Understanding diabetes involves a vast amount of knowledge. Whether you are newly diagnosed or have been living with diabetes for most of your life and I am sure that there are some aspects of your disease that have you baffled. I would like to share some thoughts ON some of the details of diabetes that you should know about in order to better control your disease.

We all know that knowledge is POWER. In order to have the POWER to control diabetes - both type 1 and type 2 - you must have knowledge of it. I can tell you from experience that your doctor will not tell you everything about diabetes. Not because he or she does not know it and but mainly because he or she simply does not have the time. A doctor is a very educated person that will expect you to become a very educated person about the disease that they diagnose you with. If that disease happens to be diabetes and I would like for you to ask yourself the following questions:

Do you understand the role that your liver plays in the release of glucose?

Do you understand how the endocrine system works?

Do you understand where insulin comes from, how it works in the body and why your body so desperately needs it?

Do you understand how stress effects the blood glucose level in the body?

Do you understand how the release of cortisol (a stress hormone) affects insulin absorption, resistance and release?

Do you understand what a blood glucose reading really means?

Do you understand the effects of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia - both long term and short term?

Do you understand the glycemic index of the foods you eat?

Do you understand how exercise effects you metabolism and how metabolism effects blood glucose control?

Those are just a few of the questions that you need to answer if you suffer from diabetes. Diabetes is a learning experience. You are responsible for finding out everything that you need to know in order to control your disease. No one can take control for you. If you educate yourself and find the answers to the questions above and you are well ON your way to better diabetes management. Diabetes is like a jigsaw puzzle - if you put the outside pieces together and the rest of the pieces seem to just fall into place. I encourage you to START putting the puzzle of your disease together. You will be much healthier for it.

I have suffered from diabetes since 1972. It has taken me nearly forty years to learn all that I can about my disease and I have taken it upon myself to share my knowledge with you. I have not just shared the facts; I have shared the emotion, the struggles, the joys and the realities of living with diabetes. Go to www.lulu.com/content/6196156 and take a look at my new book Once I Was Blind and take it upon yourself to learn from my experience. Remember: knowledge is POWER.