Editor's Note: Welchol Info, SMA's, and the Flu
This week I was working on a new presentation on diabetes drugs for a program in May and wanted to update the information on the newer medications and how they work. Knowing that over 74% of patients with diabetes also have hyperlipidemia, I...
Letter from the Editor: History of Insulin Therapy and New Diabetes Treatment Possibilities
Last week I was discussing insulin therapy with my interns as we were evaluating insulin choices for a local physician. The consensus was to start on a long acting insulin like glargine and then titrate based on glucose levels with a patient...
Editor's Note:
This week Steve finishes up his Homerun Slides on the Cost-Effectiveness of Treatment Strategies for Comorbid Diabetes and Dyslipidemia, by showing how Shared Medical Appointments can actually improve care.
SMA's definitely are the...
Special Edition Letter from the Editor
In 1970, the group Five Man Electrical Band released the hit single, "Signs," and in it there is a line, "Do This, Don’t Do That, Can’t You Read The Sign?" It seems that when it comes to food choices for diabetes patients the line...
Letter from the Editor: Pioglitazone or Diet and Exercise? Which do you recommend?
This week's lead article about the use of pioglitazone to prevent the onset of diabetes in high risk patients has lead researcher Ralph DeFronzo, MD, very excited and he even went on to say "It's a blockbuster...
Editor's Note:
I spent five days last week flying and saw a lot of bags on luggage carrousels. People did some amusing things to make their bags easier to spot. There were red ribbons, fluorescent green straps and even one bag wrapped in a big pink outer cover...
Letter from the Editor: New Partnership with ISMP and Glucocard Vital Meter
For almost 11 years Steve and I have been sending you this newsletter, trying each week to make an impact on diabetes care with the hope that the information we are communicating is beneficial to you. During this time we have leveraged our...
Editor's Note: New Series on SMA's, Unexpected Side-Effects and More
According to almost every clinician I talk to, it is becoming harder and harder to have enough time with our patients and get reimbursed for it. This is especially true for diabetes patients and is bound to get worse as patients only want to come...
Letter from the Editor: New Drugs Should Help Our Patients Face Diabetes' Challenges
Are we starting to pay more attention to the challenges our diabetes patients face each and every day? This week Novo released a study showing the value of their three times a week insulin and how it compares favorably to once a day dosing (
Editor's Note: CDC Slides, ADA/PDR Wrap-up, and More
Last week I was working on a presentation for the ASCP mid-year meeting and needed some up-to-date graphs on the incidence of diabetes in the US. Our publisher, Steve Freed, came across the CDC 2011 diabetes report and it was exactly the data...
Letter from the Editor: Not Getting Caught Up in the Numbers and an Investigation into rhGH
Our first item, Predicting Diabetes: Using the Fasting Glucose, A1c, or OGTT, this week looks at the best way to diagnose diabetes...
Editor's Note: More from ADA/PDR, GLP-1 Agonists, and More....
This week we have more ideas on how to treat the two most common forms of neuropathy: diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and diabetic autonomic neuropathy (DAN) from the ADA/PDR: Medications for the Treatment of...
Letter from the Editor: Unexplained Weight Loss
Over the past couple of months I have received calls from three of my old insulin pump patients asking me to decrease their doses. These patients were all using over 400 units of insulin a day and were at least 100 pounds...
Editor's Note: New Excerpt from ADA/PDR, Unexpected Side-Effects and More.
There was a lot of interest in the last two issues surrounding treatments for the complications of diabetes and, more specifically, neuropathy. This week we are focusing on the two most common forms of neuropathy: diabetic peripheral...
Letter from the Editor: More CDC Data, LTC Caregiver and Patient Education, and the Latest Diabetes Management Apps
The CDC just released new data in their 2011 fact sheet which got overlooked in most journals. They now estimate that 26.9% of all patients over 65 have diabetes. This is almost 11 million patients and many of them...
Editor's Note: Microvascular Complications Wrap-up, Incretins, Pt. 6, and More...
This week we finish up the information that Drs. Edelman and Henry have been sharing on the microvascular complications of diabetes and how to treat them. Our Homerun Slides have great information on the other receptor sites that DPP-4...
Letter from the Editor: New Reports, Starbuck's Trenta and the Need for More Clinicians
New reports over the past couple of weeks tell a lot about our health. First it was 1 in 3 Americans have either prediabetes or diabetes and then we got news that over 50% of us are either obese or overweight. Last ...
Editor's Note: "Opathies," Cold Weather and Incretins, Part 5
After reviewing this week's chapter excerpt from Drs. Edelman and Henry, I am seeing the partial word "-opathy" in my sleep. His discussion of the diagnosis and treatment of neuropathy, nephropathy and all the other -opathies put a new perspective...
Letter from the Editor: Diabetes in a Cup
This week I stopped at a Grab and Go Gas Mart on the way home from a program in Sarasota to get a drink. When I was at the fountain I found that the 44 ounce was no longer the largest size as a new 52 ouncer was on the...
Editor's Note: Retinopathy, GLP-1 Agonists and More
Last week I took two of my interns to USF to watch a laser photo-coagulation procedure. The patient had very bad retinopathy and the physician was working hard to save what little vision she had left. Retinopathy is the number one cause of...
