From conferences to Avandia to burritos…What a trip!

Happy day! We are all in terrific moods here at diaTribe as the summer ends – we’ve attended some great conferences, read some wonderful research papers, and had some terrific conversations with leading doctors, nurses, and scientists. We’re all in the diaTribe offices just winding down on a Friday afternoon, drinking a beer and thinking about how lucky we feel. Thanks to all of you for checking in ~ let me tell you about this, our fifth issue of diaTribe !

We’ve been thinking big thoughts about diabetes since we returned in late June from the American Diabetes Meeting (ADA) in Chicago – there was so much to see! Eight of us traipsed around the city for four days taking in news on type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, exercise, lifestyle, psychology .. you name it, if it concerns diabetes, we looked, listened, took notes, and discussed it! We had our first look at the results of the STAR 1 continuous monitoring trial, which was intended as a ‘practice study’ for the STAR 3 trial currently underway. The whole diabetes community is buzzing about continuous glucose monitoring - we hope that its efficacy is unambiguously proven compared to non-continuous therapies. We suspect it will take incredible time and resources to make it clear our insurance should all pay for this – those of us who are lucky enough to have insurance, that is. Until its worth is proven, reimbursement won’t likely emerge – 2010 is our best guess at present.

In addition to Chicago, we also went to the Children With Diabetes Meeting in Orlando and felt more optimistic about diabetes than we had all year – see why inside.

In our office, whenever the words ‘cardiovascular disease risk’ and ‘diabetes’ appear together, ‘Avandia’ is never far behind after all the raucous from the July 30th FDA hearing - wherein an expert panel delivered its rather non-committal opinion. There wasn’t a lot of agreement, but there was consensus on, ‘If you’re on Avandia and you’re doing well and you don’t’ have heart problems – stay on it. If you aren’t on it, don’t go on it.’ Read about what happened with the famous Dr. Steven Nissen – the story behind the headlines. And, we urge those with more questions on this controversy to talk to their doctors and educators. We also urge you to read the advice of Dr. Donald Smith, Professor of Medicine and Community and Preventive Medicine and Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York on our homepage - he’s a very highly thought of clinician and researcher with some very smart and reassuring things to say on this topic.

Learning Curve in this issue is a little different as it’s about food. As ... said my husband John (also our publisher!) said, “I thought we didn’t write about recipes!” Well, to be sure there are many fantastic sources that that we couldn’t hope to touch ~ but this article, by prizewinning er writer Daniel Trecroci, focuses on the Mediterranean Diet and its positive impact on cholesterol levels and on risk ofor heart disease. The piece describes a rigorous data-based analysis of the diet - fascinating in my view.

For our Test Drive, our gadget-avoiding Jim Hirsch tells us about his experiences with disposable pumps and continuous sensors. It isn’t always pretty, but it is encouraging. Find out how he fared on page 7.

Star blogger Amy Tenderich writes in this issue about the inspiring Rosalind Joffe – take a page from her book on how to navigate a career with a chronic illness.

That’s it from San Francisco. Most of the team is off to find some of San Francisco’s finest burritos – I’m running to find baby Lola, Coco, and John and to thank them again for an amazing summer. Can’t wait to see you next time … if you have anything on your mind, or ideas for diaTribe, as always don’t hesitate to write me at kelly(at)diatribe.us.