VIDEO: Nick Jonas/Crossfit Diabetes War featured on Good Morning America

Ignorant Crossfit CEO and his stupidity is still making news...

Crossfit CEO Greg Glassman recently tweeted, "Make sure you pour some out for your dead homies. _ Greg Glassman #CrossFit #Sugarkills @CrossFitCEO". The tweet was accompanied by an image depicting a Coca Cola bottle that included the words open diabetes.

The diabetes community, including Nick Jonas, fired back at Crossfit and it's CEO and today the folks at Good Morning America picked up on the story and aired this piece.

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See what readers of my book Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal have to say...

It was an easy read with several funny laugh-out-loud moments. Yet, beyond the funny antics throughout the book relating to life, marriage, and raising children it is a reminder that life will undoubtedly fail to go as you plan it. It’s what we learn from our struggles that ultimately help us become more understanding, compassionate, and remind us to embrace life and loved ones. Erin, Amazon review 

Four Minute Podcast Tutorial

If you have been wondering about my podcast but unsure of how to access it... these quick how-to videos are what you've been waiting for!

The first video explains how to listen via a web browser...

A brief how-to for people interested in listening to my type 1 diabetes podcast via their web browser.

The second video explains how to listen via a podcast app on your smartphone (iPhone, Android and all of them really)...

That's pretty much all there is to it. If you have any questions please post them here and I'll answer them as soon as possible. Thanks for reading and listening!

Links you need:

The Juicebox Podcast on iTunes and Stitcher
Apple's Podcast app for iOS on the App Store
Stitcher App for iOS
A list of Android  on Google play

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Adam Lasher on American Idol

It was only a week ago when Adam Lasher first appeared on American Idol. Lasher's pre-audition interview with Ryan Seacrest revealed that he is the nephew of guitar legend Carlos Santana, but his famous Uncle was just the beginning of what would be a rather strange and wonderful audition.

The next three minutes were a whirlwind of oddities that culminated in Adam performing his original song 'These Shoes' and a golden ticket to the American Idol Hollywood round that airs tonight on Fox.

Adam wore a bright blue headband that appeared to be more functional than style oriented. His face and dark beard instantly reminded Jennifer Lopez of Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, her comments must have made it back to New York because the next day Fallon was dressing up like Lasher on his show.

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Adam and his Uncle Carlos courtesy of AdamLasherBand.com

After the Jimmy Fallon frivolity came to an end Keith Urban asked, thinking it was Lasher's phone, about a small case clipped to his guitar strap. It wasn't a phone in the case, rather Adam has type 1 diabetes and was wearing his Dexcom continuous glucose monitor (CGM) so that he could watch his blood sugar level.

When the time came for Adam to play the judges finally realized that the thumb on his playing hand was broken and wrapped in what Harry Connick Jr. called, "a raggedy-ass lookin' cast" but non of that mattered because soon, despite his broken thumb, tossed hair, type 1 diabetes and an only so-so Fallon impression, Adam Lasher's music is revealed to be as soulful as it gets and he earns a ticket to Hollywood Week. 

Tonight a rabid base of Idol viewers, many who live with type 1 diabetes in their lives, will be cheering for Adam to move on to the next round.

You can hear Adam on The Juicebox Podcast talking about his Idol experience, diabetes, how he broke his thumb and much more.

Update

Adam performed 'Wicked Games' during Hollywood week and was put through to the next round! Check out the video... stay until the end when Harry Connick Jr. says, "I think he's a super star... I think he's got something". Good luck to Adam as he competes!

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2014 Year in Review

It's December 31st and I've been spending a lot of time recently thinking about how to make Arden's Day better for you. As we head into the eighth year of my little blog's life I'm looking at ways to make the blog more informative, social, easy to consume and worth coming back to. In the process I've been reading a lot of old post from 2014 and found a few that are worth revisiting before the ball drops. I hope you read to the end of this long post, I'd like to share something very personal to me before the calendar flips. 

From January 2014

It baffles me, but one of the most popular things on the blog this year was a photo of me looking tired, How to Spot a D-Parent. It was even reposted on Diabetes Daily and become one of their most popular post of the year. Of all the things I wrote, shared and talked about this year, you liked seeing me looking ragged the best. Tells me we are all pretty damn tired.

From February 2014

Dexcom was approved for pediatric use, one of my non D storIes blew up on Huffington Post and Miss Manners was all the buzz but all you guys wanted to see was pictures of Kris Freeman's abs. Parents still read this post every day when they wonder if their child is too lean for pumps and a CGM. Kris's abs turned out to be quite the public service.

From March 2014

My blog titled, Pitstop Fail won Best of Betes Blogs for March - a huge thank you to the person who nominated it and voted!

From April 2014

A Forgotten Wallet Buys a BG of 25 and I got yelled at a little bit in the comments. BTW, Kris Freeman could have easily been mentioned here too, you guys sure love abs.

From May 2014

I changed my expectations for what 'in range' means and lowered Arden's a1c, Living Between the (Diabetes) Lines. 

