A ChronicBabe reviews: Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes

By Michelle Haus

*Editrix's note: Occasionally we have the chance to review a book that many ChronicBabes might like, and sometimes we let another Babe do the review for us. In this case, Michelle, who has Type 2 diabetes, seemed a perfect fit to review Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes: 5 Essential Health Factors You Can Master to Enjoy a Long and Healthy Life by Richard Jackson, MD, and Amy Tenderich.

Let's cut to the chase: I love this book. Love it. Really.

In the almost nine months since I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, I've read numerous books, countless articles in magazines, tens of web sites and blogs... and gotten a great deal of information from doctors, dieticians, and various diabetes educators, but this is far and away the most positive, hopeful and - most importantly - best read of any of the books.

As all ChronicBabes know, when you are diagnosed with a chronic disease, it's a life-changing moment: You wonder how you will deal with the diagnosis physically and emotionally, both now and in the future, and how your loved ones will react. Jackson and Tenderich give a hopeful assessment, and don't scare the reader like some other books for diabetes (the fire-and-brimstone version of medicine).

But it's not all sunshine and lollipops - the authors talk about many of the downsides of diabetic health-risks, but always offer effective ways to avoid these outcomes. How, you ask? Here's how:

The five essential health factors from the title are: A1C (test assessing blood sugar for a 3-4 month period), Blood Pressure, Lipids, Microalbumin, and Eye Exam. The authors assert that if these five areas are under control, the awful complications those of us with diabetes dread (kidney failure, blindness, stroke, heart attack) can be averted.

The first four chapters are "action chapters" - the authors say that these four chapters contain the crux of the book, but the other chapters go into depth about various aspects of diabetes, such as "Understanding Hypo- and Hyperglycemia," "Traveling with Diabetes," and "Glucose Monitoring." I read the first four chapters the first day, gave myself a day to think about what I had read and went on to read the following chapters.

This is a book that I didn't want to finish - I enjoyed reading it so much and had such a feeling of empowerment and hopefulness that I postponed finishing it for a week.

Dr. Richard Jackson is one of the leading physicians in the area of Type 2 diabetes research and treatment (with the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School), and his insights into diabetes and the most up-to-date treatments are invaluable. Amy Tenderich is the woman behind Diabetes Mine, a wonderful web site with all sorts of great information for people with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes (Amy was herself diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in her mid-30s, a few years ago).

The bottom line from this book is exercise. Get up and get moving, because that, my friends, is the most positive thing one can do to overcome the negative, long-term effects of diabetes. And the first thing I recommend you do is get up and get this book!

Posted: 3/11/2007 in Cool Tools

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A ChronicBabe reviews: Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes