Diabetes

Back in the Saddle... again

Bill Sheldon — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:44:00 GMT

So with the arrival of Billy, my operation and work related activities to close out the second half of last year my biking has been almost non-existant. While I normally like to get around 2000 miles a year in, last year I got in ~700 - which is sad and not healthy. So it's time to start getting serious for this year, got my bike tuned up and a new chain and brake pads. I'm finishing up my work for Professional VB.NET 3.0 any day now and am starting to ride to and from work (a mere 8 miles each way). Of course as part of getting serious again there is that little concept of goals and I have mine. For starters although I took off last year for the birth of my son, I'll be back at the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure ride.

Consider this an open invite to join me on either this ride or the Encinitas ride I describe below it.

The San Diego Tour de Cure is May 12th this year, leaving from Cuyamaca College in East San Diego County. This ride is 10, 20, 30, 42 or 64 miles depending on the route you select. The longer 42 and 64 mile, routes involves some significant climbing up into the hills of East San Diego County. I'll be doing the metric century (64 miles ~100Kilometers) version of the ride again. It is a fund raising ride for the American Diabetes Association and my fund raising site is here: Click here to visit my Tour de Cure page.

for more information about the San Diego event you can go here: http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=4403

Back when I was first diagnosed with diabetes this ride was the both the reason I bought a road bike (in addition to my mountain bike) and the reason I upgraded that bike to have a triple front chain ring. As described on their site the ride is challenging. Given that I've regressed almost to the point where I was when I bought my bike I have my work cut out for me getting ready for this years ride.

In addition to that ride, this will be the inagural year for another ride here in San Diego County. The Encinitas Sports and Fitness Festival is launching a San Diego Century ride. The even has three ride lengths: 35, 72 and 105 miles that go through a portion of North San Diego County. This ride is scheduled for May 19th of this year and is a fund raiser for the Challenged Athletes Association.

More information on the event is here: http://www.encinitasrace.com/sdc/

The cost for the century ride is $50 on Active.com but I haven't decided if I want to take on the century ride for this event. I've done century rides in the past, and even difficult rides as this one looks to be. However the route that has been posted concerns me. Specifically it looks like you put in about 60 miles on a hilly course and then need to climb up into Ramona from just south of Poway. Thus the major climb occurs three/fifths of the way into the ride which is a challenge. Worse however is that this will probably hit between 11AM and 1PM for me (depending on start time and speed) and that means at the height of the day climbing during the heat of the day. I have to see if I am really willing to take this on so I'm going to hold off registering for this ride.

Bill finishing the Tour de Poway century ride....

As for Fall - well I'll be looking for another century ride - Poway at a minimum hopefully, but more importantly I'll be looking to climb Palomar Mountain again. I want to once again make it up without needing to stop during the 12 mile climb.

Feel free to join me for a ride.

Diabetes Breakthrough?

Bill Sheldon — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:50:00 GMT

Eventually this has the potential to be great news for literally hundreds of milliions of people. It's still a long way out but seems to be on the right track. It could bring about an end to two major and several minor charitable organizations and cure one of the most damaging diseases in terms of blindness and loss of limb that is out there.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=a042812e-492c-4f07-8245-8a598ab5d1bf&k=63970

Of course doctors/scientists and others have known for a while that inflamation in the pancreas and the destruction of the islets was the source of diabetes and we've seen several initially promissing studies which then failed to pan out. But as I've noted in the past, when researchers address the issue at it's source (the pancreas) they are in my opinion on the right track for a cure (as opposed to a treatment). By the way this study would in my opinion fit with an earlier summary that said extremely high doses of aspirin which adressed inflamation in the kidney/pancreas by blocking certain enzymes:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2001-08-30-aspirin.htm

and it fits with another old study which I unfortunately don't have a link to which talked about a similar path to a cure for diabetes.

Unfortunately just like the past stories there are still alot of questions and it's way too early in the process to really think this WILL end diabetes, but at least its another step in the process of finding a cure.

Red Wrist Bands

Bill Sheldon — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 20:08:00 GMT

Many of you may be familiar with the Yellow wristbands supported by Lance Armstrong's live strong foundation to support the fight against cancer. Some of you who know me may have noticed that I've transferred my yellow band to a red band... not that I'm particularly consistent on wearing any wristband, and nothing against cancer research. I have several family members (both living and deceased) touched by it.

The red wrist bands support Diabetes and are available from the American Diabetes Association. As most people know my wife Tracie and I are very involved in the fight against Diabetes (since I have Type 2 Diabetes). You can order the wrist bands online from the ADA at: http://store.diabetes.org/products/product_category.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302024093&bmUID=1123024922007 (Alternatively you can contact your local ADA office who can help you obtain a wrist band.)

They contain the ADA's message for Care-Cure-Committment since unlike many organizations the ADA isn't just out to find a cure, but also to ensure that the 18million or so Americans who have Diabetes (many similar to high blood pressure don't know it) learn to care for themselves. The ADA plays an important role in Diabetes education especially in those communities such as the Hispanic and Native American populations where incidence of this genetic disease is much higher.