New York Times – Divabetic

01/14/202301/14/2023

Learning How. To Accept Your Diabetes Diagnosis

Divabetic’s podcast focuses on ACCEPTANCE with musical inspiration from the iconic musical group, The Isley Brothers.

The youngest member and bass guitarist of the Isley Brothers, Marvin Isley, was living with type 2 diabetes. He remained a group member until complications from his longtime battle with mismanaged diabetes forced him into retirement in 1997. Before his death, he had to amputate both legs.

In a 2001 interview, Marvin Isley told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he regretted the decades he spent ignoring his diabetes. “If I would have listened, if I would have understood diabetes like I understood music, maybe these things wouldn’t have happened.”

A diabetes diagnosis can be scary, but ignoring it won’t prevent it. Learning to accept your diabetes takes time, energy, and attitude. The transition from denial to acceptance and all the stages vary for everyone. Seeking a support group, online community, or a trained professional therapist can help you navigate your emotions. Once you learn how to accept your diabetes, you make unlock the key to a healthier and happier way of life.

Mr. Divabetic explores the process of ‘ACCEPTANCE’ with Dr. Beverly S. Adler, PhD, CDCES, in the final installment of our series on the emotional side of living with diabetes.

Additionally, ‘New York Times bestselling co-author and former Senior Writer for People Magazine Mark Dagostino. His book Ellie & Coach tells the endearing true story of a type-A mom caring for a daughter with type 1 diabetes – and the incredible service dog who changes their lives for the better.

Are you considering getting a diabetes-alert dog or training your own dog? Professional Animal Trainer, and Dog Detection Expert Debby Kay, who specializes in scent detection work with dogs, discusses the do’s and don’ts to diabetes-alert dogs. She also shares how the power of the human-animal connection changes hearts and lives with Terri Seidman and Mama Rose Marie.

Plus, Dr. Beverly Adler, PhD, CDCES and shares insightful advice about the learning curve of accepting a diabetes diagnosis.

Throughout the podcast, we feature elected songs from The Isley Brothers: The RCA Victor and T-Neck Album Masters (1959-1983), a monumental 23-disc box set collection chronicling the sonic evolution and abiding achievements of the unprecedented R&B ensemble courtesy of SONY MUSIC. This box set follows The Isley Brothers through their transformation from a 1950’s doo-wop/gospel vocal group into the world’s preeminent R&B rock ‘n’ soul powerhouse party band.

09/30/201710/12/2017

What’s Trending This Week At Divabetic

Check out the latest headlines in diabetes, diabetes self-management, healthy lifestyles and diva entertainment that we think you should know about this weekend.

FDA Approves First Blood Sugar Monitor without Finger Prick

Abbott’s new FreeStyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring System, approved Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration, uses a small sensor attached to the upper arm. Patients wave a reader device over it to see the current blood sugar level and changes over the past eight hours. READ MORE

Seattle-Caught Salmon Contains Cocaine, Antidepressants & Pain Relievers

Salmon is purported to be one of the healthiest foods due to its high omega-3 content, protein, and essential fatty acids, but if the fish is obtained from the Puget Sound, it is anything but healthy.

According to a recent study, up to 81 drugs and personal-care products were detected in the flesh of salmon caught in the Puget Sound. Some of the drugs include Prozac, Advil, Benadryl, Lipitor, and even cocaine. READ MORE

Non-nutritive Sweeteners Can Aid Weight Management in Diabetes

A scientific statement from the American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association concluded that non-nutritive sweeteners, when used carefully, may aid in reducing total energy intake and assist with weight loss or weight control while providing beneficial effects on related metabolic parameters. READ MORE

FDA Approves New Fast-Acting Mealtime Insulin

Officials with the FDA have approved fast-acting insulin aspart (Fiasp, Novo Nordisk) for the treatment of adults with diabetes. Fiasp is a fast-acting mealtime insulin designed for individuals in need of improved overall glucose control. READ MORE

8 Powerful Women (including Jillian Michaels and Victoria Beckham) Who Have Opened Up About Their Struggles With PCOS

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) affects about 10 million women in the world. If you’re personally coping with PCOS, always remember that you are not alone. In fact, even some major celebrities with PCOS have used their platform to speak out about their struggles (and triumphs!) with the disorder, and cultivate awareness in our society. READ MORE

Music Spotlight: Kelsea Ballerini’s song, “Legends” is a mid-tempo ballad reflecting on a past love, though Ballerini also views the song as a message to her fans.

