Taking a low-cost natural product like berberine to manage roller-coaster blood sugar sounds great, but does it work?

The answer is a qualified yes.

Pilot studies find that taking 500 mg of berberine three times daily reduces insulin resistance and fasting blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes just as well as taking the prescription drug metformin.

“Berberine appears to stimulate glucose transporters, allowing cells to take up blood sugar from the bloodstream without the need for insulin,” says leading authority on herbal medicine Tieraona Low Dog, M.D., of the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.

While these findings are very exciting, it’s important to remember that the large studies required to confirm these early results have not yet been performed.

Additionally, there is early evidence that berberine (found in plants such as goldenseal, barberry, goldthread and Oregon grape root) may interact with some prescription drugs. So make sure you speak with your physician or pharmacist before taking this supplement, especially if you have been prescribed tamoxifen, codeine, or antiarrhythmic drugs for your heart, says Dr. Low Dog. And finally, berberine is not considered safe for pregnant women.

More on berberine and health
Scientists are also testing the herbal product’s ability to:

Trim Triglycerides: Preliminary studies show that taking berberine (500 mg three times daily) reduces triglycerides, a lipid or fat that is often elevated in people with diabetes. Researchers suspect the herb targets carbohydrate metabolism in the intestine, preventing uptake.

Fight Germs: Traditionally used in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for treating infections, modern research now confirms berberine’s significant antimicrobial activity. In China, berberine hydrochloride is available as an over-the-counter drug for treatment of gastrointestinal infection. Interest in the herb’s hypoglycemic effects surfaced in the 1980s when doctors noted diabetic patients taking berberine to relieve diarrhea experienced a drop in blood sugar.

Tieraona Low Dog, MD, is author of National Geographic’s Life is Your Best Medicine (2012).

Click here for more on managing blood sugar without drugs.

Managing Blood Sugar Without Drugs The Saturday Evening Post

It’s still early in the game, but people with diabetes may want to consider boosting blood sugar control with the potent antioxidant harbored in red wine and grape skins often touted for heart health, says Heather Hausenblas, Ph.D., Director of the University of Florida’s Exercise Psychology Laboratory. In a recent study, diabetics taking a concentrated resveratrol product for three months boosted blood sugar control while lowering total cholesterol and blood pressure compared to the control group.

In early 2012, National Institute of Health researchers and their colleagues reported that resveratrol may confer its health benefits by attaching to and inhibiting a category of proteins called phosphodiesterases or PDEs. This important discovery may help settle the debate surrounding the natural product’s biochemistry and pave the way for resveratrol-based therapies.

“Resveratrol has potential for treating diverse diseases such as type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease,” says lead study author Jay H. Chung, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Laboratory of Obesity and Aging Research at the National Institute of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. “However, before researchers can transform resveratrol into a safe and effective medicine, they need to know exactly what it targets in cells.”

Click here for more on managing diabetes without drugs.

Natural Therapy for Diabetes? The Saturday Evening Post

Medical foods—think “prescription nutrition”—go beyond simple diet changes and are gaining ground in the U.S. and around the world as stand-alone or add-on therapies for health.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the term “medical foods” refers to foods that are specially formulated and processed for patients who are seriously ill or require the product as a major treatment modality.

New findings show that two medical foods (Theramine for chronic inflammation and Sentra PM for sleep disorders) are safe and effective in clinical practice. Research also says a patented blend of B vitamins called Metanx helps with diabetes-related nerve pain. Additionally, products in this category are prescribed to manage other types of chronic pain as well as sleep disorders associated with depression and anxiety.

Medical foods don’t undergo the same testing as drugs before they can be sold at pharmacies. But FDA regulations assure these products are safe and claims are truthful.

Click here for more information on medical foods and how they work.

Medical Foods for Health The Saturday Evening Post

Stone fruits have bioactive compounds that potentially can fight off obesity-related diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

It turns out stone fruits such as peaches, plums, and nectarines are both tasty and good for your health.

These juicy fruits have bioactive compounds that can potentially fight off obesity-related diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to new studies by Texas AgriLife Research.

