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  • #showmeyourG

    #showmeyourG
    #showmeyourG

    The lovely Miss Idaho 2014, America’s Choice for Miss America, “owns” her diabetes by proudly wearing her insulin pump visibly on the outside of her clothes, even her itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini. Building on the success of her show me your pump campaign, Hypoglycemia Awareness, “Ha!” created the next step after the pump with the magenta G icon to show where we carry our preferred Glucose; such as, glucose tablets, gels, gummy bears and our glucagon kit. Send a pic of where you carry yours. We want to know where you wear your G icon and whatever else you would like to share. But don’t share your Gummy Bears, you might need them for a hypo!
    #showmeyourG

  • September, 2014 is the 1st Hypoglycemia Awareness Month

    September is Hypoglycemia Awareness Month

    Because one day is not enough to raise awareness of hypoglycemia in all corners of the world.  This will be an ongoing effort as diabetes continues to be diagnosed at break-neck speed.   This special month of the year is a perfect time for children to have prescriptions for glucagon, insulins, and all the other diabetes supplies renewed.   It is a time for  conferences with the school nurse, teachers and coaches about the specific needs of a t1 student.    It is a time when many school age children need a physical for sports or a new school.   Adults have a nostalgic feeling from childhood that it is time for a new pair of shoes.  A new “school year” begins in September:  everyone is finally back at work  from summer vacations, so decisions can finally get made.  May the annual budget planning commence!    September has the added benefit of being “Honey Month.”   What better industry to share an awareness month with “Ha!”

    I squirm at the thought of my diabetes sisters and brothers being out and about town, alone, in public,  potentially in harm’s way, without enough of anything to treat severe hypoglycemia.   A friend with t1 here in NYC that I met through my Meet Up for Hypoglycemia Awareness made a comment that lingers with me:

    “My greatest fear is to be on the subway begging strangers for candy.”    -anonymous New Yorker with t1

    Begging for candy from strangers…. It strikes me that a passenger asking strangers on the train for candy might easily be misconstrued as a homeless or mentally ill.  These needy folks are ignored by New Yorkers who are wearing Beats or otherwise deaf to pleas for help.   If the PWD (person with diabetes) was already beyond the point of being intelligible, speaking in broken phrases, shaking and sweating, it may not be possible to go into the “I have diabetes and my blood sugar is dropping.   I need something sugary.”   There usually isn’t time for a lesson from  “Hypoglycemia 101” when insulin peaks without enough glucose available.

    With “Ha!” and Hypoglycemia Awareness Month, we would like to raise the level of general awareness for hypoglycemia as we already have for an allergic reaction treated with an EpiPen to rescue someone experiencing a reaction to a bee sting.

    Giving a fellow passenger candy if he asks, without being able to enunciate a reason for it may save the day for you and everyone else on their way to work in that train.   How do we achieve that level of common knowledge?   The most effective ways may be for employers and municipalities to incorporate it into their training and posting it, as for CPR.  Public service announcements in the media are another way to reach a wide audience, as well as well-placed messages on billboards, buses, subways, radio, TV, social media

    “Ha!”  now offers people with diabetes a practical and, eventually, universal way to own and minimize their risk for hypoglycemia.  Place a sticker of our icon of a magenta “G” on the pocket of your backpack or purse or briefcase that holds your preferred method(s) of oral treatment, as well as a glucagon emergency kit.  You can train your family, friends, coworkers, physical trainers, coaches, teachers, neighbors, bartenders of your personal Cheers, bridge club and fellow church members; in short, the people who are around you all the time, to look for the G when you are having a low blood sugar and are in need of glucose .   

    Please share your questions, ideas and suggestions with me.   Thank you for your time and kind consideration,

    Zoe

  • A magenta “G” indicates where you will find glucagon, glucose tabs, gels or maybe some gummy bears

     

     

     

    As seen on the Upper East Side on Saturday on the outer pocket of Le Sport Sac shoulder bag.     The magenta “G” indicates  the pocket or place where people with diabetes carry their treatment for low blood sugar, know as “hypoglycemia.   Assisting a person with hypoglycemia is easier when you know where to look for the preferred treatment.   