Letter from the Editor #559: Listening to "News" on the Radio...
Typically whenever I hear something on TV or the radio about diabetes my ears perk up and I listen carefully. This past week there were a few things that caught my attention.
First I heard...
Editor's Note: Punxsutawney Phil, Retinopathy, Incretins, Pt. 3 and More
I am sitting here in Florida thinking about how many of you are waiting to find out if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow. Sad as it seems I would guess that many of you freezing and covered with snow are hoping that the world's most famous...
Letter from the Editor: CDC Numbers Show Dramatic Increase in Diabetes
The official numbers from the CDC are out for 2011 and once again the number of patients with diabetes is up. Last year my PowerPoint slides topped out at 24 million but this year the CDC has upped the number to nearly 26 million Americans. At this...
Editor's Note: Patient Injection Mistakes, Incretin Slides - Part 2 and Long-Term Complications
This week I gave a lecture to the physician and pharmacist residents at one of our local hospitals and we were talking about the possible reasons that insulin would suddenly lose its effect on a patient. The pharmacist residents started...
Letter from the Editor: ACA Redux and Temporary Medicare Formula Fixes
This week we had a chance to see why government moves at the speed of dirt. It does not matter which party you favor: you have to wonder about our leaders and the way they waste money and time in order to get even. The GOP took over the House...
Editor's Note: GLP-1 Agonists, ID Bracelets and More Great Slides
After Andrew left the JPMorgan Meeting in San Francisco we spoke about the near future of diabetes care for Type 2 patients and he said he thought it will be in GLP-1 agonist therapy. With over 16 new GLP-1s in second or third phase development it...
Letter from the Editor: JP Morgan Conference, Eli Lilly-Boehringer Ingelheim News and More on Accidental Insulin Injection
Last week, many companies in the diabetes world were in San Francisco to present at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Our own president, Andrew Young, was in attendance to see and hear what was going on, and to sum...
Editor's Note: Pets and Diabetes, Treatment Plans for Acute Complications and More Great Slides....
Does your patient have a dog or cat with diabetes? They may not know how an accidental injection of insulin may affect them. In this week’s Disaster Averted a pet owner accidently stuck herself with 5 units of insulin but lucklily was...
Letter from the Editor: Technology, Human Interaction and Exercise Weight Gain
This weekend Steve and I are at the International CES Show in Las Vegas, and technology for health is booming. Two years ago, not a single health related exhibit was available, last year there were 2 and now there is a whole section of the show...
Editor's Note: Happy New Year!
As we welcome the New Year we want to thank all of you who have been able to use the information from our Diabetes Clinical Mastery Series to improve your knowledge. Last week I received a note from a physician in Huntington, WV, that makes...
Letter from the Editor: Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to all of you from all of us here at Diabetes In Control.
This is the time of year that most of our patients get back to taking care of themselves. They have put away the decorations and wrapping paper, finished off...
Editor's Note: Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease, Lifestyle Habit Changes, and More....
Every week there is a new study coming out showing the relationship between diabetes and cardiovascular disease. There are over 1.1 million Americans who will have a serious heart attack in 2011 and there are over 80 million who have one or more...
Letter from the Editor:
This week we have an article about the use of glycated albumin for monitoring fluctuating and poorly controlled Type 2 diabetic patients. The authors...
Editor's Note: Insulin Resistance Wrap-up, Why Timing is Everything and More...
As we approach the holiday weekend I would like to thank all of you for the overwhelming response that we have received to our new Diabetes Clinical Mastery Series. It has been very rewarding for all of us at Diabetes In Control to...
Letter from the Editor #552: Genetic Cause of Diabetes, Perfect Gifts for the Holidays
Last week we published an article, New Analysis Concludes Cause of Diabetes Not Genetic, which focused on the concept that no...
Special Edition: Best of 2010
As I look back over the past year, it has been quite a ride for all of us in healthcare and in diabetes.
Congress passed the historic healthcare reform law but will it stay? Part of that bill reduced payments to physicians by 24% and...
Editor's Note: Inflammation Markers, Treatment Regimens and Patient Confusion
Last week our publisher, Steve Freed, shared some great Homerun Slides on how Type 2 diabetes develops and what role hormones play in the progression of the disease. Your response was overwhelming and this week Steve brings us the second...
Letter from the Editor #551: Medicare Coverage Extensions and Part D Plans
As we come to the end of the year, there is some good news out there for our patients. Last week Congress finally got their act together and realized that patient care for seniors would suffer if the proposed cut in physician reimbursement...
Editor's Note: The Bergenstal/Kendall Slide, Treatment Algorithms and More
Lecture after lecture we all have seen the famous slide first done by David M. Kendall, MD, Richard Bergenstal, MD, et al, at the International Diabetes Center in Minneapolis. I have used that slide in over 100 presentations and I would guess it...
Letter from the Editor: Lap-Band at Birth -- Is It Possible?
I was reviewing some charts with a physician this past week and she made a comment about how many of her younger patients, 18-30 year olds, were overweight and just keep getting bigger. Jokingly I commented that maybe we should put a Lap-Band on at...
