Monthly Archives: March 2014

Level Foods Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

March 10, 2014 – 4:53 pm

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UPDATE: Our giveaway winner (according to random.org) is latanya!

Latanya, you have 24 hours to send me your mailing address (e-mail me using the E-Mail Stephen link on the left of this page). Once I get it, I’ll send out your Level Life Box ‘O Goodness. If you don’t get back to me by 12:00 noon EDT on Sunday, I’ll go to the next person on our list. Thanks!
 
 
Life is full of firsts. At least I like to think so. I think there are firsts that happen for us all through our lives. Today is one of those for me. It’s our first giveaway!

I’m going to try to do this justice today, but I know you’re just dying to get to the bottom of this post and find out how you can win some Level Life goodies for yourself. If that’s the case, skip to the end and then come back up here and check out my review of Level Foods’ snack bars and protein shakes.

I’m not always the best person to ask to review things, because for me, it goes like this: If I like a product/book/website, I’ll talk about it. If I don’t, you (usually) won’t hear anything from me. Why? Because it’s hard to put yourself out there, whether you’re posting a video online, writing a book, or developing products that are both tasty and helpful for People With Diabetes. So if I have criticism at all, I generally keep it to myself, or keep it just between myself and the person it’s directed at. On the other hand, if I like something, I want the whole world to know.

Ethan Lewis is a Type 1 and founder of Level Foods. In the past few years, his efforts are coming on strong in development and release of several products that are high in protein and low in carbs, designed to help you keep your BGs level as much as possible (get it? Keep the BGs Level? Level Life? Ahem… moving on…).

Ethan was kind enough to send some samples my way recently, and I had a chance to try out snack bars and shakes carrying the Level Foods brand. For me, they have been exactly as advertised. I tried the Caramel Chocolatey Peanut bar and the Chocolatey Crisp bar, (carb counts: 17g and 18g each, respectively), and both the Vanilla and Chocolate shakes (all Level Life shakes are 10g each). The main takeaway for me was the absolute remarkable feeling of being full after enjoying each of these items. In fact, I had to start drinking only half a shake at a time because I would feel too full if I drank the whole thing at once.

They’ve been good pre- and post-workout snacks for me… making me feel full, but giving me enough fuel to feed my muscles, whatever muscles I have left. My favorite? The Caramel Chocolatey Peanut bar. That seemed to be the big hit overall at our household. They went pretty fast.

So now I have to go get more. The good news is I can get more online at levelfoods.com, and I can go to Target if I don’t want to wait for delivery (it’s okay… I pay cash for nearly everything anyway). Ethan even has a $4.00 USD off at Target coupon offer on the website.

Now, let’s get down to the giveaway. I have what you see in the photo above: A four-pack of both the Strawberry Crème and Rich Caramel shakes, plus a box each of Chocolate Peanut Crunch and Double Chocolatey Chip snack bars. Also included are Strawberry Banana and Mandarin Orange (my favorite) glucose gels (15g of carbs each).

To be eligible to win, just leave a comment below telling me you’d like to win. I’ll accept entries through Friday at midnight Eastern Daylight Time. Then I’ll put everyone’s name in one of those random-generator things and pick a winner, so look for the name in an update on this post Saturday morning. Good Luck!

Disclosure, just in case you didn’t catch it above: I was sent samples of Level Foods products to try. I was not asked to write about them, and I was not paid anything to write about them. I have no working relationship with Level Foods at this time. But I’m happy to give some of my goodies away!
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Reviews | Tagged , | Comments (13)

Make your voice heard. Today. Now.

March 7, 2014 – 9:22 am

SSGuidance

Maybe you’re one of those people who says, “That FDA—they never listen!”. Or maybe you say, “If the FDA wouldn’t wait so long, we could see products come to market sooner!”. Well, glucose meters and test strips are not made in a day. Okay, maybe they are, but bear with me here.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (the FDA) is in the midst of an arduous process to update guidance to companies on future manufacture of blood glucose meters. From the Strip Safely website:

“FDA has two draft guidance documents about blood glucose meters that are open for comment until April 7, 2014. A “draft guidance” is basically a preview of what standards the FDA is considering requiring in order for blood glucose meters to be cleared — the law requires that FDA open its draft guidance documents up for comment before publishing a final version.”

So if you’re one of those people who says, “That FDA—they never listen!”, here’s your chance.

The FDA has two open dockets right now through Monday, April 7th. You have an opportunity to raise your voice with the rest of the Diabetes Community, engaging in public discourse and helping the FDA get it right.

