Featured Writers

Guest Post by David Kliff, Editor, Diabetic Investor

As I left Vienna after attending the 11th International Conference on Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes, my thoughts turned to what does this all mean, what was the most significant takeaway? By far the most significant development coming out of ATTD is the long quest to have a REAL closed-loop insulin delivery system is no longer a pipe dream. This is going to happen and for once I believe it will happen in my lifetime. It is difficult to overstate the power of the data I witnessed. The reality here is that some very smart people have come a very long way.

Decades ago, going to an International Diabetic Athletes Association (IDAA) meeting in 1990 helped shaped the future direction of my career in diabetes and exercise. I remember talking with people about managing blood glucose with type 1 diabetes during activities of varying types and intensities, and my interest in compiling such useful information led to my first book attempting to create a guide for exercisers with diabetes in 2001. IDAA later became the Diabetes Exercise & Sports Association (DESA), and it later combined with InsulinDependence.org. Sadly, all those organizations are now defunct, the latest casualties of money problems that many not-for-profit organizations have experienced of late.

By Sheri R. Colberg, PhD: Much of the research on length of life for individuals living with type 1 diabetes is pessimistic, which makes a new study released recently a breath of fresh air. Data were collected for the ongoing nationwide, multicenter, Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy (FinnDiane) Study that tracked the death rate of 2,639 study participants.

Living with diabetes often leads me to wonder if what I’m experiencing—particularly when it’s an irritated joint or an overuse injury—is a consequence of being a regularly physically active person, getting older, or having diabetes, or some combination of those. Which one of these is causing my joint issues? Is it possible to know? I will attempt to answer these questions based on my deeper dive into the published research.

By Featured Writer Sheri R. Colberg, PhD. As a clinical exercise researcher, I frequently have found it difficult to study exercise effects in people with health complications, even though this is critical information to know in order to make appropriate exercise guidelines. Try convincing your university Institutional Research Board, or IRB, that it is advisable to exercise people with eye issues like unstable proliferative retinopathy to find out if breath-holding, jumping, jarring, or head-down activities cause them to experience retinal hemorrhages. Understandably, that is not going to happen, nor should it.

Make no mistake: sitting less time overall is a good idea for myriad health reasons, but is sitting as bad for you as some would suggest? Is it really the new smoking? In 2017 alone, a slew of new research studies has looked at various health detriments associated with prolonged sitting, even in adults who exercise regularly.

I have been writing columns—mostly about physical activity and exercise—for this enewsletter for more than a decade, and I am grateful to DIC for allowing me to educate everyone on topics that I feel so strongly about. This month, I would like to switch gears a bit and share some of my personal story about why physical activity matters to me and how I have lived successfully with type 1 diabetes for almost 50 years to date.

I chronicled someone with type 1 diabetes whose ability to exercise was compromised by his use of statins back in April 2016. As you know, statins are a class of medications prescribed to lower cholesterol levels or abnormal levels of blood fats, with the goal being a reduction in the risk of heart attack and stroke. Brand name examples of statin medications include Altoprev, Crestor, Lescol, Lipitor, Livalo, Mevacor, Pravachol, and Zocor.

How do you know if you need to see your healthcare provider for a checkup or medical clearance before you start any exercise training? You should have regular checkups at least annually with your doctor or another healthcare provider if you have any type of diabetes. This helps you keep on top of any problems that may pop up over time that have nothing to do with being physically active.

In addition to aerobic activities, you can greatly improve your blood glucose by doing some resistance, or weight, training. Like so many systems in the body, if you don’t use all your muscle fibers, you lose them over time.