The study, presented at the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia, showed that compounds in stone fruits could be a weapon against “metabolic syndrome,” in which obesity and inflammation lead to serious health issues, according to Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallos, AgriLife Research food scientist.

“Our studies have shown that stone fruits—peaches, plums and nectarines—have bioactive compounds that can potentially fight the syndrome,” Cisneros-Zevallos says. “Our work indicates that phenolic compounds present in these fruits have anti-obesity, anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties in different cell lines and may also reduce the oxidation of bad cholesterol LDL which is associated to cardiovascular disease.”

What is unique to these fruits, he says, is that their mixture of the bioactive compounds work simultaneously within the different components of the disease.

“Our work shows that the four major phenolic groups—anthocyanins, clorogenic acids, quercetin derivatives, and catechins—work on different cells—fat cells, macrophages and vascular endothelial cells,” he explains. “They modulate different expressions of genes and proteins depending on the type of compound.

“However, at the same time, all of them are working simultaneously in different fronts against the components of the disease, including obesity, inflammation, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease,” he explains.

Cisneros-Zevallos says this is believed to be the first time that “bioactive compounds of a fruit have been shown to potentially work in different fronts against a disease.

“Each of these stone fruits contain similar phenolic groups but in differing proportions so all of them are a good source of health-promoting compounds and may complement each other,” he says, adding that his team plans to continue studying the role of each type of compound on the molecular mechanisms and confirm the work with mice studies.

The studies on the health benefits of stone fruit are funded by the California Tree Fruit Agreement, The California Plum Board, the California Grape and Tree Fruit League and the Texas Department of Agriculture. The Cisneros-Zevallos lab team in this study included Freddy Ibanez, Paula Castillo, Paula Simons, and Dr. Congmei Cao.

Nutrition facts provided by the USDA National Nutrient Database.

The Health Benefits of Peaches The Saturday Evening Post

Race car driver Charlie Kimball. Photo by Mike Levitt. Courtesy of LAT-USA. All rights reserved.

An avid racer since age 9, Kimball was abruptly forced to abandon an emerging professional career in June 2007, when he was diagnosed with diabetes during a routine physician’s visit. Determined to get back behind the wheel, Kimball worked with his doctor and team to map a diabetes treatment strategy that includes competing at speeds exceeding 200 mph.

Now in his second season with Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing, we asked Kimball which was his top challenge: driving an open wheel race car, or living with diabetes?

“Driving an IndyCar! We have great tools for diabetes. Racing is always changing with new drivers and equipment. But I’m fortunate to have racing as a goal. It makes me face the challenge of diabetes,” says the young American driver.

Modern devices like continuous glucose monitors and meters are vital to diabetes control but sometimes you just have to get creative, says Kimball.

Charlie Kimball and Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing scored a career-best second place finish at the IndyCar Honda Indy Toronto 2012. Courtesy of LAT USA. All rights reserved.

Congratulations, Charlie Kimball! The world’s fastest race cars snaked through Toronto streets lined with speed-loving fans on July 8, 2012, where Charlie Kimball captured his first podium-finish!

Follow Kimball on Twitter at @RaceWithInsulin.

Click here for the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Racing Schedule.

New Treatment for Kids with Diabetes

I’m a better athlete because of diabetes rather than despite it, says IndyCar driver Charlie Kimball. Photo by Mike Levitt. Courtesy of LAT-USA. All rights reserved.

In June, diabetes care company Novo Nordisk announced FDA approval of Levemir® (a man-made insulin) for children ages two to five with type 1 diabetes. The prescription is now available for type 1 diabetes patients ages two through adulthood and adult patients with type 2 diabetes.

About Diabetes
In the United States, 25.8 million people have diabetes, a condition in which the body does not produce enough or properly use insulin, the hormone needed to convert sugar, starches, and other food into energy needed for daily life.

Charlie Kimball Is Racing With Insulin The Saturday Evening Post

Of course, for many of us, in the eyes of our parents, the answer is: never.

Lana Maxwell is 52 and lives in Philadelphia. Her parents, Sam and Ethel, are both in their 80s, and live in New York City. (Names and identities have been changed for reasons of privacy.)

