Blood Sugar 101

Hi! I'm Jenny Ruhl, the author of this web site. I started out as a software developer, but I have been writing books and magazine columns since the mid 1980s, as well as running several busy internet forums. I have also published five novels under a pen name some of which made their way onto the shelves of Walmart and onto Amazon genre bestseller lists.

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I was first diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in 1998.  After my diagnosis  I ate a very low carb diet for 7 years to control my blood sugar. Then, after learning I was actually insulin-sensitive, not insulin-resistant, I used fast-acting insulin at meals and upped my carb intake for another 4 years. That helped improve my control greatly. I now  can control with a carb-controlled, non-ketogenic diet alone. My A1c hovered between 5.7% and 6.0% until I reached my later 70s. It is now usually 6.1% to 6.3%.   

 

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Why I Created This Website

Back in 2004, I lost a lot of  weight that had come on very suddenly as my blood sugars worsened, using a very low carb diet. I also exercised daily for a year and got my body fat down to 24%, which put me into the "Fit" category for a woman my age. But despite what my doctors had told me, this weight loss and fitness regimen didn't do a thing for my blood sugars, which got worse. 

This raised my curiosity and I started tracking through the many research articles about diabetes available for free on the web. (Many of them, now, alas, are no longer free, but I was lucky that I started my research back in 2004 when they were.) 

Much of the information I found differed dramatically from what doctors were telling patients about what caused diabetes and how it should be treated.

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That research became the kernel of this web site. My goal was to answer these questions:

 

• What do scientists actually know about Type 2 diabetes?

 

• Why do doctors miss diabetes diagnoses until long after people already have diabetic complications?

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• What blood sugar levels are truly low enough to prevent further damage to the organs and beta cells? 

I learned where the current practice recommendations most doctors follow came from and why they are inadequate to protect people with diabetes from complications. Fortunately, I also found some very solid information about what blood sugar levels seem to be low enough to prevent complications. 

Since posting this information, I have heard from literally thousands of people who have found it useful. I have also written a book, Blood Sugar 101: What They Don't Tell You About Diabetes which presents the information you'll find scattered around this site in a clear, well-organized manner. That book, my bestseller in the health niche, is currently in its second edition (and third revision.) 

In 2017, I wrote a brand new book which supplements my bestseller and answers over 200 questions of the type that readers and site visitors have been emailing me over the years. That book is Your Diabetes Questions Answered.

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Please Read This Before Contacting Me

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I'm getting along in years now and have scaled way back on how much time I put into maintaining this site. I prefer to use my time for new projects. That means I have to be very selective about the emails that I answer. So before you send me a request, please read these guidelines and honor them.

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Since I'm not your doctor I can't answer specific questions about your medical condition or that of a family member. Please do not send me your blood sugar logs or any other personal medical information. Please do not ask me for a referral to a doctor or nutritionist or to help you with a diabetes-related lawsuit.

 

I never review products companies send me for free, so there's no point in emailing to ask me to review yours. I do not run any ads on this website except, at times, those for my own books. So please don't contact me asking me to run your ad. 

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Before you email me with a question, make sure it can't be answered by using The Google site search, which is found by clicking on the Menu Bar "Search" tab.

 

My latest book, Your Diabetes Questions Answered gives the answers to over 200 questions. These include many questions not addressed on this website. Please check the Table of Contents to see if your question has already been answered there. 

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You can reach me at this email: jruhl9999-d12@yahoo.com

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