Articles by Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE

Solving The Blood Glucose Mystery

By Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE
One of the keys to managing your blood glucose is to keep everything in balance: your food, your activity, your medicines and your stress level. When you check your blood glucose levels, you can see how all of these things are balancing out and how all of your hard work is paying off.

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November 20, 2016

Keeping Cool

By Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE
As winter ends, the longer days and the appeal of sunshine motivates many people to spend more time outside and to become more active. If you have diabetes, being more active can make it easier to keep your blood glucose levels in your target range. But as with so many things in diabetes, you do need to take care to protect yourself— especially on very warm days and when it is humid. If you are traveling this summer, you also need to make plans to keep your medicines and other supplies safe.

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November 20, 2016

Heart Health Making Every Effort Count

By Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE
If you want to do all you can to keep your blood pressure and cholesterol numbers in your target range, where do you start and what can you do?

There are many things you can do to help manage your blood pressure and cholesterol at the same time. Knowing what will give you the most benefit can help you decide where to put your efforts.

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November 20, 2016

The Skinny On Weight Loss

By Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE
When you start to lose weight, you lose some of your stored fat. That may seem like a good thing to you, but your body doesn’t always agree. We used to think fat just sat in your body and did nothing. But we now know that is not true. The fat you store makes hormones that help control your weight and hunger.

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November 12, 2016

Pat Yourself On The Back

By Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE
Along with anger, fear and frustration, guilt is a common feeling among people with diabetes. No matter how much you do to care for yourself, it seems as if there is always more you could have done. After all, if you walked for 10 minutes, maybe you could have walked for 20. If you skipped dessert at dinner, maybe you should have skipped the bread, as well.

If you feel guilty, it can add to the stress you feel living with diabetes. It can also cause you to have very negative feelings about diabetes in general. Here are some ideas to help get off the guilt trip and feel better about your efforts and yourself.

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November 11, 2016

Making A Change

By Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE

Two things affect how we change: how we think and how we feel. Our thinking side—our “head”—is careful. It guides us with facts and reason. We think things through before making a move. Our feeling side— our “heart”—is quicker to act. When our head and heart agree, it is easier to make a change. For example, if you’re in love it is easy to choose to get married, even though this is a very big change. But when your head and heart send you different messages, it is harder to make changes —even when you really want to make them.

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November 10, 2016

Is Your TV Killing You?

By Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE
The next time you are watching your favorite police drama on TV, ask yourself who is the victim? According to a recent study, it may be you. The link with television viewing and health is getting a lot of attention lately, in part because of the growing problem of obesity and type 2 diabetes among adults and children in the United States. A recent report combining many of the best and newest studies on this topic, showed a very strong link between the amount of time spent watching TV and type 2 diabetes, heart disease and death.

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November 7, 2016

Heart Disease and Diabetes

By Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE
Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in both men and women, and people with diabetes are at a higher risk for heart disease than those without diabetes. Even though women and men with diabetes have the same risk of getting heart disease, women and men are different when it comes to heart disease and diabetes in some of the following ways...

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November 7, 2016

Expecting To Be Expecting?

By Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE
For most women, the idea of starting a family is both exciting and scary. It is exciting to think how you can create a new life and perhaps have a dream come true. It can also be a time of worry as you think about how your life will change. Women who have diabetes may also worry about how diabetes can affect their pregnancy and their future child. The good news is that more and more women with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are having safe pregnancies and healthy babies than ever before. As you might expect, it takes more planning and more work, but the results are worth it.

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November 7, 2016

Diet Soda and Diabetes

By Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE
You may have heard about recent studies showing that people who drink diet soda have a higher risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes than those who do not drink diet drinks. But in fact, researchers have not been able to say that the diet drinks are to blame. Most of those studies are observational, meaning they simply report what they observe. Observational studies are not designed to determine cause and effect. That requires a different kind of study.

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November 7, 2016

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Constance Brown-Riggs, MSEd, RD, CDE, CDN—an award-winning RD, certified diabetes educator, and past national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, is the author of The African American Guide to Living Well With Diabetes, which received the Favorably Reviewed designation from the American Association of Diabetes Educators, and Eating Soulfully and Healthfully with Diabetes.

Dr. Lori Shemek, PhD, CNC, CLC, the best-selling author of “Fire-Up Your Fat Burn! and leading health and weight loss expert, is also known as “The Inflammation Terminator.” She has made it her mission to educate the public on the toxic effects of certain foods and lifestyle choices and how they create inflammation in the body. She is a leading authority on inflammation and its role in weight loss, preventing disease and optimizing health.

Rebecca Bitzer – MS, RD/LD, CEDRD is an award-winning Registered Dietitian, writer, speaker, blogger, and REBEL Dietitian business owner. Rebecca and her team of six Registered Dietitians have counseled thousands of clients struggling with diabetes for over twenty-five years. They work closely with each other along with internists, endocrinologists, therapists, and families.

Maureen Sullivan – RN, CDE has worked for many years as a Registered Nurse, most of them in emergency and trauma services. She is a Certified Emergency Nurse, Certified Diabetes Educator, and the former manager of a hospital stroke program. Maureen’s wealth of knowledge, passion for nursing and education, and ability to engage people makes her an excellent teacher and a captivating lecturer. Recently, Maureen has been concentrating on writing, speaking and teaching, as well as working on her award-winning weekly podcast, “The Health and Humor Show.”

