Novo Nordisk

Changing Diabetes Barometer

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:51:03 GMT

Changing Diabetes Barometer is a framework for measuring progress in the fight against diabetes. It provides healthcare professionals, patient organisations, politicians, institutions and media with valuable information on outcomes in diabetes care, inspiring and supporting them to improve care delivery, improve quality of life for people with diabetes, reduce costs, and ultimately save lives.

Interview with the lead designer behind NovoPen(r) 5, Ramin Nateghi-Elahi

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 09:00:00 GMT

The lead designer behind the NovoPen® 5, Ramin Nateghi-Elahi, Novo Nordisk, explains the aim to heighten the safety of insulin treatment by integrating a memory function into the injection pen that reminds the patient whether a dose has been taken or not. This helps the patient to avoid missing an injection leading to uncontrolled blood sugar levels or overdosing insulin, which may have severe consequences.

Adjust treatments to people and not people to treatments

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:38:02 GMT

Alan Moses, Global Chief Medical Officer at Novo Nordisk, explains why we should continue to develop products that fit into the lifestyle of people living with diabetes rather than trying to fit life around the diabetes treatment.

Katie Norten, type 1 diabetes, US

Tue, 01 May 2012 11:58:55 GMT

Meet Katie who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 13. From that moment onwards, her life has taken on a different complexion. On a daily basis, Katie needs to remember to exercise, to eat well, to check her blood sugar levels and to give insulin. But Katie is not going to be stopped by diabetes.

KATIE'S STORY
To all intents and purposes, Katie looks like any other student at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. But behind the scenes she has a strict regime to adhere to.

“If you don’t control it now, it will catch up on you.”

At the age of 13, Katie suffered from symptoms such as frequent urination, a dry mouth, tiredness and weight loss. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. From that moment onwards, her life has taken on a different complexion. On a daily basis, Katie needs to remember to exercise, to eat well, to check her blood sugar levels and to give insulin.

In hospital Katie experienced strong support from her mother and the rest of her family. But on returning home to start her new life with diabetes, Katie became depressed, “Me and my mom are very close, I never want her to see me hurt or upset about anything, so when I was first diagnosed I spent a lot of time in my room, feeling alone and upset.”

Katie and her family helped each other and worked through that difficult time, and today Katie feels that her diabetes is just one more thing to remember to take care of each day. At school she played for the lacrosse team, where she learned to feel the signs of low blood sugar. She feels that she can live the same life any other teenager lives – she just has to watch her blood sugar levels and take her insulin.

In the future Katie would love to see some serious advances in technology helping those with diabetes, and smaller insulin devices. But number one on her wish list would be a cure for diabetes.

“You might think it’s the end of the world right now, but it’s definitely not. I mean, you can definitely beat it and just always take care of your self, try to exercise, make healthy choices, check your blood sugar, and just keep on top of your game with your diabetes. Because you can beat it. You can beat diabetes.”

Amy Green, type 1 diabetes, US

Tue, 01 May 2012 11:55:43 GMT

Meet Amy who has always been able to rely on the support from her family. It was this support that kept her going when she was first diagnosed at the age of 14. Amy has chosen to tell everybody around her that she has diabetes so people know how to react and can recognise the signs of hypoglycaemia.

AMY'S STORY
26-year-old Amy has always been able to rely upon support from her family. It was this support that kept her going during the weeks of hospitalisation when, at the age of 14, she was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Her parents visited her every day and her sister flew in from New York to be with her. So Amy immediately appreciated how important a strong support network is, and was determined to do all she could to make sure she could rely upon the support she needed.

Amy has chosen to tell everybody around her, that she has diabetes, concluding that if she has a seizure and needs help, it is important that people know what her health status is, and are able to recognise the signs of hypoglycaemia.

It has been a revelation to Amy how involved her friends are, and the extent to which they are aware of the role they can play in helping her leading the life she wants. When doing sports, her blood sugar can drop and affect her without her realising it, because she is focussed on the excitement of the game. “Especially when I am playing volleyball, I tend to feel I am in the game, I am in the zone, and my partner and team mate will come over and say ‘Amy, you are starting to look pale, you are not focusing on the ball. Are you OK, do you need to get sugar?’”

