Savvy 13-year-old diabetic takes charge

February 12, 2011 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: I am a 13-year-old diabetic. I have good control of my diabetes, but right around Christmas, I began having unreasonably high blood-sugar readings and I’m still having them now. The lowest sugar I have had since is 140, and the highest is 281.

I am not sick. I have no fever and I am not vomiting. I do not have a cough. I have checked my ketones multiple times, and they were all negative. My insulin is not expired. I even did a control test on my meter, and it came out to 101.

I asked my parents, and they believe it’s the meter. It is about 1-1/2 years old. A while ago, another one of my meters did something like this. [Read more...]

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Differentiating two types of diabetes

July 23, 2010 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: I have been a type 2 diabetic for four years now. What is the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes?

DEAR READER: Diabetes is a disorder in which blood-glucose levels are above normal. People develop diabetes either because the pancreas doesn’t produce adequate insulin or because the cells in the muscles, liver and fat don’t use insulin properly. This results is glucose remaining in the blood and elevating levels at the same time cells crave the energy necessary to function properly.
[Read more...]

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