“I wrote it from the perspective of a breakup,” Ballerini told RSC. “Now I’m in such a different place in my life that, to me at least, it’s a love song about a love that you look back on that doesn’t even necessarily have to end. I hope my fans hear it as a letter to them but also they hear their own love story in it too.” READ MORE

Movie Spotlight: “Our Souls At Night” starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda As Neighbors With Benefits

“Our Souls at Night” chronicles the blossoming of a December-December romance between two neighbors in the fictional prairie town of Holt, Colo. It begins not with a spark of passion but with a sensible, if unusual, proposal. Addie Moore shows up at Louis Waters’s house and asks if he will sleep with her. Addie doesn’t mean she wants to have sex with Louis. She wants to slide under the covers next to him, turn off the bedside lamp and chat quietly until slumber arrives, simulating the easy marital intimacy that the two of them, both long widowed, have learned to live without. Louis, startled by the idea, agrees to think about it. READ MORE

09/21/2017

Finding Forgiveness After Decades of Guilt by Gail Eisenberg

September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month—a time to share resources and stories in an effort to shed light on this highly taboo and stigmatized topic.

My college friend, Gail Eisenberg agreed to share the following excerpt from her forthcoming memoir on the Divabetic blog:

Visceral congestion, pending chemical examination.

Decades later, those five words on a mustard-yellow death certificate were the only explanation I’d had for my mother’s demise in May of 1980, when I was 14. The question remained: Had my mother killed herself? Without proof, I would allow myself to waver. I convinced myself that uncertainty was better than having to say goodbye. But about 10 years ago, as I approached 40 — the age Mom was when she died — I needed resolution. I was determined to ground myself in facts. I dialed New York City’s chief medical examiner to request a copy of her autopsy report.

Within two weeks, I held the legal-size pages folded tightly in thirds. As I read, I imagined my mother’s toe-tagged body draped in a crisp white sheet as it slid out from the metal chamber, the glint of the scalpel, the snap of latex gloves. The pages of the report included terms I didn’t understand, quantities I couldn’t comprehend, body parts I didn’t know existed. My mother described à la carte.

Then: Final cause of death: Acute propoxyphene and diazepam toxicity. Suicide.

My list of socially marginalized affiliations grew — motherless, gay, only child, suicide survivor. I thanked God I wasn’t left-handed. I felt sad, yet satisfied. Until I saw something on the document I’d somehow missed:

Notes found at scene to be brought to mortuary.

“Did Mom kill herself?” I’d asked my father many times over the years, wondering if he’d protected me from the truth at 14, hoping he’d tell me at 40.

“I don’t think Mama meant to do it that day,” he’d reply. “All the medications she was on caught up to her.”

READ MORE

Gail Eisenberg is a New York City-based freelance writer who is working on a memoir, from which this essay is adapted.

A common method of suicide attempt in people with diabetes includes uses of high doses of insulin or other medications to treat the disease.

How widespread is insulin suicide?

According to research published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, an analysis of overdose-related calls to a poison center suggested that 95 percent of insulin overdoses were deliberate. READ MORE

We’re discussing ‘Diabetes & Suicide’ on Diabetes Late Nite podcast with guests, Dr. Beverly S. Adler PhD, CDE, Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDE, Neva White DNP, CRNP, CDE, Poet Lorraine Brooks, Author Kim Boykin, the founder of thebetes.org, Marina Tsaplina and Mama Rose Marie. LISTEN

If you’re thinking of suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is avaiable 24/7 across the U.S. Call the National Suicde Prevention Lifeline: 1 (800) 273-8255