Customer Reviews

Type 1 Diabetes For Dummies

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Dr. Rubin is a practicing endocrinologist and diabetes specialist. Using the familiar "Dummies" format, Dr. Rubin efficiently covers the important information about Type 1 diabetes (or T1DM). He also summarizes relevant comparisons to Type 2 and "LADA" diabetes. Dr. Rubin's communication style is easy to comprehend. He minimizes medical jargon and explains complex medical processes in plain English.

The book contains an explanation of what diabetes is, the major symptoms, the complications that result from poor management, how to tell the different variations apart, and how treatment regimens differ. He goes through the major options for treatment, including medication and transplants. He covers attention to diet and exercise, which are critical to increasing the quality of life for patients.

He also covers the responsibilities of the diabetes caregiver, including how to minimize the risk of complications. He makes the point that diabetes is really a "family" disease.

Much of the book is oriented towards parents of diabetic children, since a majority of Type 1 patients are children. He devotes significant effort to assuring patients and caregivers that, although diabetes is a serious disease, it is not a death sentence with proper attention and care.

After reading the book, parents of diabetic children, and the patients themselves, at least will have an overview of their responsibilities, and how to seek additional information specific to their situations.

In all, this book is a modest amount of money for a lot of information packed inside. It is certainly a valuable addition to a diabetic's reference library.

This is helpful for non-diabetics, particularly people who want to learn about a friend or relatives disease. Though much of the information is available on the websites of the big diabetes organizations. If you are an adult type 1 diabetic it is not very helpful as it is really written for the parents of a type 1 child. The problem is that parents of a type 1 child, will definitely need books that more effectively and thoroughly discuss the disease, treatments, diet.. and these books will, in all likelihood, have a general overview of the disease as well. Most books on diabetes do, and are almost always written for the general public. So the dummies book here seems pointless.

I liked this book very much - probably one of my top 5 out of dozens. Parents of newly diagnosed children buy every book, you are not alone :)