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Archive for the ‘Living With Diabetes’ Category

Thank you to the World Diabetes Day USA Team for the following great idea:

EMBRACE THE COLOR BLUE

• Wear blue, light a blue candle, put up a blue light bulb or even paint your nails blue.
• Wear enough blue that people will ask: “Why are you wearing so much blue?” Let them know it’s World Diabetes Day and why it matters to you.

Tell everyone you know that today, November 14, 2009 is World Diabetes Day!

If you have diabetes – please participate in this historic event.  I will be participating and so will my two children with diabetes (even though they are not so pleased with the double sugar check part!)

According to Manny Hernandez, founder of TuDiabetes:

Through eight diabetes communities (TuDiabetes, Children With Diabetes, Diabetes Daily, Diabetic Connect, Diabetic Rockstar, dLife, Juvenation and My Diabetes Central) and Twitter, TuDiabetes,com is calling on people with diabetes to test their blood sugar, exercise for 14 minutes, test again and share their results on Nov. 14, 2009 at 14 hours (local time, 2 pm wherever they live).

Please keep an eye on @tudiabetes and/or http://bigbluetest.org for updates about these.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thousands Take The Big Blue Test

On World Diabetes Day

BERKELEY, CA: October 21, 2009 – November 14 is World Diabetes Day. On that day, at 14:00 hours (2 pm, local time), thousands of people with diabetes will test their blood sugar, do 14 minutes of exercise, test again and share their results online.

The event is called The Big Blue Test because the blue circle is the international symbol for diabetes. The idea of a shared “blood sugar test-in” started with an activity organized in July 2009 by TuDiabetes.org, a community for people touched by diabetes. More than a thousand people participated then. Now, we seek to reach thousands of people with diabetes through eight diabetes social networks^* and Twitter. The activity incorporates 14 minutes of physical activity to reinforce the importance of exercise.

“People with diabetes have to test their blood sugar routinely. It can be a very lonely activity.” said Manny Hernandez, co-founder of TuDiabetes and a person with diabetes himself. “We want people to take The Big Blue Test, to shed light on this chronic condition and the importance of exercise on World Diabetes Day.”

Currently, more than 250 million people have diabetes worldwide. Millions more have diabetes but do not know it yet. People with diabetes need to test their blood sugar levels several times a day and exercise regularly.

Participating in this event to raise diabetes awareness on November 14 is easy:

1. Test your blood sugar.
2. Run, jog, walk the dog or do anything you’d normally do as part of your exercise routine for 14 minutes.
3. Test your blood sugar again.
4. Go to http://bigbluetest.org (or your preferred diabetes social network^*) and post your readings and what physical activity you did. If you have a camera, you can also add a photo of your reading(s) or you exercising.
5. If you have a Twitter account, you can also post your readings on Twitter (use the #bigbluetest hashtag) and link back to http://bigbluetest.org.

“We hope to see most readings posted at 14 hours (2 pm) local time, on November 14. If you are early or late, it’s OK,” said Hernandez. “What matters most is that you test your blood sugar often and that you exercise regularly. If you don’t have diabetes, you can take The Big Blue Test. Either way, tell others to test, exercise and share on Nov. 14.”

(*) Participating diabetes social networks:

• TuDiabetes (campaign organizer)
• Children With Diabetes
• Diabetes Daily
• Diabetic Connect
• Diabetic Rockstar
• dLife
• Juvenation
• My Diabetes Central

About TuDiabetes.org

TuDiabetes.org was co-founded in 2007 by Manny Hernandez, a diabetes advocate and social media expert diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2002. The community is run by the Diabetes Hands Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit that connects people touched by diabetes and raises diabetes awareness.

TuDiabetes has been featured on Regis Philbin’s Hallmark Heroes, NPR’s Diane Rehm Show, Sabado Gigante with Don Francisco, Diabetic Living magazine, Diabetes Positive magazine, El Pais (Spain), Diabetes Hoy (Mexico), the Office of Minority Health web site and many other media outlets and blogs.

For more information please visit: www.TuDiabetes.org.

For information about the Diabetes Hands Foundation, visit: www.DiabetesHandsFoundation.org, email PR@tudiabetes.org or call 650.283.4862.

# # # Please feel free to distribute this press release widely.

Take the focus off candy and put it on Halloween activities to help your child with diabetes safely enjoy Halloween. Photo: Rachel Henninger

Parents who have children newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes may find Halloween terrifying.  Not because of scary spooks and ghosts, but imagining the insulin needed to cover candy and what sweets do to blood glucose levels.

But there is no reason your child with diabetes cannot have fun this Halloween trick-or-treating or attending Halloween parties.  The key to happy haunting is to let your child know what the Halloween candy boundaries are in advance.

Here are some tips to help make Halloween more diabetes-friendly, while keeping things fun:

• It is important that you do not distinguish a child with diabetes from their non-diabetic siblings by making rules that are unfair.  When a child has diabetes, the whole family has diabetes. Whatever rules apply to one child should apply to all.
• Set candy limits before you go out trick-or-treating to avoid confrontation.  Assure your child candy rules have nothing to do with diabetes, but that all children need to eat candy in moderation.
• Sort through all the candy your child gets.  Set aside any candy that can be used as fast sugars.  These are candies your child can keep to treat lows.
• Candies, like chocolate, nuts, and caramels that contain fat and would not work well as fast sugars can be traded in for toys, special time out with a parent, or some other treat.   If you have more than one child, and they do not object, you can even have diabetic kids trade their high-fat candy for siblings fast-sugar candy.
• If your child is allowed to have special treats from time to time, let them pick 5-10 pieces of candy to keep and enjoy over time.   Freeze what you keep (candy can last a year in the freezer) and chances are good that your child will forget about the frozen candy after Halloween has passed.
• Many parents, even of non-diabetic children, take their kids out for the trick-or-treat fun and then have their kids turn in the entire bag to donate to their church or a homeless shelter.  Tell your child ahead of time they will be trick-or-treating for other, less fortunate children.  For their “community service” your child should be given a present, or some sort of reward for gathering candy for other children.

The key to dealing with diabetes and Halloween is to make rules and set goals before you go out trick-or-treating.  For most children, it is the holiday fun – carving pumpkins, going to parties, making holiday crafts, and wearing costumes that gives them the most pleasure.  You can help them feel more normal by finding creating ways to take the focus of candy, and put the focus on fun!