Lauren Harris-Pincus, MS, RDN is a nutrition communications specialist, registered dietitian in private practice, social media consultant, speaker, spokesperson and corporate consultant. She is currently the owner of Nutrition Starring YOU, LLC and www.NutritionStarringYOU.com. Lauren strongly believes that we should “Think Healthy, not Skinny”, and “EveryBODY is unique, your diet should be too”. Lauren was co-host of the Family Food Experts Kitchen radio show, available for listening on iHeart Radio and iTunes. Also known as one of the “NutritionBabes”, Lauren co-founded NutritionBabes.com, a popular Health and Wellness website in 2009. NutritionBabes.com was voted one of Healthline’s Top 100 Health Blogs in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Mark Heyman, PhD, CDE is a clinical health psychologist and the director of the Center for Diabetes and Mental Health (CDMH). In addition to treating patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, Dr. Heyman provides training for health care providers on how to identify and address the emotional and behavioral aspects of diabetes in their patients. He also works with pharmaceutical and medical device companies to help them understand these issues and incorporate this information into their sales, marketing, and patient education materials. He is particularly interested in empirically supported behavioral interventions that promote behavior change and improve physical and mental health in people with diabetes.

Katie Ferraro, MPH, RD, CDE is a nationally-recognized registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator and author with an expertise in nutrition communications and curriculum development. She is the co-author of “Diet Therapy in Advanced Practice Nursing” (McGraw Hill, 2014) and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Nutrition at the University of California San Francisco and University of San Diego’s graduate schools of nursing.

Dr. Beverly S. Adler, PhD, CDE (aka “Dr. Bev”) is a clinical psychologist and certified diabetes educator, author and speaker. She specializes treating the emotional issues of people with diabetes. In her private practice, she provides individual, family and/or group therapy utilizing a cognitive behavior therapy orientation, combined with a spiritual approach. Her goal is to empower her patients to manage their diabetes.

Dr. Bev is the author of two self-help diabetes books. She has written numerous articles which are published in print and online – always focused on diabetes from the emotional perspective. She also speaks to audiences of people living with diabetes, as well as, to audiences of healthcare professionals and diabetes educators. Dr. Bev, herself, has been living successfully with type 1 diabetes for 40+ years.

In August 2016, Dr. Bev was honored to receive the “CDE Entrepreneur of the Year” Award from her Metropolitan NY Association of Diabetes Educators.

Jill Weisenberger, MS, RDN, CDE, FAND is an internationally recognized nutrition and diabetes expert with more than two decades experience. Through writing, speaking and one-on-one coaching, Jill empowers people to grab control of their health. She has worked as both a nutrition counselor and a diabetes educator in the hospital and research settings, and now in private practice in Newport News, VA. Jill is known for her practical approach and caring attitude. Her no-nonsense strategies to eating well include foods that both taste good and are good for you.

Marlene Koch (pronounced ‘cook’) is a nationally recognized nutritionist, popular TV personality and New York Times bestselling author. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from UCLA with a Bachelor’s degree in Nutritional Science. She is a registered dietitian and one of a select group of dietitians to hold an advanced certificate in Child and Adolescent Weight Management from the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics.

Marlene has taught professional chefs from the American Culinary Federation the principles of healthy cooking and eating. She has been adjunct Nutrition professor and cooking instructor for Columbus State College and the Columbus State Culinary Academy, and she is a nationally recognized expert in weight loss, diabetes, child and adolescent nutrition, and sugar substitutes.

Marlene has sold over one million cookbooks, and is a regular guest on QVC.

Barbara Ruhs – MS, RDN is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and owner of Neighborhood Nutrition LLC, a consulting firm focused on providing solutions to help food companies and supermarkets improve consumer health & wellness. She’s a former supermarket dietitian and has run a successful business for 17 years. A leader in the field of nutrition, her mission is to help people by impacting the way food is produced, marketed and sold. She’s a strong advocate for supermarket dietitians and believes the retail food industry has the greatest potential to impact public health.

Cheryl Orlansky has over 25 years of experience in health promotion and chronic disease prevention and management. Her first career as a registered dental hygienist led her towards a path of wellness and nutrition! Her expertise is in diabetes, weight management and cardiovascular disease for individuals and groups. She works in a large private practice including endocrinology, internal medicine, rheumatology, neurology and sleep medicine. She is an award winning dietitian with current leadership positions in state and local dietetics organizations.

She has been interviewed and quoted in media outlets for WebMD, Atlanta Sports and Fitness, Georgia Public Broadcasting, and the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. She has partnered with V-103 Radio to lead supermarket tours as part of a community outreach during National Nutrition Month.

Cheryl helps her clients reach balance through lifestyle choices: cooking and eating, activity and purpose in life.

Jackie Newgent, RDN, CDN, is a registered dietitian nutritionist and classically-trained chef. With a passion for helping people (including her father) with diabetes, she’s author of The With or Without Meat Cookbook: The Flexible Approach to Flavorful Diabetes Cooking and the award-winning The All‐Natural Diabetes Cookbook, both published by the American Diabetes Association. Jackie is also author of 1,000 Low-Calorie Recipes and Big Green Cookbook. Her next book, The All-Natural Diabetes Cookbook—2nd Edition, was published in 2015.

Nutritionist Rania Batayneh, MPH is the author of the best-selling book, The One One One Diet. She holds a master’s degree in public health nutrition from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and is also a Wellcoaches Certified Health and Wellness Coach endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

OmnichannelHealth Media, publisher of DiabetesDigest.com, does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.