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Can meat consumption increase glucose intolerance and insulin resistance?

Whenever someone gets diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) nowadays, the first thing that an educator or dietitian tries to teach them is how to count carbohydrates (carbs). Although I have been living with T1D now for almost half a century, I have to admit that I don’t count carbs. Not only that, but I personally don’t think carb counting works very well!

How good are you at interpreting graphs? Follow the link to see this graph at full size and indicate the parameter that best describes Curve 1. Is it: insulin secretion, postprandial glucose, fasting glucose, or insulin resistance?

Do you think people who are prescribed a drug, like metformin, for prediabetes are more or less likely to make lifestyle changes that could help their prediabetes? Follow the link to share your opinion!

It is not unusual for people to have difficulty keeping insulin from freezing or getting overheated. A patient, with type 1 diabetes for 17 years, had glucose that did not respond to his rapid-acting insulin as it usually does. He had two new vials in the refrigerator. He took a new vial out of his refrigerator earlier in the day, and started using it a few hours after he took it out. Had high post prandials that did not respond as usual to correcting. He had enough experience to wonder if perhaps something was wrong with his new insulin, so he thought he’d try another vial. He saw it was frozen. He had put the two vials at the back, where for many refrigerators it is colder. He thought back and wondered if the first vial looked any different, but remembered, he did not look closely at it.

In part 1 of this Exclusive Interview, Dr. Stanley Schwartz explains how the current understanding of diabetes surpasses the diabetes classifications determined long ago. He explains how understanding the inner workings of a specific patient can determine the best therapy for that patient, whether diabetes classifications change or stay the same.

In this week's Homerun Slides, Dave Joffe, editor-in-chief of Diabetes in Control, presents strategies for helping type 2 patients to achieve their glycemic goals, starting with an outline of diabetes team members.

Beta-Cell response to hormones and the nervous system: As already mentioned insulin is the only hormone with a blood glucose lowering effect, while many other hormones (glucagon, cortisol, adrenaline) exert a hyperglycemic action. The changes in glucose levels elicited by these hormones obviously will be detected by the beta cell, which will respond by enhancing insulin secretion. Yet, all these hormones, as well as others and the nervous system exert a coordinated direct effect on the beta cell resulting in an integrated and sophisticated control network.

In this exclusive interview transcript, Dr. Stanley Schwartz discusses the proposed new diabetes classification, which seeks to not only just classify but to help in determining what type of treatment might be best for that patient.

Are very-low carbohydrate, low saturated fat diets the best choice for A1c control?