Sam and Ethel are both highly educated retired teachers, and, as far as they’re concerned, perfectly self-sufficient. Lana, on the other hand, has always been the baby of the family—someone who needed a lot of help. Her parents always took care of her when she was in a jam.

Old history, to Lana. But to her parents, the impression persists.

Caregiving for parents who live two hours away is a challenge. Combine this distance dilemma with aging parents who don’t have faith in you, and caregiving can become an exasperating battle.

It was six years ago, during one of her visits to New York, when Lana first observed that her parents were starting to grow feeble. But when she tried to offer to help, they would have none of it. She suggested extending her visit from a planned 10 days to 20. There were things to be done: the apartment was a mess; there were forms to fill out; medications to be purchased, and more.

Her parents told her to go home, but Lana held her ground.

It was only a few days later that Sam, a diabetic, suddenly became quite ill. He’d been chronically exhausted and irritable, but one night when Lana brought him dinner, he fell asleep while she was talking to him. She couldn’t wake him.

Frightened, Lana asked her mother, “What’s wrong? Has this ever happened before?”

“Oh just leave him. He’ll be fine,” Ethel replied.

“Who is his doctor?” Asked Lana. “I think dad is having a serious problem.”

Families aren’t always rational, as we well know. But Ethel, instead of being thankful for Lana’s concern, was infuriated. “I don’t want to hear that my husband is having some kind of episode. I take good care of him. Don’t you ever say that I don’t take good care of my husband,” she said to her daughter.

“She made it clear she didn’t want my help,” says Lana.

Lana dug in her heels. She pulled out her laptop and began searching for information online. It wasn’t long before she stumbled across a video on the website of a major drugstore chain detailing precisely the symptoms her father was having. Lana recalls, “I had just recently got a router working in their house so I was capable of bringing the laptop and putting it in my mother’s lap. I pushed the button and left the room and let her watch it on her own.”

It was clear from the video that her father, a diabetic, was having a severe hypoglycemic reaction due to overmedication: “At the end of the video, the narrator says, if you have these symptoms, call 911,” Lana recalls. “In fact, ‘911’ was flashing it huge red letters on the screen,”

Lana walked back into the room and declared: “We are going to the hospital now!”

That was the turning point. Ethel could no longer ignore her daughter’s pleas. At the hospital, Sam’s medication was adjusted. He spent a few days under observation, and then was discharged to his home. He and Ethel live there to this day.

Just as important, something changed in the way Sam and Ethel view their daughter—as someone they can rely on. While Lana still lives in Philadelphia, she visits more frequently and her visits are eagerly welcomed.

While the playing of the video—or more precisely the adult capability Lana demonstrated by being able to find good information about Sam’s condition online—may have changed the way her parents viewed her, Lana remembers the years of persistence it took to get to point where her parents accepted her as their caregiver:  “This is a long war for us, with campaigns of shutting down, campaigns of assertion to aggression; but it has always been a war of love!” says Lana.

(Steven Slon is editorial director for The Saturday Evening Post. This article was first published by Beclose.com)

Caregiving: How to Help When Help’s Not Wanted The Saturday Evening Post

Map from BRFSS at the CDC

Public health officials are concerned—and admittedly perplexed—by the worldwide epidemic of diabetes. Characterized by high blood sugar levels, diabetes is the fastest growing disease in America.

“One can point to the striking association between obesity and diabetes,” says David Harlan, M.D., co-director of the Diabetes Center of Excellence at UMass Memorial Health Care. “The numbers are shocking:  From 1995 to 2010, there has been an 80 percent increase in the number of obese Americans as classified by the national Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, or BRFSS*.”

Too much food and too little activity are major players, yet puzzling questions remain: “Are we really eating that much more, or exercising that much less, than we did in 1995?” Dr. Harlan wonders. “Why does  diabetes strike some people who are slightly overweight and not others who grow quite obese? And why the dramatic increase in type 1 diabetes, which typically strikes younger, lean individuals?”

Researchers theorize that viruses, low vitamin D, or pollutants can cause diabetes, but there’s no solid evidence yet.