From June 2014

June brought the lowest A1c Arden has gotten to date, A1c Countdown: It's Endo Time.

From July 2014

This was the month of #ShowMeYourPump but Arden's Day readers were more interested (By just a few hits) in Arden's Sudden Needle Anxiety. 

From August 2014

In August I tried with all my blogging might to get you to believe that Diabetes and Fear don't have to go together, Guts over Fear was written, the hashtag #DiabetesandFear was tweeted and my quest was underway. 

From September 2014

I traveled to the Dominican Republic to deliver a speech to a group of D parents during the summer but wasn't able to share the video of my talk until September. My time in the D.R. led to a very popular post, my first invitation to give a keynote at a JDRF event (Info coming soon) and a whole lot of new understanding about the rest of the world. 

From October 2014

Hello Dexcom SHARE you are the remote monitoring I've been waiting for.

From November 2014 

Arden changed her first OmniPod without any help from me while she was at a sleepover, I'll Take Insulin Pump Change for the Win Alex.

From December 2014

I shared our experience with getting an insulin pump in the hopes that it would give you the freedom to speak your mind because, Don't Let Doctors Push a Pump on You, that's why. 

I can't thank you enough for reading about Arden's day. I hope you have time to check out one more post from 2014, it's one I wrote today about what diabetes blogging means to me, you can find it here. Have a happy, healthy 2015... you are all in my thoughts. Best, Scott

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Encapsulation Gives Me Reason to Hope

When I hear the word ‘cure’ it sends my mind racing with visions of science fiction television. I imagine my daughter being scanned by Doctor McCoy, in an instant his tricorder beeps and Arden’s pancreas springs back into action. Everyone in the room takes a pause for dramatic effect and type 1 diabetes is no more.

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It’s that level of high yet unreasonable expectation, mixed with a healthy amount of cynicism that keeps me from becoming too excited when news of “promising research” is announced. I read the articles - well, I thoroughly peruse them - but most research news leaves me feeling like real-world science hasn’t quite caught up to the desires of the scientific community. Curing a disease without significant effort, crazy drugs and more than a bit of luck seems unlikely to me right now. In other words, I’m a tough sell.

Until I heard about Beta Cell Encapsulation…

Encapsulation grabbed my attention in such a big way that I asked it’s benefactor, JDRF (formally known as Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) if there was someone that I could interview about the technology. They were kind enough to put me in touch with JDRF Director of Discovery Research, Albert Hwa, PhD.

My conversation with Albert did a few things. It reminded me that I am not a scientist, gave me great hope for type 1 diabetes treatments and made me want to tell you about what I learned without being too sciencey - because I don’t want you to just peruse this article.

What is Encapsulation: In layman's terms, the process of encapsulation has made it possible for foreign cells to be introduced into the body after being coated (encapsulated) with a substance that protects them from your immune system. Specifically for the ViaCyte product design, the cells are inserted into a device that is currently the size of a business card and surgically placed under the skin during an outpatient procedure. The device allows its cellular passengers to interact with the body, measure the level of glucose and produce insulin without being identified by the immune system as a foreign body - all without anti-rejection drugs. Through the nature of science, encapsulation keeps your immune system from attacking the new insulin producing cells without blocking other needed functions. That’s science!

Is this a cure: Encapsulation is not a cure but it is the first stopgap between a cure and the reality that people living with type 1 diabetes experience that makes me say, “Where do I get this for my daughter?” It’s not a cure because the root issue is not being addressed, as the pancreas remains devoid of insulin-producing cells, and the autoimmune responses against them persists. The goal of this research is to introduce donor beta cells that will eliminate the need for manmade insulin. That would mean no more shots, finger sticks, insulin pumps, glucose monitors and the wildly fluctuating blood glucose levels that cause serious long-term health issues. 

How long will the device last: Researchers aren’t positive at this time how long the cells will produce insulin before they need to be replaced, but a minimum of two years seems to be the initial hope and goal. Having a small procedure every two years is a vast improvement over what my daughter and the millions of other people who have type I diabetes deal with every moment of their lives.

More details you want to know: There are currently two companies conducting trials on encapsulation, both are being partially supported by the JDRF. The trial that was being held as I spoke with Albert Hwa was happening in a human being. Human trials are very exciting because so many ideas never get past animal trials; Most of the research that  people with type 1 diabetes hear about cures mice but never makes the leap to helping people. The encapsulation human trials are in their infancy; Albert told me that even if everything went exactly perfect with the trials, it would still be “ten years” before Encapsulation could become a reality.  

I chose to learn more about encapsulation because I’ve watched my daughter live for nearly a decade with type1 diabetes and this is the first time that I’ve felt like I was looking at a potential answer that could make it to market. I’m not a health care professional, just a father hoping for his daughter’s life to get better. In my estimation, encapsulation feels possible. I can imagine driving my daughter to her doctor to have a form of this device implanted, not unlike a pacemaker. For a guy that doesn’t usually feel very hopeful about stuff like this - I feel hopeful.

You can read more about encapsulation on the JDRF website, they even have the sciencey stuff:

http://jdrf.org/encapsulation/

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