The best part is, it’s so easy to lend your voice to this important issue. As usual, Strip Safely has everything you need to know. And not in a creepy, big-brother, overbearing government kind of way. Head on over there now and you’ll find super easy instructions that will help you lend your voice to this increasingly critical guidance.
(hint: read the instructions carefully, or you might miss something important)

If you’re worried about not having enough time to comment, don’t. Strip Safely has links to the dockets for personal use meters and in-clinic meters. And they even have language you can use to join the chorus of D-people who are weighing in on this topic. After rewriting part of the prepared comments and submitting them to the FDA, I looked at my watch to find that a mere fifteen minutes had gone by from start to finish.

If you’re worried about your privacy, don’t. You can submit your comments anonymously. Or you can give them your name and e-mail address. Your choice.

If you’re worried about not making an impact, don’t. We need to submit as many comments as possible. More comments get more notice, making more of an impact. And after April 7, we may not get the chance to comment on this for another ten years. That’s the way it works at the federal level, folks. Your voice on this topic is appreciated and valued and necessary.

One other thing: After you submit your comments, don’t forget to tell everyone you know that the FDA is accepting public comments on guidance for over-the-counter blood glucose meters, and meters designed for healthcare providers in an office or hospital setting.

It’s not often you can do something tangible that you know will have a positive effect on People With Diabetes for years to come. But you know what? This is your chance to do just that. It’s easy. And we need you.

Many thanks to Christel Marchand Aprigliano and Bennet Dunlap for leading the charge up the Hill of Guidance.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Diabetes | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

People are talking: #JDRFSummit Part Three.

March 5, 2014 – 9:53 am

Saturday I was one of the many at the extremely well-attended JDRF TypeOneNation DC Research Summit, in suburban Washington. Lots of updates on research all over the diabetes spectrum, and a chance to interact with some of the attendees. Including one I was able to meet for the first time. There was an awful lot packed into one day, so I’ve broken it out into three days of posts. Monday, I covered the morning’s presentations. Yesterday, I covered the afternoon talks. Today, my interactions with summit attendees and a DOC meetup!

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One of the great things about attending an event like this is being able to interact with others who share some of the same experiences in life. If you’re really lucky, you get to meet someone you know… you know, in a sort of “Hey, there’s a famous person! I read everything they write!” kind of way. I got to meet someone like that on Saturday:

Kelley-Summit

Kelley Kent writes over at Below-Seven.com. I got to meet her and her husband Chris. Kelley has a great story to tell, and she’s a beast of an athlete. In the last year alone she’s completed a 5K run, an 8K run, a 10K run, a 10 miler, a triathlon, and 2 half marathons. All while spending her 20th year living with diabetes. In fact, Kelley is our 9th Champion Athlete With Diabetes medal winner! Look for her story here soon.

You’ll often see Kelley on the Wednesday night #DSMA chats on Twitter, and she’s one of the most friendly and supportive members of the DOC (Diabetes Online Community) that I know of. If you don’t know her, you should reach out. You’ll be happy you did. I really wish that I had spent more time with Kelley and Chris. But that’s my problem, not yours.

There were a couple of conversations I had on Saturday, right at the table where I was sitting. To my right was a person, around Kelley’s age, living with Type 1 and planning a long, 5 day climb this year. Big trip. She expressed some worries about how to maintain a good balance with her BGs while working so hard on the climb. I turned my iPad toward her and pointed at Kelley on my Twitter feed.

“This person here?… This is Kelley. She’s here in the room today. She’s an amazing athlete. She’s completed a number of events in the past year, and I’ll bet she could give you some great advice”.

Then I downshifted into the “there are thousands of D-people online, and there’s always someone who’s gone through what you’re going through who could help you a lot” elevator speech. She quickly wrote down Kelley’s Twitter info and put it in her purse.

See what I did there? I just made the diabetes community bigger. Kelley, I hope she reaches out to you very soon, if she hasn’t already.

To my left Saturday was a family… Mom, Dad, and their daughter, in her early twenties. The daughter was sitting directly to my left. Unfortunately, Dad was a little too eager to give details about his daughter, and how she’s managing her diabetes. He couldn’t seem to understand why it was so hard for her.

I had to remind him that diabetes is always hard, even on the good days. And even if we do everything exactly the way we’re supposed to, we’re just one forgotten bolus, or one bad infusion set away from a high BG. I definitely had the “A1c is just a number, a reference point” discussion. I told him how the important thing is to use what you’ve experienced to help you in the future, but also to concentrate most on doing the best you can from this point forward.