One promising message is loud and clear: Being active (and walking counts!) for 30 minutes on most days and losing extra weight dramatically lowers diabetes risk. “Stay lean and physically active,” urges the expert. “Every American can help stem the tide until we discover the therapies we all desire to prevent and cure diabetes, and the complications and deaths that too often accompany it.”

Deciphering Diabetes The Saturday Evening Post

A graduate of California Culinary Academy (CCA) in San Francisco, Cheryl has worked in top restaurants in France and San Francisco. She now has an urban farm in Napa, California.

“I don’t like cereal.”

“I’m allergic to eggs.”

“I’m not hungry when I wake up.”

“I don’t have time.”

There are plenty of reasons that people skip breakfast. But there are even more reasons why they shouldn’t.

Aside from increasing mental and physical performance, a breakfast of champions can help you to achieve and maintain optimal weight and energy levels. Furthermore, what you put in your mouth (or don’t) in the morning can also be indicative of your future health! Here’s how the first meal of the day can affect your lifelong health:

1. Energy. Who doesn’t want to have more energy? Whether you love working out, have an active lifestyle, or both, skipping breakfast can undermine your best efforts. Our bodies need fuel to power us through busy days and intense workouts. It all starts with breakfast. It’s no surprise that studies show that breakfast eaters have more endurance and strength than breakfast skippers.

2. Weight Control. Some people think that skipping meals, starting with breakfast, is a great way to lose weight. That’s simply not the case. Breakfast-skipping actually has the opposite effect. Holding off until noon for that first meal usually results in uber-hunger. This can lead to an out-of-control appetite when you do eat because you’re so famished. That can result in both eating too fast and consuming too many calories. It also contributes to distorted hunger signals (e.g., you can’t tell when you’re full). Believe it or not, smaller, more frequent meals can make weight control much more likely. And researchers now believe that eating breakfast may reduce hunger later in the day too. It may also be responsible for the tendency to choose less dense (lower-calorie) foods at later meals.

3. Brain power. A veggie omelette + whole grain toast = recipe for a productive morning? Yes, researchers believe that increased clarity and concentration are due in part to replenishing glucose, the brain’s main energy source. Sure, glucose is sugar, but it’s not quite that simple. It has something to do with a concept called the “glycemic index,” or GI. According to Dr. E. Leigh Gibson of Roehampton University in London, most studies suggest that quite a small amount—about 25 grams of carbohydrate (equivalent to a slice of whole grain toast with a tablespoon of sugar-free jam)—can improve performance, especially of memory. However, much more carbohydrate—especially if they’re high-GI foods (such as a cup of sugary cereal or a goopy cinnamon roll)—may actually impair memory. Her explanation for this is that “a high carb dose provokes a big increase in cortisol, which is a stress hormone. If one is doing a challenging task, an increase in cortisol is known to impair memory.” So the quality of your carbs is just as important as the quantity. Complex carbs such as whole grain breads or cereals play a key role in a healthy and balanced breakfast.

4. Blood sugar control. Regular meal timing, starting with breakfast, is important for even blood sugar and to balance the peaks and valleys of our blood sugar throughout the day. Not only does even blood sugar help prevent diabetes, it provides more energy and better long-term health (including decreased risk of heart disease).

A breakfast of champions can help you to achieve and maintain optimal weight and energy levels.

While blood sugar levels are highly regulated, with only minor fluctuations, our food choices (and timing) definitely have an impact on this balance. Sugary drinks or high-GI (glycemic index—see note below) meals can cause more of a spike in blood sugar levels. According to Dr. Gibson, “If you fast all day, your blood sugar would only show a slight decrease over the course of the day. This is because of action of counter-regulatory hormones such as glucagon, cortisol and adrenaline, which can influence blood glucose production, storage and uptake. So one way to think of hunger is as a neuro-hormonal signal to the brain that the body is having to work at maintaining blood glucose. At the same time, outside of the brain, most tissues start to receive an increased supply of free fatty acids, as stored fat is broken down, which, unlike the brain, they can use for energy.”

