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Have you read a diabetes-related book that you found particularly helpful? If so, share your recommendations in the comments!
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Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution
Think Like A Pancreas by Gary Scheiner. Amazing overview and details for those of us “diafectionists” out there!
Diabetes Burnout
I systematically read scientific literature, including diabetes textbooks.
Yes. Think like a pancreas.
Adam Brown’s Bright Spots and Landmines
Reading Diabtes Burnout by Polonsky. After 46 years, feeling it lately. Good read and helpful
Adam Brown Bright Spots and Landmines
Dr Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution.
I also like Adam Brown’s book, Think Like a Pancreas; on the has not been mentioned is Sugar Surfing by Stephen Ponder which is also very good.
Think Like a Pancreas
Pregnancy with T1D by Ginger Vieira!
The book “Your Diabetes Science Experiment” really helped my mindset of changing variables and figuring out what to do different/better the next time.
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Diabetes-Science-Experiment-diabetes/dp/148106200X
I read current diabetes books and articles, most of which are helpful. But the conditions of lack of access to means of continuous monitoring and insulin pumps in Ukraine leave the received news and knowledge in vain.
You have our empathy. How can we help you and other T1Ds in Ukraine? Is there anything practical we can do to ease the burden of our brothers and sisters in Ukraine? Please let us know what we can do and what agencies to contact for sending supplies safely …
Yoga Therapy for Diabetes is written by T1D teacher Evan Soroka. She includes practices for recovering from both highs and lows to restore emotional and physiological balance. Recommended for any T1D with a regular yoga practice.
Diabetes Sucks and You Can Handle It by T1D psychologist Mark Heyman. The title says it all!
Mastering Diabetes by Cyrus Khambatta and Robby Barbaro
Think like a pancreas
Sugar Surfing by Dr. Stephen Ponder
Winning with Diabetes from Johns Hopkins Press. 16 elite athletes, 15 w T1D, and how they manage-cope w their T1D and their sport-activity. Inspiring and informative…
Sugar Surfing
Cheating Destiny by James Hirsch.
Adam Brown’s Bright Spots and Landmines completely changed my mindset about T1D. It is chock full of tips and revelations (it was Adam Brown who first listed the 40+ reasons your BG can go high) but it is his attitude that changed how I think about diabetes. (I’ve had T1D for 33 years, on a pump for 15 years, and CGM for about five years.)
Diabetes Burnout
By Ginger Vieira
Think like a pancreas helped when I was prescribed my first minimed pump. What an invaluable tool!
Then, I read Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution which helped me understand how I can do better with diet.
Bright Spots and Landmines by Adam Brown
“Glucose Revolution by Jessie Inschauspe” I learned how to tame my sugar spikes.
Two books helped me enormously to better understand and manage my Type 1 diabetes, diagnosed in 1976. In the early 2000’s, I read Dr Richard Bernstein’s “Diabetes Solution”. While considered “extreme” by the “diabetes establishment”, Dr Bernstein’s book opened my eyes to the significant role played by carbohydrates in managing blood glucose levels. I immediately began seriously counting and limiting my daily carbohydrate intake. While not reducing my carbs as much as Dr Bernstein recommended (30 carb/grams per day), by becoming “carbohydrate-aware” and significantly reducing my daily carb intake to 120 carb grams/day or less, I was able to improve my A1c from the 8’s and 9’s into the low 7’s and high 6’s. I set a goal for myself to have A1c’s in the mid to low 6’s and within the past 10 years, by reducing my carbs to 110 total carb grams per day, I have achieved that goal…and better. My last A1c in June was 5.9. Dr Bernstein’s book was a turning point for me in my diabetes control. The other book I also recommend is Gary Scheiner’s “Think Like a Pancreas” which helped me to understand how my body works and how to better manage my diabetes with insulin. Scheiner, himself, is a Type 1 exercise physiologist and CDE. His book has wonderful insights about how certain activities may affect our glucose levels and how to tackle the subsequent rises or falls.
I also found those books very helpful.
No I haven’t
Mastering Diabetes
The diabetic athlete
Bright spots and landlines
“Think Like a Pancreas” and the Pink Panther book I was given when I was diagnosed (even though I was a young adult).
