Kinds of Diabetes: Car Analogy

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 00:00:00 -0700

Diabetes Mellitus is a 500 year old term that describes the sweet-smelling urine of people whose bodies have stopped being able to regulate blood sugar properly.

We now know that it refers to a family of different (and largely unrelated) diseases that all have the same symptoms before doctors can determine what has caused them. People – even doctors – still have trouble understanding the differences between these diseases, so I tried to come up with a simple and (hopefully) humorous analogy by thinking of each disease as a problem with your car.

Type 1 Diabetes Name History

Sat, 28 Sep 2019 08:00:00 -0700

This page is sort of a living document about my research into the naming history of autoimmune diabetes mellitus, more commonly known as Type 1 Diabetes.

There are obviously a lot of missing sections but I’ve been promising to get this posted for several years and I figure this is the best way to encourage myself to finish.

Diabetes Mellitus

The name “Diabetes Mellitus” dates back roughly 500 years, and awarness of the disease by other names (e.g. “sugar sickness”) goes back a few thousand.

Participate in Clinical Research!

Thu, 02 May 2019 20:00:00 -0700

Photos like this one are fairly common in Type 1 Diabetes forums, usually accompanied by a comment like “DKA sucks!”, making light of the extremely unpleasant and occasionally deadly Diabetic Ketoacidosis. I decided to post a similar photo but with a positive story behind it. So this is me, sitting in a hospital bed in the research wing of a local hospital while they spent several hours measuring how my body reacts when I drink a high carb/protein shake and don’t take insulin for it.

Type 1 Diabetes Resources

Fri, 07 Jul 2017 08:00:00 -0700

I plan to eventually write about a bunch of these topics individually. Until then, here is my collection of links to a number of diabetes-releated topics that I have found especially helpful.

Blogs to read

Melitta is my favorite advocate about adult-onset T1, and always has great information with a strong emphasis on science and research.
- http://adultt1diabetes.blogspot.com/
Gary Scheiner is the author of the amazing Think Like a Pancreas. He also runs a diabetes consulting service and writes a lot of great stuff about dealing with T1.
- http://integrateddiabetes.com/
Dr. Ponder’s Sugar Surfing method of dynamically managing blood sugar levels should be a tool available to everyone who uses insulin. His blog has great info in addition to the book.
- https://www.sugarsurfing.com/
Digital magazine dealing with all kinds of things for both T1 and T2.
- https://diatribe.org/
News about science and technology related to T1.
- http://insulinnation.com/
Has a lot of information about all kinds of diabetes, but focuses mostly on topics relevant to people with T1.
- https://asweetlife.org/
Magazine/blog that focuses on both T1 and T2, but still occasionally has some useful information.
- https://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/
Joslin is one of the most respected research institutions for T1.
- http://blog.joslin.org/

Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosed in Adulthood:

Participate in Research:

Diagnosing Diabetes:

Genetics

Testing your at-risk family members

https://trialnet.org/ (US and many other countries around the world)
https://type1screen.org/ Australia (and maybe Aotearoa / New Zealand)
https://www.jdrf.org/t1d-resources/t1detect/ (anyone can order a test, but it’s not free)

Causes

Has some issues (confused about prevalence in adulthood and definition of LADA) but overall interesting: http://dlife.com/type-1-diabetes-genetic-hereditary-causes-treatment/

Insulin:

Amylin (another thing people with T1DM don’t make):

Carbs

DKA: Diabetic Ketoacidosis

Stages:

Test strip subscription plans:

Prices may have changed since this list was created

Diabetes on Chris Petersen