“If you fast all day, your blood sugar would only show a slight decrease over the course of the day. This is because of action of counter-regulatory hormones such as glucagon, cortisol and adrenaline, which can influence blood glucose production, storage and uptake. So one way to think of hunger is as a neuro-hormonal signal to the brain that the body is having to work at maintaining blood glucose. At the same time, outside of the brain, most tissues start to receive an increased supply of free fatty acids, as stored fat is broken down, which, unlike the brain, they can use for energy.”

This is an elegant and complex system whose mysteries are still being unraveled. What we do know for sure is that blood sugar control is a very good thing.

Breakfast: It’s Time to Make Time The Saturday Evening Post

Most study participants used extra-virgin olive oil, which accounts for 98 percent of the olive oil available in France.

The versatile product also appears to protect against cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity.

Want to add olive oil to your diet? Go for it! But remember that even healthier fats like olive oil are high in calories, so use it in moderation; choose olive oil instead of butter and stick margarine—not in addition to them.

Here are 3 tips for buying, storing, and enjoying olive oil:

1. If you can, smell (and taste) before you buy. Olive oils encompass a wide range of flavor from fruity to peppery, mild to intensely strong. Don’t buy one you don’t like!
2. Good extra-virgin olive oil lasts about a year when stored out of the light and away from heat.
3. Virgin and extra-virgin oils are best used uncooked or cooked at low to medium temperatures. Try them in marinades, drizzle them over vegetables or bread, and add them at end of cook time for a burst of flavor.

Is Olive Oil Good For You? The Saturday Evening Post

PN occurs when poor circulation and damaged nerves disrupt the body’s communication network. Nerve fibers in the feet are often the first to go haywire, and the tingling and pricking pain can move up the body—from feet to legs, or hands to arms.

Prescription drugs Lyrica and Cymbalta are popular options to ease the pain.

Also, ask your doctor about Metanx, a less-known, prescription-strength combination of B vitamins that targets underlying nerve problems and is FDA-approved to treat PN in diabetics.

We’re excited about the potential of healing PN with B vitamins. Have you tried Metanx? Did it help? If so, tell us your story in the comments section below.

Treating Peripheral Neuropathy with Metanx The Saturday Evening Post

Here are some digital freebies to stop smoking, protect your skin, and live well with diabetes:

Clear the Air: Are you ready to quit smoking and willing to share the good, the bad, and the ugly about your experience? If so, the National Cancer Institute invites you to Smokefree Women, an interactive community for women who want to get (and stay) smokefree.

Skin Savers: Look up your UV Index online, download My UV Check to your Mac or PC, or get the Sun Alert Lite iTunes app.

Diabetes On the Go: Track and send glucose readings, medication records, and food intake to your health care provider with Diabetes Log for iPhones and OnTrack Diabetes for Droid. The American Diabetes Association and websites like dlife offer videos, message boards, news, and tips on food and fitness.

Tell us your favorite apps and website to keep you looking—and feeling—good!

Free Tech Tools for Health The Saturday Evening Post

Recipe courtesy of Trim & Terrific Diabetic Cooking

Healthy Chicken Pot Pie The Saturday Evening Post

Part 2: Giving Back

Country singer George Canyon speaks about the recognition he’s most proud of—a humanitarian award for his work to support finding a cure for type 1 diabetes. Canyon offers inspirational talks and performances for children living with type 1 and their families in Canada and the U.S.

Post: You have talked to thousands of type 1 diabetic kids. What do you want them to know, and how do you encourage them?

Canyon: My basic message to kids is: Control your diabetes, and live your dreams. One way that I connect with the kids is by comparing our blood sugar numbers—it’s just something they like to do. But children need to understand that they can and must control their diabetes. When they lend a hand in testing their blood sugar and taking their insulin, in eating right and exercising regularly, they develop a certain pride in taking care of themselves. Over time, that sense of responsibility lays the groundwork for controlling diabetes and achieving success throughout life.

At age 14, I was told I could never fly an airplane or be an Air Force captain. But I never gave up on my dreams. Today, I have been a pilot for 3 ½ years. I fly my own plane, and I’m an honorary captain in the Air Force. I let the kids know that I am living proof that type 1 diabetics can achieve their dreams.

