I know your time is limited, and this site is very big--90,000 words at last count--so here's a quick rundown of what you'll find in its pages. The emphasis is on teaching you how to bring your blood sugars down to the level that peer reviewed research has shown will prevent complications. The statements you'll find here are not just opinions. They're backed up by mainstream medical research which you can read--and evaluate--for yourself as we provide links to the actual journal articles.

Here's a summary of the most important topics you'll find on this site. Each topic is followed by a link or links to the pages that go into each point in detail.

You Can Avoid Deterioration and Complications No Matter How Bad Your Blood Sugar is Right Now

• Type 2 diabetes does not have to be a progressive disease. Doctors think it is progressive because they don't recommend blood sugar targets that are low enough to prevent deterioration.

  Do People with Type 2 Always Deteriorate?
  How Blood Sugar Control Deteriorates
  From Normal to Type 2
  

• Prolonged exposure to blood sugars over 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/l) damages your organs and causes diabetic complications.

  Research Connecting Organ Damage to Blood Sugar Levels
  Healthy Blood Sugar Targets

• No matter how bad your blood sugar right now, you can get it down to a safe level.
  

  Inspiring Stories of People Who Did
  

• The way you get your blood sugar down is to do the following:
  • Cut back on your carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the main thing that raises blood sugar. Replace starch and sugar with protein and non-trans fat.

    How to Get Your Blood Sugar Under Control
    A Diabetes Diet is Different from a Weight Loss Diet

  • If cutting your carbohydrates down to about 15 grams a meal doesn't give you normal blood sugars, ask your doctor to prescribe Metformin ER.

    The Truth about Oral Drugs - From Research
    Oral Drugs--A Quick Summary
    Be Safe with Rx Drugs
    

  • If Metformin ER doesn't help or isn't appropriate, try Byetta for a short time and continue using it only if you get strong results. DPP-4 inhibitors like Januvia and Onglyza are dangerous drugs capable of turning off the part of the immune system your body uses to fight certain cancers. Avoid it.

    Byetta
    
    Januvia

  
  
  • If you still don't have normal blood sugars talk to your doctor about adding basal insulin. If basal insulin doesn't give you normal blood sugars, use insulin after meals too. Used properly with a lower carb intake, insulin will always work. If it isn't working for you, you need to find a doctor who can help you fine tune your dose.
    

    Insulin for Type 2 Diabetes
    

• Lowering blood sugars to normal levels can reverse some diabetic complications, most notably nerve pain (neuropathy) and early kidney changes.

  Neuropathy
  Diabetic Kidney Disease

• Diabetes is not caused by gluttony and laziness. Research shows it is a genetic disease caused by many different genetic flaws. Much evidence is accumulating that many of these genetic flaws are caused by toxins in our environment including common herbicides, arsenic, plastics, and pharmaceutical drugs.

  You Did Not Eat Your Way to Diabetes
  

• Diabetes is often Not Diagnosed Correctly and Undiagnosed Diabetes Causes Complications

  • Not all Type 2s are overweight or insulin resistant. Those who don't fit this stereotype often fail to get diagnosed until diabetes has had years to ravage their bodies, especially those with very high post meal blood sugars and near normal fasting blood sugars.

    MODY (Monogentic Diabetes)
    LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults)

  • To determine if you have diabetes, you should test your 1 and 2 hour post-meal blood sugars. If your doctor tests you, make sure he orders a post-meal test, too. The Fasting Plasma Glucose test most doctors use often fails to diagnose diabetes especially in women.

    Am I Diabetic?

  • Many "diabetic" complications begin at blood sugar levels that the American Diabetes Association does not currently define as "diabetic." For example, the incidence of heart disease starts to rise when blood sugars rise only slightly after meals.

    A1c and High Post-Meal Blood Sugars Predict Heart Attack
    Misdiagnosis by Design - The Story Behind the ADA Diagnostic Criteria

There are many more topics covered on this site, but these are the ones that are most important. I invite you to come and read the whole site when you have time. The information you find here could save your health!

Our FaceBook Page and Diabetes Update Blog is Where You'll Find The Latest Diabetes News

You'll find our blog HERE. There are almost 500 articles posted there which cover research and topics of interest to people with diabetes. Our FaceBook page is HERE. Feel free to post questions and interact with other people interested in keeping up with news relevant to people with diabetes there.

The "Updates to Blood Sugar 101" Blog Is Another Blog That Helps You Keep up with Updates to This Site

All changes to this site are posted in a second, special update blog. Each blog entry lists a change made to the pages here, with a link to the changed page and a brief description of the change.

Here's the Site Update Blog

Search This Site

This site is huge. You'll find a Google search bar you can use to find what you are looking for at the top of the left hand column of every page. This search will search both the Blood Sugar 101 main site and main blog.

Remember to use caution when responding to any ads Google displays. We monitor these ads on a regular basis and block any that we see that are clearly bogus, but occasionally abusive ads slip through. So please don't fall for "miracle cure" claims for supplements and diet products.

Now There's a Book Version of This Site's Content

Take it to the beach with you. Give it to your friends or relatives who are having trouble controlling their blood sugars.

Blood Sugar 101: What They Don't Tell You About Diabetes presents the information found on this site in a logically organized, easy-to-read form.

Check it out and read the reviews HERE.

How to Leave Feedback and Communicate with Us

You can post on our FaceBook page or add comments to posts on the Diabetes Update Blog. Jenny Ruhl, the author of this site, welcomes your emails which you can send to the address you'll find on the "Contact the Author" page you'll find linked at the top of every page.

Please keep in mind that Jenny is not a doctor and cannot answer specific questions about your medical condition or that of a family member. She cannot help you collect evidence for legal actions involving medical malpractice. She does not give diet advice beyond suggesting that you try the technique you'll find described HERE.

Jenny's research into the validity of claims made for various kinds of low carb diets is the subject of her latest book, Diet 101: The Truth About Low Carb Diets. If you are concerned about the long term health effects of a low carb diet, this book will give you a much better idea of what the real challenges are that face those who attempt to eat this way over the long term. Like all Jenny's writing, this book avoids evangelizing for any one solution to the complex health problems many of us face, keeping in mind that even when we share a symptom, be it high blood sugar or a weight problem, our individual physiologies differ and each one of us must carefully study the alternatives and choose solutions that work for our own unique situation.