I got a little chance to talk to the daughter. She’s smart, I can tell. There was this amazing handout I picked up at one of the vendor tables that day (I don’t know which one—it was mobbed, so I just grabbed the flyer and moved on). It was put together by Hope Warshaw, and it looks like this:

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At one point while we were talking, I pointed at the flyer she had with all of the other things she collected that day. I said, “Do you ever go online and visit any of the places on that handout?”. She had not. Hadn’t heard about any of it. As I looked at her, I could see myself a few years ago, feeling lost, feeling alone, feeling like whatever my life was like then was how it was going to be, and that’s that. Overwhelmed by the diabetesness of it all.

I mentioned some of the places I thought she might find useful, but I also remember telling her that just about anyplace mentioned on that flyer would be a great place to start. I told her to reach out… people will respond and support her, because there isn’t anyone online who hasn’t gone through what she goes through every day. And I told her how the Wednesday night #DSMA chat is often the highlight of my week. Hopefully, I didn’t come off as some sort of old guy nut going on about things she doesn’t care about. I hope she finds a place where she feels like she belongs. I know that place is out there for her in our community.

You know, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever had conversations like that with other PWDs. Every so often, you need to get out from behind your PC or mobile device and sit down with people who understand you, and who can remind you what’s important, and who can help you remember that you’re not the only one out there, and it’s okay to support and encourage. It’s been a cold winter in the Mid-Atlantic. I was glad to have found a bit of warmth on the first day of March.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Events | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

People are talking: #JDRFSummit Part two.

March 4, 2014 – 9:48 am

Saturday I was one of the many at the extremely well-attended JDRF TypeOneNation DC Research Summit, in suburban Washington. Lots of updates on research all over the diabetes spectrum, and a chance to interact with some of the attendees. Including one I was able to meet for the first time. There was an awful lot packed into one day, so I’ve broken it out into three days of posts. Yesterday, I covered the morning’s presentations. Today, I’ll cover the afternoon talks. On Wednesday, my interactions with summit attendees and a DOC meetup!

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As I said above, there were lots of presentations Saturday. Before the main talks of the afternoon, there was a passionate advocacy update from Cynthia Rice, Senior VP of Advocacy and Policy at JDRF. To this observer, it seems like JDRF is working hard to expand their advocacy. Children’s Congress, Promise meetings with legislators, multiple outreach efforts. JDRF is advocating for all of us living with diabetes. Want to get involved? It’s easier than ever. To sign up, visit the JDRF Advocacy website here. Also, you can get advocacy updates on your mobile phone by texting ACTION to 53731 (JDRF1). Simple, yes?

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After that was one of the best presentations of the day. Dr. Linda Gonder-Frederick, Clinical Director of the Behavioral Medicine Center, part of the University of Virginia Health System. In her talk, she looked at diabetes from a psychological perspective. I remembered meeting her in the course of one of my clinical trials last year. She seemed smart then, and smarter Saturday. A couple of the things she had to say:

“It is well documented that diabetes is the most difficult condition for patients to manage.”

“Think of diabetics like a snowflake… no two are the same.”

According to Dr. Gonder-Frederick, there are four coping strategies that serve PWDs well: Information gathering, problem solving, empowerment, healthy acceptance, dealing with negative emotions, and social support and appropriate help seeking. It’s not a surprise that rates of depression in people with diabetes is almost twice that among non-PWDs. Critical periods for psychosocial risk in PWDs include diagnosis, any time there’s a real change in care or treatment, and the transition from a pediatric medical support system to adult medical support. In fact, she told us that this is the time when most patients get lost in the system. The transition from pediatric to adult care is that hard sometimes.

Honestly, I’m not doing her talk any justice. If you get a chance to hear Dr. Gonder-Frederick speak, I highly recommend it.

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The next two presentations were very scientific, and to tell you the truth, there was a lot of information given in a short amount of time. Let me see if I can give you the highlights from talks by Dr. Eugene Brandon of Viacyte, and Dr. Stephen Miller from Northwestern University Medical School.

Dr. Brandon covered the things that Viacyte is working on in the field of beta cell encapsulation, and how their research is going. The good news is that encapsulation human trials are scheduled to start this year.

Dr. Miller spent some time going over important research into nanoscience and immunology. Specifically, the difference between immunosuppressants and tolerance therapy. The appeal is the hope that immune tolerance therapy could be used to treat autoimmune disease, so (possibly) Type 1 diabetes could be averted altogether.

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Finally, we got to hear Kelly Close of Close Concerns and Diatribe fame. Kelly’s an amazing advocate, and she’s been involved in artificial pancreas trials in both Boston and Virginia. In fact, she was a participant in the study I got booted from in January. It was great listening to her talk about what closed-loop testing is like, and mostly, what it feels like. That’s really what I wanted to hear, and I wasn’t disappointed. It was fascinating listening to her talk about the dichotomy of being connected to medical devices, but feeling normal throughout the night. No lows or highs to sap her energy or make her feel hung over the next morning. She also gave a great roundup on where diabetes technology stands today all over the world. Which is pretty exciting to say the least.