Amy has a degree in science and history, works in marketing and dreams of having the same warm family as the one she grew up in. Amy’s role model is not someone introduced to her in a professional capacity or at college, it’s her recently deceased grandmother.

When she was in her eighties she still travelled the world and nothing held her back. Amy loves to travel and wants to be able to do the same as her grandmother – riding camels and going to Antarctica.

“You don’t have to change your whole life, you don’t have to stay inside all day and read books and be attached to your glucometer. I think that is why people feel depressed and that’s when people start to shut down and feel overwhelmed by diabetes, because they are letting it control their life rather then them controlling the diabetes.”

Tracey Saverino, Gestational diabetes, US

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:01:20 GMT

TRACEY'S STORY
Tracey Saverino and her husband James were full of excitement and joy when they learned that Tracey was expecting their first child.

The couple live in Bronxville, New York and have recently moved into an apartment in the same building that Tracey’s mother and two of her sisters live in. “I have the best family that I could ever imaging having,” Tracey says, “my mom has actually retired so she can stay home to watch my son when I go back to work.

”When Tracey was five months pregnant she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. This came as a complete shock and left her feeling scared and guilt-ridden. “I would sit and talk to the baby in my belly and say, ‘I am sorry, and we’ll get better and we’ll eat right.’ And yeah, I did feel guilty because I didn’t know why or how it happened.

”Initially, Tracey was frustrated, thinking that she had been doing everything right during her pregnancy. However she soon realised that it was a blessing in disguise, because she learned to eat healthier and to exercise. “Well, I didn’t have a normal diet before,” she says with a smile, “being Italian we’d always eat pasta.

”Today, Tracey keeps her diabetes under control by sticking to a 2000-calorie diet and measuring her blood glucose several times a day. She visits a nutritionist, who has taught her what she needs to know about a healthy lifestyle, not only to give birth to a healthy baby, but also to prevent developing type 2 diabetes in the future. Last but not least, the gestational diabetes has inspired and made her whole family more aware of the importance of a healthy food intake.

Tracey appreciates the lessons learned through her Gestational Diabetes Mellitus diagnosis. “Having the child is definitely a motivation factor, because I don’t want my child to have diabetes or any side-effects from what I am going through. I want him to be born happy, healthy and not having to worry about diabetes in the future. So that is definitely a controlling factor, a motivation factor for me.”

Eric and Daniella Beswick - Type 1 diabetes - South Africa

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:14:58 GMT

Eric was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a toddler. His family took great care of him, sterilising the old-fashioned and painful stainless steel syringes and injecting his insulin. They raised him to be independent in managing his treatment, as he had to live with diabetes the rest of his life.

Today, Eric has witnessed many changes in diabetes care. Not only the replacement of syringes with convenient pens, but also the guidelines on how to live. “As a child, I couldn’t have any of the very tasty South African milk tarts, but today I can.”
Eric does not feel that diabetes has restricted him in any way. He left home, studied, got a good job and got married. He became well adjusted to managing his condition, although even then he was concerned about the other ways that diabetes might continue to affect his life.

“I had a feeling that diabetes is genetic. My grandfather died of diabetes and I felt that if I had children, they would get it too.”
A few weeks before his daughter Daniella’s third birthday, she started drinking enormous amounts of water and visiting the toilet frequently. The first thing on Eric’s mind was diabetes, and a visit to the family doctor confirmed his fear.

“We were both very upset. My wife and I were both crying,” he remembers. “But within a day or two, we realised that we just had to accept it and move on.”

Eric is grateful that modern diabetes treatments and his own experiences have made having a child with diabetes easier, even if the feeling of guilt still lingers. “I have done everything I wanted to do in life. I hope, and I’m pretty sure, that it will be the same for Daniella.”

Eric Beswick
South Africa
Eric has type 1 diabetes

Jaya Prakash, Type 2 diabetes, US

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:30:57 GMT

Meet Jaya who applies lot self-discipline to his type 2 diabetes management. Jaya’s approach to managing his diabetes is an inspiration to those around him. Not only to his family – who see his determination as an inspiration, but also to the many new patients he mentors.