    Ha! 2nd G Le Sport Sac

  • G stickers are trending in Manhattan

    Ha! 1st G Joe Meagher

     

    Our 1st G appeared at Sitaras Fitness, worn by Joe Meagher, a Trainer at Sitaras Fitness.     Joe wears my SPI belt during our work out sessions, so that we always have glucagon and glucose tablets at the ready, just in case.   Joe has been fully briefed on what to do if I start to go low.    It really stands out, doesn’t it?

  • Latest research findings on glucagon link to obesity from UT Southwest

    UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a crucial link between high levels of insulin and pathways that lead to obesity, a finding that may have important implications when treating diabetes.

    Researchers with the UT Southwestern’s Touchstone Center for Diabetes found that giving mice high levels of insulin, which is typically done to counter the effects of diabetes or insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes, also fosters processes that lead to obesity.

    The discovery was made by studying mice engineered to lack receptors for a hormone called glucagon.
    Glucagon spurs the liver’s production of glucose into the bloodstream and thus maintains the fuel supply for the brain. Insulin blocks the secretion of glucagon, opposes glucagon action on the liver, and instructs the body to take up glucose from the blood. Type 2 diabetics cannot respond properly to insulin and have uncontrolled glucagon production, thereby causing their livers to overproduce glucose, contributing to high blood-sugar levels. Insulin is often given to people with type 2 diabetes to try to overcome insulin-resistance and lower the levels of glucose in the bloodstream.

    But insulin also signals the body to produce fat, so when given the high levels of insulin needed to control excess glucose, mice become fat, explained corresponding author Dr. Michael Roth, Professor of Biochemistry at UT Southwestern and a member of the Touchstone Diabetes Center.
    “We found that mice lacking the receptor for glucagon cannot get fat unless they are given the high levels of insulin found in mice (and humans) that have type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. Roth, who holds the Diane and Hal Brierley Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Research. “This result suggests that the high levels of insulin found in those who develop insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes are a contributor to obesity and its complications.”
    Dr. Roth cautioned that if this response also happens in humans, then treating patients with type 2 diabetes with higher than normal amounts of insulin could contribute to the development of obesity.

    The findings suggest that physicians may need to reconsider use of intensive insulin therapy to control hyperglycemia (high blood-sugar levels) in obese, diabetic patients with hyperinsulinemia (overproduction of insulin). In addition, the findings suggest that suppressing glucagon action could prevent hyperinsulinemia, without causing diabetes. The research team found that suppressing glucagon in obese, insulin-resistant, type 2 diabetic mice reduced blood glucose back to normal levels.
    Glucagon and insulin normally counteract each other as part of an ongoing effort to stabilize blood-sugar levels. The glucagon hormone is produced and released by the pancreas in response to low concentrations of insulin and, conversely, glucagon release is suppressed by high levels of insulin in the bloodstream. The balance between the two hormones is disrupted in type 2 diabetics by the insulin that is given to control high glucose levels. This excess insulin, in turn, causes the body to produce excess fat. The new findings lead the authors to suggest that the high insulin levels actually aggravate diabetes. The optimal therapy, they propose, should be diet restriction and reducing glucagon levels.
    According to estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO), 347 million people worldwide have diabetes, 90 percent of whom are affected by type 2 diabetes. Although previously only seen in adults, type 2 diabetes is now occurring in children, and can include complications such as an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, nerve damage, and eye disease.
    The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, builds upon original research by Nobel laureates and Regental Professors Dr. Michael Brown, Director of the Jonsson Center for Molecular Genetics, and Dr. Joseph Goldstein, Chairman of Molecular Genetics, who showed that insulin increases lipogenesis, the production of fat, and demonstrated the role of insulin in the activity of SREBP family of transcription factors.

  • Have you ever been alone when you had an insulin reaction/hypo/gone too low?

    If you have, I invite you to share the circumstances with me, so that i can learn from your experience.  