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If you’re thinking it was a full day, you’re right. And that was just what was on stage last Saturday. Wednesday, we’ll talk about my interactions with a couple of the summit attendees, and my meetup with one of my favorite writers.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Events | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

People are talking: #JDRFSummit Part One.

March 3, 2014 – 10:13 am

Saturday I was one of the many at the extremely well-attended JDRF TypeOneNation DC Research Summit, in suburban Washington. Lots of updates on research all over the diabetes spectrum, and a chance to interact with some of the attendees. Including one I was able to meet for the first time. There was an awful lot packed into one day, so I’m going to break it out into three days of posts. Today, I’ll cover the morning’s presentations. Tomorrow, the afternoon talks. On Wednesday, my interactions with summit attendees and a DOC meetup!

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The day began with a talk by Bethany Salmon, who is in charge of translational development for JDRF. What does that mean? I was wondering that when the talk started. What I found out was that it means the development and commercialization of therapies for people with diabetes. Those therapies include Artificial Pancreas, smart insulin, beta cell encapsulation, prevention, and restoration of functioning pancreatic beta cells. That last thing, Bethany reminded us, is JDRF’s definition of a cure. Any of the other therapies would be great developments, but they would also mean JDRF is still going to work for a cure.

Anyway, translational development basically means the JDRF team works to identify and accelerate projects. If they see something promising, they’ll provide matching funds for research. What happens then? They hold quarterly meetings with recipients of funding to make sure they’re on target. Recipients of JDRF research grants are held to specific performance milestones for their projects. It’s good to know JDRF is being responsible with the money they’ve raised over the years.

Ms. Salmon also shared a short JDRF video that spoke to me. To me, it’s the perfect video to show at gatherings like this, where some of the people in attendance may be feeling like the diabetes wheels are spinning in place, and they need a fresh pick-me-up. I’m happy to share it with you here:

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Next was a great presentation from Dr. Trang Ly, who was filling in for an ill Dr. Bruce Buckingham, talking about closed-loop testing, and studies to try to help lower instances of hypoglycemia at night. Dr. Buckingham and Dr. Ly work in pediatric endocrinology at Stanford University. I’ve written before about the work they’re doing out there, and Dr. Ly gave us an update.

She talked about research on a low-glucose suspend system like the Medtronic 530g with Enlite. They found that LGS can prevent severe hypoglycemia in most cases, in both children and adults. Makes you wonder why Med-T didn’t try harder to get pediatric approval from the FDA for their device(s).

They’ve done a series of tests (in Australia, if I remember correctly) on predictive low-glucose suspend, where the system predicts a hypo, then shuts off the pump. They started testing with adults, then tested with teens, and progressively younger kids. They start testing with 3 to 6 year olds soon.

She also gave a recap of diabetes camp testing out in California. And she mentioned two studies starting soon: One with kids at Camp Jordan in Virginia, and bionic pancreas testing using a bi-hormonal pump up in Boston. Most moving to me was early on in her presentation though. She had handwritten answers from kids who were asked the question “What do you fear most about nighttime hypoglycemia?”. The answers: “Waking up in a coma and dying”, and “Not waking up”. Those are typical responses… but when you see them in the handwriting of children, who should never have to bear that kind of burden, it really hits you where you live.

And while I’m at it, let me pass along a great big thank you to children and their parents who agree to take part in this crucial testing of closed-loop systems.

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Then it was Dr. Roland Tisch, who’s working out of the University of North Carolina, trying to see if there are options for reversing diabetes (other than, you know, cinnamon and okra). There was a lot covered in his short time on the podium, so you might want to check out his presentation when it gets posted online in a week or so. In short, according to Dr. Tisch, there are three keys to establishing remission in patients with diabetes: 1)Eliminating pathogenic T-cells in islets, 2)Increasing Treg cells to maintain long-term autoimmune protection, and 3)”Normal” immunity has to remain unaffected. In other words, fixing one part of our immune system doesn’t help if the therapy breaks another part of it.

Look for Dr. Tisch’s presentation later to learn more about pathogenic T-cells and Treg cells and why they’re important discoveries, and important parts of the research they’re doing.

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All of this happened before lunch on Saturday. No wonder my head was spinning! Tomorrow, I’ll try to cover the afternoon speakers, and on Wednesday, more about the human interaction portion of this terrific event.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Events | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)