Jaya’s story
Jaya was born in India in 1943 and spent his childhood there before leaving for Europe in the mid 1960s. His work eventually led to his moving to the USA where he worked as an electrical engineer and a consultant.

In the kitchen of Jaya and wife Madhavi’s house hangs a two metre long panoramic photograph of MG Road in Bangalore. The picture is taken in the sixties and shows amusing details of Indian street life in that era. What is not obvious is that the picture is patched together from several smaller photos Jaya took himself in India. Fifty years later, after retiring as an electrical engineer, Jaya used his computer to assemble these photos into one image, which took him three months, adding and removing details to make the picture complete.

This perfect collage is an indication of Jaya’s immense self-discipline. Which he has also applied to his diabetes management. Jaya’s approach to managing his diabetes has been an inspiration to those around him. Not only to his family – who see his determination as an inspiration to the rest of them, but also to the many new patients he mentors.

“This is a chronic debilitating disease. I sometimes suggest to new patients that they should try closing their eyes and walking around the house to see if they like being blind – because without control that could be what they become.”

Jaya had a triple cardiac bypass at a relatively young age, but through courage and determination he recovered quickly. Today, Jaya is determined to enjoy his retirement, without letting diabetes destroy it. His fear is to lose his eyesight and thereby missing out on the experiences he has planned; restoring old photos and old recordings of Indian music. He feels confident that his determination, strict diet and regular exercise will ensure that his diabetes will not take control of his life.

Zandile Signoria Mzayifani, Type 2 diabetes, South Africa

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:36:16 GMT

The hardest part for Zandile to accept was not that she had a chronic condition, it was the fact that she needed to take medication. Zandile’s fear and confusion about starting treatment for type 2 diabetes made her depressed and put her at risk:

”I didn’t want to live on medication. I thought that was for the older mamas and I’m still young. I want my business to grow bigger and my children to have a successful life.”

Zandile was 31 when she was diagnosed. She was determined to fight diabetes by herself and without medical help.

”My sister died of diabetes. Diabetes is a thief: it can steal your life while you sleep. Who would take care of my children and the job I do in my home? I need to be strict with my diet, that’s what I said to myself.”

But she soon realised that diabetes is not just any condition: ”I learned that you need to take care of yourself, and take your medication. Now I have that knowledge, and have accepted it, I feel good.”

Before her acceptance, Zandile struggled in her daily routines. She often arrived at work late and exhausted:

”It felt like pulling a whole big bag with me.”

With support from the doctors and nurses at her local clinic, Zandile has taken control of her lifestyle and her treatment routine. ”I needed to change,” she admits. ”I needed to take my medicine, change my lifestyle, change to having my own business and change from eating junk food to healthy food. I needed to change in order to have all the things I want.”

Today, Zandile is feeling the benefits in her business as well as in her body. Empowered by feeling physically well again, she has started her own healthy sandwich business from her home in the Langa Township of Cape Town.

Keenan Hendrickse, type 1 diabetes, South Africa

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:32:37 GMT

Meet Keenan who at the age of thirteen was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and became forced to take his life into his own hands. Thanks to the support from his family and friends, he has changed his lifestyle and has learned to accept diabetes as a part of his life.

KEENAN’S STORY
Now 18, confident and healthy, it’s hard to imagine Keenan as an overweight and self-conscious 13-year-old, as he was when he found out he had diabetes.

“I was like a dinosaur,” he laughs as he describes his lack of interest in sports and exercise. “I was a heavily-built teenager of 85 kilos.”

When diabetes forced Keenan to take control of his life and his health, it wasn’t an easy transition. “The magnitude of it all didn’t hit me immediately. It was one or two weeks before I sat down and said to myself – I have diabetes! I was in a total state.”

Today, Keenan is Head of School at Bergvliet High. He is fit, performs well academically, and the badges on his blazer reveal he is a member of many clubs and school societies.

So what brought him to where he is today?
Keenan explains that he soon came to the conclusion that coping well with diabetes was all about making a choice: “Some people live with diabetes, and some people make a mess of their situation.”

Keenan’s family made sure he stayed on the right track. His mother rewrote the family grocery list and got rid of everything Keenan could no longer eat. In Keenan’s time of crisis, they were calm for him.