    I had a low recently when I was alone at a Starbucks in the busy fashion district of New York.     I had gone in there simply to use the rest room, feeling normal.  Just a few minutes before I passed out i was chatting with 2 orthodox fashion designers also waiting in line for the rest room,  When I came out of the restroom, that’s when I felt my pulse had quickened, suddenly signaling to me that I was going low.  It happened in an instant.  So I walked up to the counter, held out a $5 bill and asked them to get me something sugary while I fished out my Glucolift tablets.  As I ate the tablets, I explained to the Barista and Cashier that i have diabetes and was possibly about to pass out.    First they offered me a cinnamon bun.  I shook my head No because it was too much fat to act fast.   Then they offered me a Rice Krispy treat, which I accepted and asked for some apple juice to wash it down. I gulped them down as i leaned against the counter.   I felt myself falling back and asked someone to hold me up.   But I fell down and hit the back of my head.    The next thing I remember was waking up in a stretcher with 2 handsome young EMTs looking at me.   I was disoriented for about 30 seconds until my brain kicked into gear.   We were going to the hospital, against my will, it was too late to argue with them.

    At the Emergency Room, they did nothing for me – there was nothing to do.   My blood sugar was up to 77.   I never saw a doctor.   Within an hour, I was released, with a blood sugar of 125.    It will be interested to see how much this incident costs.  Starbucks is expensive, but not as expensive as an ER visit.    I may go back to that Starbucks to thank them for helping me out and calling the ambulance.    It must have been traumatic to see me going through that.    That’s something i dislike about having severe hypoglycemia, alone.   When I run low and I am with a friend or relative who knows immediately what to do, an ER visit has never been necessary.      I hope to bring about a public recognitive of the “G” icon as an indicator of where the person with diabetes is carrying their treatment(s) for hypoglycemia, such as glucagon, glucose tablets, gels or candy.  By being able to point to the “G” the person with diabetes may save themselves a few seconds that could make the difference between staying alert or losing consciousness and going to the hospital.  

    Here’s how it will work:   a “G” sticker is placed over the pocket where you keep your stash of glucose – on your back pack, fanny pack, purse or other location such as a desk drawer.

    For the month of September, the 1st Hypoglycemia Awareness Month, you can get a free “G” sticker.   Email your name and mailing address to info@hypoglycemiaawareness.org

     

  • Pledge to Share with a G

    Wouldn’t it be nice for you and the people you spend time with to have a set place where we keep our Glucolift, Glucotabs, Glucose, Glucagon, Gatorade or other form of glucose.    If you are willing to stick a sticker on the outside of a drawer, pocket in a car console, or other place where you keep your stash of sugar, Sugah, please respond and I will gladly mail one to you.    It might save you time, money and frustration.

  • G isn’t it Great to have Glucose handy?

    Candy lips

  • Rice + Stress + ??? = 379

    Why? Exactly. Why? Life is lived forward and understood in reverse. Living with diabetes is a numbers game first and foremost. The ideal number, or level of your blood glucose, should be in the normal range 80-120 mg/dl.

    That’s the goal, and we do the best that we can do to predict the patterns that will result from the doses of medications that we take. Our doctors and nurses give us parameters for taking more or less medication based on weight, sensitivity to insulin, level of activity and whatever amount of food we usually eat. For example, I weigh 147lbs today, and 1 unit of insulin usually drops my blood glucose level 80 mg/dl, I am moderately active and my food habits are routine. By now I have memorized how many grams of carbohydrate are in everything I eat…as long as I am eating at home. Then the variables called life intervenes. While having lunch at an asian restaurant, I underestimated the number of grams of carbs in what I ate. Before I ate what I ate, I gave it my best guess. There are no labels in a Vietnamese carryout, and my attempt to ask for the sugar content of items on the menu was met with a blank stare. Two hours later, when lunch digests and insulin is peaking, they meet and go off to visit my muscle and fat tissue via uptake in my blood. WOW! But, the timing of all of this is affected by the temperature. If it is hot, the insulin acts faster. Some hormones like it hot. If I am walking 10 blocks back from lunch, insulin likes that too and gets where it’s going to go faster, with or without lunch.

    So what happened after lunch, and are you yawning yet? The rest of the afternoon was super stressful due to some software glitches at just the wrong time during a presentation. Although I did not feel anything other than my face blushing and an elevated pulse, my blood glucose level was rising rapidly in response to the release of cortisol, a stress hormone that releases a form of stored glucose from the liver in everyone, not just people with diabetes.

    I looked at my blood glucose monitor and it read 379. Before lunch, 117. Was it rice? Or stress? Or both? Or something else?

    To build the suspense of this otherwise tedious account of my own “bad bad day,” I will save the climax and denouement for my next post.

  • Joy begins today at “Friends for Life 2014”