Please welcome, today at DiabetesMine, a new community category I’m calling Diabetes Lifeline.  Maybe not the most original name, but if the shoe fits…  The idea is that I get quite a few emails from people all over asking for help with various diabetes-related predicaments, in many cases how to stage an intervention for a friend or loved one going horribly awry with their diabetes.  And guess what?  I don’t have all the answers.  I’m not even a medical professional, just another struggling PWD myself. 

Anyone familiar with the “hygiene hypothesis“?  This theory proposes that by living in an ever-more-sterile environment, we have forced our immune systems to “look for something else to do,” like causing asthma and an array of allergies, or attacking our islet cells, for example.

Jay Hewitt doesn’t really want anyone to think of him as a superhero.  But can we help it?  Here’s a mere mortal man — who’s had Type 1 diabetes for 16 years — who’s a champion competitor in Ironman triathlons. That’s a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run, all in one day. He’s a three-time member of the U.S. National Team for Long Course Triathlon, and captain of Team Joslin at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, MA.  On top of all that, he’s both a successful litigation lawyer and a passionate motivational speaker who travels around the country talking to groups about thriving with diabetes.  Whew! I’m exhausted just introducing him.

Speaking of survivorship… read this:

Shortly after my diagnosis, a friend in my book club said enthusiastically, “You HAVE to talk with my mom. She’s got diabetes AND breast cancer!”  Aaaaaccccckkk!  I’m just getting my head around one chronic disease, so why in the world would I want to rendezvous with someone who’ll remind me that there may be more to come?!

My new column this month at dLife is not exactly a book review, but something more akin to a “book encounter.”

I recently received an advance copy of medical writer Jill Sklar’s The Five Gifts of Illness.  Sklar was diagnosed herself with Crohn’s Disease in 2002.

Could this be the answer to our device design dreams?

Two companies in Switzerland are busy developing a tiny precision pump, that looks, well… iPod-like!

A little older and a little wiser (?)

I haven’t said anything about the massacre at Virginia Tech, because I didn’t know what to say. I really didn’t…  But now I’ve discovered that Leroy Sievers over at NPR’s MyCancer blog has already said it so well:

Another kindred spirit, and this one found me!  Sheri Colberg-Ochs is an author, lecturer, researcher, professor, exercise physiologist, and expert on exercise and diabetes.  She is also a mother of three school-aged children, and living with Type 1 diabetes herself (just like me).  She was diagnosed as a child, and has built her life around making a better world for people with diabetes.  She writes numerous articles and columns in addition to her five book titles — including the recent “The 7-Step Diabetes Fitness Plan” and “50 Secrets of the Longest Living People with Diabetes.”

Animas, for one, claims that it’s listening hard to what users want in an insulin pump.  When the company launched its new Animas 2020 “performance” insulin pump a few weeks ago, they sure went gangbusters on the testimonials, that’s for sure. Check out the product website, featuring a whole lot of streaming video of both patients and company insiders talking about the benefits of pumping, and their rugged new design. (Of course, “rugged” may not be the look you’re going for…)