Steering Diabetes Patients Through the Sweetest Season

November ushers in American Diabetes Month – not only a time to be thankful for bustling basic and clinical research underway on the disease, but also the unofficial start of the holiday season. Between now and New Year’s, people with diabetes must navigate a tempting course of sugar-centric festivities, maintaining a delicate nutritional balance against all odds.

“It’s possible,” said Nicholas Jospe, M.D., chief of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s (URMC) Golisano Children’s Hospital. “This is the time of year where we’re assaulted by sugar, but with careful attention, people with diabetes can uphold good habits.”

Nearly eight percent of the population – or 23.6 million adults and children – have diabetes, a metabolic disease in which the body struggles to move simple sugars from the blood stream to feed cells. Since these people either make little or no insulin (type 1), or have become resistant to their own insulin (type 2), the hormone that assists this sugar transfer, they must take it in the form of daily injections and vigilantly monitor blood-sugar levels. When these numbers drop, diabetes patients feel dizzy, start shaking, and even experience confusion; on the other extreme, maintaining elevated levels ups their risk for severe complications like cardiovascular disease, nerve damage, kidney disease and blindness.

Having seen Rochester’s rate of annual type 1 diagnoses more than triple in the past two decades (climbing from 25 to 80 new cases each year), Jospe dedicates time to clinical research. Locally, he partners with URMC’s Autoimmunity Center of Excellence (ACE), one of nine national centers funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease to conduct basic research on autoimmune diseases like lupus, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes (in this type, the body produces antibodies which indicate ongoing destruction of its own insulin-producing cells). He also participates as an investigator for TrialNet, an international, National Institutes of Health-funded project working to prevent, delay, and even reverse the progression of this type of diabetes.

“We’re uncovering clues, but frankly, the more we learn, the more complicated the disease seems,” Jospe said. “Fortunately, technological advances continue to turn out better management tools, like more user-friendly insulin pumps and blood-sugar meters. And, until research bears more fruit, there are plenty of tips and tricks that can help people with diabetes – even those without it – enjoy healthier holiday celebrations.”

Shift the focus from food

Sugar isn’t necessarily bad – it just has to be managed, Jospe said. Still, treats can eclipse other aspects of the season, so be sure to plan some more active traditions – like caroling, sledding, skating, decorating and shopping – which put the spotlight on friends and family, not just food.

Bake decorations