I just listened to naturopath Dr. Jody Stanislaw being interviewed by blogger, podcaster and fellow type 1, Nayiri Mississian. Jody starts out telling her “diagnosis story” and by time we’re twenty minutes in, I’m overwhelmed by the complexity of what I do every single day, my best to keep my blood sugar between my own set targets, 75 and 150 mg/dl. I’m relieved someone gets it and looking forward to learning what Jody is going to share, and she does not disappoint.

Stanislaw has been educating and counseling type 1s for years. You can find tons of informative short videos on her website.

I know most of what Jody says (we once had drinks in lower Manhattan so I feel permission to call her Jody) in this interview below. For instance I know it’s ridiculous to follow the pre-bolus rule – take your dose 15 minutes before your meal – without any context. Am I going to eat a lot of simple carbs or hardly any carbs and a lot of fat, which will delay any rise? Did I just come in from exercising at the gym, which will continue to lower my blood sugar?

Yet, when Jody says it’s all about “insulin dosing” I know I have to listen. And I hear insights from Stanislaw. Like why walking in the morning won’t bring down high blood sugar. It more likely will bring it up. And that cold showers increase insulin sensitivity, which is really interesting because the husband recently discovered Wim Hof, a fellow Netherlander, who is all about cold showers. I hear him, the husband not Wim, gasping every morning. But I digress.

Take an hour and watch the video below. I think you’ll be surprised how much valuable content is in this interview as the good doctor tells it like it is after she’s experimented on herself endlessly for her, and our, benefit.

I think endocrinologist and Professor, Anne Peters, is a warrior out there fighting the good fight as she has all her career. Her credentials and advocacy are beyond impressive. In her clinical practice she tends to people with diabetes in economically disadvantaged East Los Angeles.

Here, she gives the update to the Diabetes Standards of Care. What strikes me is how oriented we are to solve everything with medicine. For instance in the Netherlands, and I happen to know this because it is the husband’s home country, depression is first treated with walks in nature and music. Interesting.

From this video, I was quickly reminded if you have type 2 diabetes you’re likely on anywhere between six and ten pills, there’s barely a mention of psychosocial support, and the lower targets and plethora of medicines that form the standards make me wonder, “Who is truly benefitting?” I don’t have the answer, but this video begs the question – for me.

I had no idea until recently, but June of last year Children With Diabetes (CWD) issued their Journey Award. Similar to the Joslin Diabetes Center, CWD honors the passage of 10, 25, 50 and 75 years living with type 1 diabetes. Joslin, to my knowledge, has now added a medal for 80 years!

If you have been living with type 1 for more than 10 years, you are welcome, no you are encouraged, to apply to receive your medal celebrating your journey. There’s a brief CWD application form which you’ll find here.

Meanwhile, if you have a child with type 1 diabetes, I can’t think of a better place to spend part of your summer than at Children with Diabetes’ annual Friends for Life conference in Orlando. It’s an extraordinary experience for families to get together to learn, bond, have fun and feel less alone. Details here.

Personally, having received my 50 year medal from Joslin last year, and now from CWD, in all honesty, I can’t imagine 75 years. That’s 25 years from now when I would be 94 should I live that long.

That’s a lot of years where much could change in the management of type 1 diabetes, even the discovery of a cure. But I don’t tend to think that way; I’m grateful for all the advances we have over the past 10-15 years that have made living with the condition easier compared to the first several decades I journeyed with this condition. Hopefully the good stuff will just keep coming.

I told someone yesterday, “It doesn’t matter that I’ve had diabetes for 51 years. Any day, every day, my blood sugar can go too high and too low and often does.” How refreshing to see my favorite TCOYD d-boys, both endocrinologists who got type 1 at 15 years old, Drs Steven Edelman and Jeremy Pettus, get it as wrong as me.

In this wonderful video they challenge themselves, and each other, to guess the amount of carbs and calories in a variety of breakfasts, lunches and dinners. God love ’em, in their words, “it’s all a crap shoot!” Ain’t that the truth.

One thing to note that they also point out, while carbs are the dominant force in raising blood sugar, don’t forget an abundance of fat and protein also raise blood sugar, and do it over a longer period of time.