(From the Diabetes Educator, May / June 2000)
What happens when a diabetes doctor gets diabetes?
New information from a leading journal shows that doctors and nurses who treat diabetes AND HAVE DIABETES, treat their own disease very differently from you and me. One dramatic difference is:
They don't do injections!
Do these diabetes experts know something you don't? Sounds like they do. Read on.
The article, in the May/June 2000 issue of The Diabetes Educator journal, details a survey of diabetes experts (doctors and nurses) who also have diabetes themselves - and more than 50% of the experts use insulin pump therapy. Are you asking why? You should be.
Why do so many diabetes experts use pumps instead of injections?
It's about control.
The most current standard of care (according to the American Diabetes Association) is tight control of blood sugars. The tightestcontrol can only be achieved with insulin pump therapy.
If you ask the average person on an insulin pump what they like about it, they talk about fewer highs and lows, as well as convenience and flexibility. Pump therapy gives you more freedom because you're not locked into rigid injection and meal schedules. But the bigger factor is better health.
Doctors and nurses who deal with diabetes know that better health comes from better blood sugar control. And because pumps allow you to adjust blood sugars immediately, you are able to achieve better control. Better control means fewer highs and lows, feeling better, and reduction of the complications of diabetes.
Diabetes experts use insulin pumps nearly 10 times more often than the general population with type 1 diabetes. As concluded in the article, knowledge about pump therapy is probably why.
Doctors and nurses who have diabetes know. Now, you know too!
