of the Diabetic Partner Follies.  Here we invite the loved ones and partners of people with diabetes (PWDs) everywhere to share their experiences.  Almost all our recent stories seem to be about hypos (otherwise known as blood sugar lows).  We welcome these and any other types of venting you all care to share.  Today, a note from a wife in the UK who’s at her wit’s end.  Hopefully just knowing we are out here “relating” can help…

“It used to be that anytime something — anything — about diabetes was on TV or in the news, everyone would call each other right away, word would spread fast and everyone was all excited.  But now there’s a weekly television show devoted specifically to diabetes and people shrug it off and say, ‘aw, that’s so commercial,’” Tom Karlya of dLife tells me with a sigh. 

I should be celebrating — shouting from the rooftops!  But instead I am stunned. Confused.  Filled with skepticism.  Those of you who’ve been following my DexCom adventures here know how frustrated I was when I couldn’t seem to get my A1c below 7.1, despite a lot of diligence and aggravation.