Where Can I Get Reliable Information on Diabetes?

If you have just been diagnosed with diabetes, 

you’re probably feeling a bit overwhelmed. 

 

You may be asking yourself questions like; where do I get started, how do I eat, what can I eat, what medications do I need?

And if you have been prescribed insulin, how do I adjust my insulin?

If you have type 2, and your doctor said “just cut back on carbs”, you wonder what does that mean?

It can be confusing and overwhelming.


For help with food, ask your doctor for a referral to a diabetes dietician, who can help you learn about healthy eating with diabetes, and how it relates to your medications, including insulin, if you need it. This is a good place to start. It might take a while to get an opening, so ask now.

You may decide later that you need or want to reduce your carbs further, but at least you can get a good grounding in nutrition and what types of foods you should be eating, and what you should avoid, like processed foods, and fried, high fat, high sodium foods. It’s a good place to get started.

You also need to work with a good doctor, one who knows diabetes and understands the treatment options. Your family doctor may not be very familiar or up-to-date.

You need a well informed diabetes nurse educator too. They can often help out more than the doctor can, because they can take the time to answer more of your questions, and may be more up to date than the average family doctor.  Most doctors don’t have a lot of time to go into details with you, whereas time spent with a good diabetes nurse educator can make all the difference.

Look for reliable sources for information.

Relying on just the internet, and word of mouth information is not a good idea when dealing with prescription medications, including insulin. You need to educate yourself, and the internet is not the most reliable source out there.

Yes, its ok for getting opinions, but when it comes to a serious disease like diabetes, you need to check out at least a couple of reliable sources before making decisions on diet, or learning about medications.  You should make an effort to learn the basics from a reliable source, and for that, you’ll need a few well written books.

So head over to Amazon, your local library or book store and look for these titles:

The best place to start is with general knowledge.  

For all types of diabetes, get Diabetes for Dummies by Alan Rubin, MD.

If you’re Canadian look for Diabetes for Dummies, for Canadians. 

In Canada and some other countries, blood glucose meters, (AKA glucometers) use a different system of measurement for blood glucose, and prescription medications can have slightly different names, so finding a book relative to your country can help.

If you have Type 2, I highly recommend that you get started with Gretchen Becker’s  

The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed, 

also available at Amazon. It will walk you through the first year. 

Even if you’ve had type 2 for a while, this book can be helpful. It not only gives you the basics, but also deals with the emotional side of diagnosis, not just the medical side. Feelings of guilt are very common when your doctor tells you that you have type 2 diabetes. TV shows and internet articles indicate that type 2 is a lifestyle disease as if those with type 2 made a conscious decision to get diabetes. This is crazy. Most people don’t know that there are over 38 genetic defects that can be causal factors in developing  type 2. You can’t control your genes. Those who develop type 2 usually have type 2 in their family, although some do not. In any case, without those defective genes, you could eat your way to supersized obesity and still never get diabetes.

The media blames type 2’s for their disease, which is unfair, and puts a lot of pressure and guilt on someone already going through a major life crisis. Its not helpful. Gretchen Becker’s book helps you deal with these issues.

For Type 1, there is  Type 1 Diabetes for Dummies,  which is a great place to get started. I'd also recommend Think Like a Pancreas.


Ok, so your books are on order, and you’re waiting for them to arrive. What do you do in the meantime? 
 
Well, you have internet access, so I highly recommend that you start reading Jennifer's Information for the Newly Diagnosed. She gives very useful information on testing: what blood glucose targets to aim for, how often and when to test, record keeping, and getting your blood glucose down to your target range. http://alt-support-diabetes.org/new.php

If after all that, you finding yourself wanting to know more, you can really dig into Blood Sugar 101, written by Jenny Ruhl, and available on line at Amazon.

Jenny Ruhl also has a great website, at Diabetes 101

The books and websites I've mentioned have a lot of very valuable info and have proven reliable, and well researched, but remember: always check with your doctor before making changes to medications, especially when you first start them.