All of these particularly helpful books were written T1 PWDs themselves based on real life experience:
Stop the Rollercoaster by Dr Lois Jovanovic MD and John Walsh PA
A Woman’s Guide to Diabetes by Brandy Barnes MSW and Natalie Strand MD
Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner
Bright Spots and Land Mines by Adam Brown
Anything written by Dr Steve Edleman, MD and his TCYOD colleagues
“Sugar Surfing” and “Think Like a Pancreas”
Dr Bernstein’s Diabetic Solution with the first blood test strips, cut in quarters launched me on a 6 shot a day intensfied basel/bolis program that was my salvation in the early 80’s. A lot of additional reading of the Diabetes Care mounthly gave me a lot more understanding of The then current (early 1980’s) studies and discoveries toward advancing my skill and success:
1. Richard Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution’s basel/bolius insulin regimen.
2. Jay Skyler’s M.D. artical on Algroythims for Adjustment was the second most advance in adjusting my insulin regimen.
Dr Bernstein’s Diabetic Solution
Cervantes Don Quixote is best for chasing ideal diabetic numbers like 100 which often looks like windmills.
Dante’s Inferno is best for looking into the abyss of experiencing extreme hypoglycemic excursions.
Franz Kafka’s The Trial is best for dealing with the American medical bureaucracy / system.
Richards Vaughn’s ISBN-10: 1450515967 is an exceptionally well written book by a true human being.
You are so great with your responses!!
Bright Spots and Landmines, Adam Brown
Conquering Diabetes by Dr. Anne Peters written by her, not a ghost writer. She is a researcher who also sees patients. A very rare combination.
Bright Spots and Lind Mines!
I concur with the recommendations for sugar surfing and Dr. Bernstein,I also liked the autobiographical:
Shot: Staying Alive with Diabetes
Amy F. Ryan
and
Beating The Odds: 64 Years Of Diabetes Health
Richard A Vaughn
1. Diabetic Athlete’s Handbook by Dr. Sheri Colberg was very helpful. (It was updated in 2019 to The Athlete’s Guide to Diabetes). 2. Stop the Roller Coaster by Dr. Lois Jovanovic, herself a T1D, a list of inflammatory foods and how to handle pregnancy. 3. Anything by Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, himself a T1D. These books were really helpful to me.
“Insulin Pumpers Handbook” great pimer on insulin pumping and carb counting and dosing.
But it was way in the past. Pumping Insulin started with me in the ’80s.
The pink panther books were good when I first became diabetic.
Dr Bernstein’s diabetes solution. This book has helped me keep my A1c around 5.5 for the past 10 years without too much effort.
I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I knew this diagnosis was in error. I read everything I could on diabetes including think like a pancreas and all of dr bernsteins books. I saw LADA in a medical journal. As an RN I recognized that this is what I had. I figured out my insulin to carb ratio and doses insulin myself. Finally a different Endo diagnosed me correctly
Pregnancy with Type 1 Diabetes by Ginger Vieira and Jennifer Smith
Think like a Pancreas
Bullseye is a good book for pre teens and teens.
When I got my first pump in 2019, my Tandem pump educator recommended the book “Pumping Insulin-Everything for success on a pump and CGM” 6th Edition. I can’t recall everything I had learned from it, but I am sure it gave many tips.
Authors: John Walsh and Ruth Roberts
My current diabetes library has three dozen books +/- currently. The vast majority are the standard ADA “cheerleading” garbage. There are some which have basic knowledge re: potential “complications” and far too few which directly try and touch the mental or psychological aspects of our chronic disease. Polansky’s “Diabetes Burnout…”, Jen Nash’s “Diabetes Wellbeing…”, Mark Heyman’s “Diabetes Sucks…”, etc. Not remotely enough. There are autobiographies, reflections on one’s experience(s) but too few of them as well. Many deeper, better books hopefully yet to be written. The rote basics the “newbie” books are easy to find. But not a beginner, (nor even close) a more sophisticated, far more profound perhaps even humorous works m-u-s-t be written someday. Until then, there are far too many tragic gaps in the books written for the minority we T1 diabetics or by those who know its journey intimately.
Stop the Rollercoaster and another book of
50 Stories of people who have lived with T1D for 50 years
Diabetes Burnout by William H. Polonsky
Dr. Bernstein’s “Diabetes Solution” opened my eyes to so many options to manage my T1D, beyond insulin. From diet and exercise to adjunctive therapies to self-advocacy.
The Diabetic Muscle and Fitness Guide by Phil Graham.
https://a.co/d/4Nxihu1
Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner.
A text for physicians called something like “Medical Management of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus” which I picked up at an ADA meeting, I believe. Has likely been updated and republished as mine is about 25 years old.