Yet even with this support, Keenan admits to having periods of denial. “At a party I’d tell myself that I could eat cakes. I only have one life! I was going to enjoy it! Obviously that was a recipe for disaster.”

By taking an active approach to learning about diabetes, and with the support and understanding of his family, Keenan’s attitude towards healthy eating has now changed, like his exercise habits, his appearance and his mindset.

“You have to accept that diabetes is part of you. You can’t fight it but you can work with it.”

Gerald Garwood, type 2 diabetes, South Africa

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:27:39 GMT

Meet Gerald, a freight ship captain, who in his job is used to take a huge responsibility. When diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, Gerald was forced to take responsibility for his health and accept the changes he was bound to make in his life. At first he felt it difficult to loose his freedom of choice. But he has now realised and accepted that with a little loss of freedom choice comes longevity.

GERALDS'S STORY
As a freight ship captain, Gerald is used to navigating change. This applies as much to his life since he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes as it does to his responsibilities at sea.

“Diabetes makes you think about your lifestyle. It’s all about managing your diabetes, accepting that this is how it is going to be, and then getting on with it!”

And Gerald is getting on with it. A year after his diagnosis he changed his diet and lost 15 kilos. Nor will he let diabetes get in the way of his his work. On board he is in contact with his doctor, can exchange emails with his dietician and even gets help from the ship’s galley.

“If there is something on the menu that is not good for me, the chef changes it. That is the fortunate thing about being the captain!”

Gerald learned about the changes that come with diabetes from his father. “He didn’t take it quite as well, and didn’t want to change the way he had been living.” With Gerald’s support, his father eventually made the right choices and enjoyed his life.

Gerald’s father also introduced him to his favourite hobby: brewing beer. Unfortunately, giving up beer has been another change Gerald has had to navigate. Even so, Gerald’s positive attitude, which resulted in his childhood nickname ‘Smiler’, is still very much in evidence:

“It was frustrating to give up my brewing. But now I’ve got new hobbies that make me happy, that’s the main thing.”

Today, Gerald relaxes with his wife, looks after his dogs and plays snooker on a table he bought to remind him of games with his father. He also enjoys having friends over for a ‘braai’: a South African barbecue. Of course he misses a cold beer, but, as he points out: “You can still smile and be jovial without the beer. I promise.”

Dolores Reisner, type 2 diabetes, US

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:25:14 GMT

Meet Dolores who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when she was 50 years old. A major factor in Dolores’ life has been learning to deal with her stress. But in the last couple of years, she has gained a better understanding of herself and has learned to say ‘no’. Today, she de-stresses with her new hobby, making quilts, which is her recipe for total relaxation.

DOLORES' STORY
Dolores, or Dee, as her friends and family call her, lives with her husband of fifty years in a green, clean and quiet neighbourhood in Columbus, New Jersey.

Dee was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when she was 50 years old.

So a major factor in Dee’s life with diabetes has been learning to deal with her stress. When her husband was 55, he suffered from a cardiac arrest and their lives were turned upside down. Dee had to help her husband with everything for a period of six months.

It was a very stressful time, where she put on weight and her diabetes numbers were high, and even when life returned to normal, stress was still a part of her life. “That’s what they tell you with diabetes. You have to control your stress levels and that’s very hard to do especially with three children and seven grandchildren, somebody is always doing something, you do the best you can.”

In the last couple of years, Dee has gained a better understanding of herself, as she puts it, and she has learned to say ‘no’. “For the longest time, I had a very hard time saying ‘no’. That created more stress than you can imagine. I always had that thought, if you say no they are not going to like you, and then it got to the point where I thought, wait a minute, what about me? I am not liking me very much, because half the time I am angry, because I am doing something I don’t want to do.”

Today Dee de-stresses with her new hobby, making quilts, which is her recipe for total relaxation. When somebody asks her a favour, she often answers, “No I am not doing that, I’d rather quilt”, and that gets me of the hook, she laughs.

Although more in balance than ever before, Dee needs to deal with failing to lose weight, “It’s just a constant daily struggle trying to do that. You gain two pounds, you lose three, and then all of a sudden you have a bad weekend and you gain five. I try, but at least I am trying not to put more on, and when I lose, I am very, very happy!”