The baby that never stops crying
That’s what author Dan Hurley said about having diabetes: “[Diabetes] is like a baby that never stops crying. It never stops demanding your attention.” Boy, that’s the truth!
Mr. Hurley is a journalist who writes often about diabetes. Not surprising since he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 30 years ago. He’s just written a new book:
Diabetes Rising: How a Rare Disease Became a Modern Pandemic, and What to Do About It.
Mr. Hurley was interviewed on NPR’s Talk of the Nation today and they talked about his book, but they also talked about some important diabetes-related topics. Such as why, despite all the medical breakthroughs, is diabetes still on the rise? According to Mr. Hurley, it’s now 10 to 20 times more common than it was a hundred years ago. Another topic: the FDA is resistant to approve an “artificial pancreas” which would allow people with type 1 diabetes to achieve near normal, if not completely normal, blood sugar levels. (This was news to me. I guess I’ll have to buy the book!) But one of the most interesting topics was about the razor’s edge that is a life with well-controlled diabetes. A person with diabetes wants normal blood sugar levels all the time (at least I do), so there’s constant effort to monitor and adjust and control to keep blood sugar levels down. But, too much downward pressure can be dangerous because the margin between “normal” and hypoglycemic isn’t very large. In Mr. Hurley’s words:
… the harder a person with Type 1 diabetes who takes insulin, the harder they work to control it, the closer their blood sugars are to normal, and that means we’re always a cupcake away from a coma.
I think I’ll have Pat whip up a batch of cupcakes.
Seriously though, it was a fascinating interview, I thought. You can read (or listen) to it here:
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