Media Touts A New Study Blaming Diabetes Epidemic On Global Warming

The media is touting a new study claiming global warming could be, at least in part, to blame for the “diabetes epidemic” sweeping the globe.
“When it gets warmer, there is higher incidence of diabetes,” Lisanne Blauw, a Ph.D. candidate at the Netherlands-based Einthoven Laboratory and the study’s lead author, told The Huffington Post Tuesday.
“It’s important to realize global warming has further effects on our health, not only on the climate,” Blauw said.
Blauw and her colleagues wrote “the diabetes incidence rate in the USA and prevalence of glucose intolerance worldwide increase with higher outdoor temperature” based on a meta-analysis of 14 years of data on diabetes and temperature in U.S. states.
Researchers hypothesize “the global increase in temperature contributes to the current type 2 diabetes epidemic” since warmer weather could inhibit brown adipose tissue (BAT) that turns food into energy for the body.
That could reduce the body’s ability to metabolize glucose, making Type 2 diabetes more likely.
“Hot weather can be more difficult for people with diabetes,” Mona Sarfaty, director of the Consortium on Climate Change and Health, told Popular Science.
“The heat keeps people from being active, which means they expend less calories, which can lead to more weight gain,” Sarfaty said. “Also, people with diabetes often have kidney problems. Dehydration — which comes with heat — can worsen kidney problems when people are dehydrated.”
HuffPo, of course, mentioned climate scientists declared 2016 the hottest year on record.
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Accessing Insulin Pumps and CGM’s

The buzzword in diabetes care these days seems to be “Insulin Pump”. And there is a lot of frustration in the diabetes community about the lack of availability of them.
NOTE: If you have a child with type 1 diabetes age 6 years or younger; you should have access to an insulin pump almost immediately as per the HSE’s “ Model of Care for the Provision of Insulin Pumps for the treatment of Type 1 Diabetes in the Under Five Age Group” see here.
So, I thought I would pull together some of the information I have into a post to help people increase their odds of getting any piece of diabetes tech. Plus, dispel some myths around insulin pump therapy and accessibility.
Thank you to Davina Lyon from Diabetes T One for the suggestion for this post.
It might seem like some people have unlimited access to all of this technology but most people with type 1 diabetes in Ireland do not! Mostly people gain access to this tech by being knowledgeable, persistent and not being deterred. Oh, yes, and they also attend a diabetes clinic that offers all of this.
Firstly, The FreeStyle Libre is available to buy in Ireland since November 2016. So there is only one significant block to accessing this technology – affordability. The application process to have this device included on the Long Term Illness Scheme is ongoing and we will keep you informed. This website; http://www.freestylelibre.ie/ is where you can buy the Libre.
Whether it’s an Insulin Pump or a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) that you’re after, or just curious about, here is my advice to you on finding out more;
Do you Continue reading

Girl with diabetes says she was banned from water slide because of insulin pump

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The mom of a daughter with Type 1 diabetes called out a public park employee who allegedly kept the girl from riding a water slide because of the insulin pump she wears attached to her stomach.
“She was in tears and upset, as she has every right to be,” Beth McBride, of Kettering, Ohio, told Fox 45 about the incident involving her 12-year-old daughter, Alexis. “I mean she was discriminated against basically.”
Beth could not be reached for comment by Yahoo Beauty. But on Facebook, she noted on Aug. 13, “Well I am officially boycotting this place until they educate their lifeguards and managers! My kid cannot disconnect her omnipod insulin pump to go down water slides. She was told she could not use any of the water slides with her pump or Dexcom on. I tried to explain to the manager and he blew me off! Her pump is made to be in water. She can be on slides with it!!!”
On Monday, she added an update that she was meeting with the manager of the Kettering recreation department that evening.
The mom told the news station that not allowing her daughter on the water slide amounted to the town violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which, under Title III, “prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in the activities of places of public accommodations (businesses that are generally open to the public and that fall into one of 12 categories listed in the ADA, such as restaurants, movie theaters, schools, day care facilities, recreation facilities, and doctors’ offices)…”
Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are considered disabilities under t Continue reading

The Real World, Diabetes: As cameras roll at a Jamaican resort, desperate patients seek healing

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — The man who boasts of changing the face of diabetes spreads his arms out wide, like the Christ the Redeemer statue, but in neon orange shorts and bare feet. He looks earnestly into the rolling camera.
“Welcome to ‘Reversed,’” he intones. Seated behind him are four of his disciples: Americans with type 2 diabetes who’ve flown to this tropical beach town to participate in a reality TV show marketed as a momentous opportunity to restore their health. Over eight days, they’ll learn to exercise and eat right and bare their struggles in cathartic therapy sessions.
Their host, Charles Mattocks, is a smooth-talking, fast-moving entrepreneur, who has leveraged his family fame (his uncle was Bob Marley) and his own medical history (he uses diet and exercise, not insulin, to manage his diabetes) to set himself up as a guru to diabetics everywhere.
In an age where nearly 1 in 10 Americans has diabetes, a disease that can bring a lifetime of painful complications, patients are often desperate for miraculous turnarounds — and there’s a booming trade in supplements, diets, and self-help books that promise answers. Now, there’s a TV show, too.
But “Reversed” is unlikely to prove anyone’s salvation.
The show, which will begin airing next month on cable, is at once a vehicle for Mattocks to proselytize his gospel of self-help, a marketing gambit by a pharma company that’s running out of money, and a season-long advertisement for a luxury getaway at the sparkling resort where it was filmed.
The carefully choreographed, relentlessly upbeat atm Continue reading

Type 2 Diabetes – Reversal with Lifestyle Change

MEET DAMIEN – (2004 – 2013) Doing no exercise, 19 stone in weight, a smoker, on medication for gout and blood pressure, diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and taking Diabetes medication to reduce the damage caused by high blood glucose to his eyes, heart, kidneys, limbs in fact, the entire body. Damien’s diabetes consultant was not a happy man. Damien needed to change and admits not being happy with himself.
2014
Damien tells us “In March of 2014 my company had a bonding day. The after-dinner speaker was a guy called Gerry Duffy who had completed 32 marathons in 32 days. He showed us pictures of himself before he started running. What I was looking at was a slim athlete who told us that anyone could do it. The following day, I said to myself ‘if Gerry can, I can’. I started out on the Killala Road and built up to 3 miles. It wasn’t easy but it was pleasing when I ran 3 miles without having to stop. Within 4 months, I ran my first half marathon. By the end of the year I had ran another half marathon and generally was running 4 times a week. The weight started to fall off and I was noticing it big time in my clothes”
“2015 brought more half marathons, a few 10 mile races and numerous 10k’s, I had joined Ballina AC at this stage and met a great bunch of running buddies and motivators.
“Health wise my blood sugars had levelled off, my consultant told me because of the exercise and weight loss I was heading towards reversing the diabetes”. My Diabetes consultant was a happy man and he was impressed.
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