The Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution

Book excerpt: The Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution is the first book to show how stress, depression, and anger affect blood sugar. It's also the first to provide a proven, step-by-step health program to help the millions of people with diabetes manage their disease. Until now, this life-changing program was available only to patients at Duke University Medical Center, but The Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution makes it available to everyone who needs it -- diabetic people and the millions at risk for developing the disease. Over the past forty years, little has changed in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Diet, exercise, and medication are still the three primary methods used to control blood sugar. Yet diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions not just in the United States, but also in other countries all over the world. Now, after twenty years of research, Dr. Richard S. Surwit -- a leader in the field of the psychology of diabetes -- adds the vital fourth component to treating diabetes: a revolutionary mind-body program that lowers blood sugar levels and dramatically reduces the disease's serious, damaging side effects, which can include painful nerve damage, heart disease, impotence, eye problems, and kidney ailments. The Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution explains how thoughts and beliefs influence a person's emotions and moods and shows how these can translate into chronic anger, cynicism, anxiety, and depression -- all of which increase your blood sugar level. But, with compelling case studies and a powerfully effective step-by-step six-week program, Dr. Surwit demonstrates how you can learn to manage the emotions and stress that lead to elevated hormones and higher blood sugar levels. After he explains the mind-metabolism connection so that you see how it works in your own body, Dr. Surwit provides self-tests and reflective quizzes to test your personality type and decide on the best -- and easiest -- psychological techniques to help you lower your blood sugar level, and keep it low. Then he helps you develop the best long-term mind-body program for your needs and shows how to use the planner to keep track of your progress. An invaluable aid to your overall well-being, The Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution helps you enlist your own mind and body as powerful allies in controlling your diabetes, and enjoy greater general health as a result.