Post: What is your message for parents of kids with type 1?

Canyon: I stress the psychological side of the disease. Looking back on my teen years, I think 80 percent of the control of my diabetes was in my head. Today I frequently hear parents say their daughter won’t take her insulin or their son says he forgets to take it. Once I confronted one of those children and said: You aren’t forgetting to take your insulin, are you. And she blurted: “No, I’m not. But people keep telling me that I can’t do things that I want to. So why take shots?”

I was able to change her mindset by encouraging her to prove those people wrong. She needs to show them that she is healthy and able to achieve her goals. That bit of motivation clicked a psychological drive back into action. Now she takes care of herself physiologically because the brain is driving her to take care of her own diabetes.

Post: Having strong role models is very important to young people.  Did you have one?

Canyon: I had no one. Don’t get me wrong—I had wonderful people around me, my parents, nurses, and my doctor, but I was not aware of any role model in the music business, in Hollywood, or the sports world who was saying, “Hey I’m a type 1 diabetic and I’m living my dream.” So I always said to myself that if I ever became successful, in whatever career, I was going to be a role model to kids in some way.

Today, it’s clear to me that my work with the kids fills me up more than it does them. But I can tell from their conversations that they really do pay attention to celebrities and having role models is important to them.

Post: What do people without diabetes need to know about the condition?

Canyon: Society as a whole needs to step back and take time to learn just how well people can live diabetes. Today’s kids with type 1 diabetic juvenile-onset are well educated and in tune with their body and their disease. Many are also in incredibly great physical condition, especially with new advances in treatment such as insulin pump therapy.

Juvenile type 1 diabetes affects millions of people.  Everybody should know about the steps that have been made by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and others in controlling and understanding of this disease. It’s not caused by eating poorly or not getting enough exercise. And it’s not the end of one’s dreams.

Post: How can readers tap into the latest information and research about type 1 diabetes?

Canyon: There are some fantastic websites for parents and kids with diabetes that are also great tools for people who don’t have the disease but want to learn about it. Here are three:

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International is one of the best resources out there.

The Animas website. This is the insulin pump that I have and the only one that I know. People will be truly amazed at how the control of diabetes has changed.

Children With Diabetes is doing unbelievable things to help kids with type 1 diabetes physiologically as well as psychologically and to support their families and other adults as well. The CWD organization sponsors large events; I was at one that 2500 kids with diabetes attended. The organizers had them break into age groups, and suddenly one child was with 50 or 100 or 200 other type diabetics of the same age. There was an instant sense of belonging! They talked about their diabetes and about things they might not mention to their healthcare professionals or their parents. Peer support is so important.  Kids will listen to a buddy who says, “Oh you should do this instead of that,” before they’ll listen to their parents or other adults.

Post: Is there anything you would like to add?

Canyon: I’m real excited to get out there with people in mainstream society who might not be touched by type 1 diabetes and speak openly about my disease.

I can’t stress enough that JDRF and other diabetes researchers are not just trying to find a cure for the disease, they are also working to find new and better ways to treat it. It’s so important that we all try to help as much as we can.

Control Your Diabetes and Live Your Dreams, Part 2 The Saturday Evening Post

There are several forms of diabetes. Type 1 occurs when an overactive immune system knocks out cells in the body that produce insulin. Once called juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes, the condition can occur at any age. Research continues, but to date, its exact cause remains unknown.

Post editors asked superstar country singer George Canyon about the challenges of living with diabetes and his inspiring work with kids and their families who are also coping with the endocrine condition.

Part 1: A Young Man’s Struggle

Post: When were you diagnosed with type 1 diabetes?

Canyon: I was diagnosed at age 14, after developing the symptoms that most type 1 diabetics suffer, including drinking anything you can get your hands on, going to the bathroom all the time because you are drinking so much, and sometimes feeling tired or cranky.  Thinking back, the symptoms began about this time of year, so I’m approaching my anniversary of sorts.

Dad headed up a hospital lab, and he later told me that he suspected type 1 diabetes right away. My blood sugar was tested, but then my parents let me enjoy Christmas with the family. The next day, however, I was admitted to the hospital. My sugar was 792, which is extremely high.

I was young, and bounced right back. After one week in the hospital, I was ready to go home. My grandmother had type 1 so I was quite familiar with needles and all. My only concern was getting back to Air Cadets, a group that in U.S. might compare to Young Marines. Since the age 5, I had wanted nothing else in life than to be in the Air Force and be an Air Force pilot. I wasn’t concerned about being a diabetic— I just didn’t want to miss another meeting of the Air Cadets!

Post: What happened then?

Canyon: My dream was abruptly taken away from me. When I went back to Cadets, the Commanding Officer called me into his office and said, “Son, I’m sorry to tell you this, but you will never be in the Air Force and you will never fly airplanes.” I was devastated. I remember that conversation, and how I felt, as though it were yesterday.

Post: How did your young life change and what challenges did you face?

Canyon: Having a sense of belonging is very important to a 14-year-old, and type 1 can be ostracizing disease. For example, the first birthday party that I attended as a type 1 diabetic was for a buddy mine. My friends were all having birthday cake. I was eating an apple.  Suddenly, I didn’t belong. I was different, and it played very heavily on my mind.

I had many reasons to rebel—being a teenager, having type 1 diabetes, and losing what I believed to be my sole purpose in life. But I chose a different path. As I now tell the kids when I talk to them, I chose to be stubborn in a positive way. I made up my mind to control my diabetes and to not let it control me.

I also decided to become a doctor and to cure the disease that stole my dreams. Eventually I was on my way to medical school. Then, I auditioned for a band. I got the job and called my Dad—that’s another conversation I’ll never forget—and went on the road in 1990.

Post: Is having type 1 diabetes particularly challenging in light of your music career?

Canyon: It was very tough at first. Back in the 90s, we would play six nights, travel one, and then play the next town for six more. We did that over and over. I was lucky to have strong support. And I was doing the best I could to treat my type 1 diabetes in the conventional way—5 needles a day and trying to exercise and eat right. But I’m certain that those days on the road took a toll on me.

Then, about 4 ½ years ago, I went on the Animas insulin pump. The device gave my life back to me in a completely and unbelievably way. Suddenly I felt normal again. Honestly, there are days that I forget I’m a diabetic. Today I encourage parents to talk to healthcare providers about getting children on insulin pump therapy as soon as they can. I lived my teenage and early adult years treating my diabetes conventionally. Having the pump is truly amazing.

Special Offer

During the month of November, George Canyon is making a donation to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for every free download of his hit single, “I Believe in Angels.” Click here for the free song.

Coming in Part 2: More from our interview with George Canyon about his ongoing efforts to promote diabetes research, education, and awareness.

Control Your Diabetes and Live Your Dreams, Part 1 The Saturday Evening Post

This section of the brain, called the medulla oblongata, is continuous with the spinal cord, and responsible for respiration, circulation, and the body’s autonomic reflexes, including function of the pancreas.

Ten patients with type 2 diabetes were enrolled in the study based on MRI scans showing medullary compression by arterial loops. One year after the surgery, during which time no changes in diet, weight or activity level were permitted, blood tests showed improved hemoglobin A1c, fasting blood glucose and serum insulin levels in most people.

Dr. Jannetta is credited with developing the MVD technique, generally considered the surgical standard of care for debilitating cranial nerve diseases, including trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, Meniere’s disease and spasmodic torticollis.

The new discovery, published in the journal Surgical Neurology International, is the first to link diabetes to the central nervous system and provides a promising starting point for future study.

“Diabetes is a tremendously difficult condition to manage and, for patients, to live with,” said Dr. Jannetta. “Though our study involves a relatively small sampling of patients, we believe that it represents a major breakthrough in our understanding about the central nervous system etiology of the disease and the potential of surgical intervention as an alternative therapy for a significant subset of patients. The next step is a much larger prospective clinical investigation to further corroborate what we have found.”

Is Diabetes in Your Head? The Saturday Evening Post