Articles by Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE

Growing Older

Has anyone ever said to you, “Don’t worry, diabetes isn’t very serious for older people?” Although they may be trying to make you feel better, it isn’t very good advice. Most people not only want to live long but they want to live well. Taking care of your diabetes and [...]

Planning For The Golden Years

When people reach middle age, they often think about how to spend their Golden Years. Most of us picture those years as a time when we get to do all the things we enjoy but don’t have time to do when work, family and other day-to-day tasks keep us busy. Planning for your Golden Years is something [...]

What are Diuretics and How Do They Lower Your Blood Pressure?

There are several kinds of medicines that help to lower blood pressure. One category of medicine that some people with diabetes take to lower blood pressure is called diuretics. These are commonly called “water pills” because they help the body eliminate extra salt and water through the urine. [...]

Diabetes and Your Eyes: What You Should Know About Protecting Your Vision

One of the biggest fears among people with diabetes is losing their eyesight. While it is true that diabetes is still a leading cause of blindness, it happens much less often than it did in the past. It is less common because we know more about prevention, it can be detected earlier and the treatments work better than they did before. [...]

Heart Disease and Your Emotions

You have probably seen it in a movie or on TV: someone gets very angry and suddenly has a heart attack. While it makes a great story, the real-life impact of emotional distress on your heart is usually not so sudden or dramatic. But stress can have a dramatic effect on your heart and blood vessels. [...]

Make the Link to Better Heart Health

The leading cause of death among people with diabetes is heart disease. We have known for a long time that keeping blood glucose and blood pressure levels close to normal lowers the risk of complications in the small blood vessels of the eyes and kidneys. Until recently, nobody knew if high blood [...]

Are Men Different From Women When it Comes to Heart Disease and Diabetes?

Heart disease is the number.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 both have increased risk of getting heart disease, they are different in some important ways: [...]

Diabetes And Your Bones

You are probably aware of possible long-term complications of diabetes: heart disease and eye, kidney and nerve damage. But you may not be aware that diabetes can increase your risk for Osteoporosis and fractures—especially as you get older. [...]

Blood Glucose And Your Brain

Most of us don’t think much about our brains: we count on it to do the thinking for us. But new research is helping us understand more about the effects diabetes might have on your brain. [...]

Patient Engagement

If you have diabetes or love someone who does, you are already involved in the day-to-day care of this condition. There is no way to avoid being in charge of your diabetes as you make choices, take medicines and keep track of your blood glucose readings. But as the Affordable Care Act is put into place, you may hear the phrase patient engagement. [...]

Making Sense of Meds

Many people do not fully understand what the instructions on their medicine bottles mean. They often take medicines more times per day than needed. Most people find that the more often they have to remember to take their medicines, the easier it is to forget. So what can you do? This article [...]

Break the Stress-Eating Cycle

Has this ever happened to you: You are using  your meal plan and keeping your blood glucose levels in the target range. Just when you feel you have it all under control, something happens to stress you out. Almost without thinking, you  reach for  your favorite comfort food. You feel better [...]

The Skinny On Weight Loss

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 [...]

Diabetes Q&A

This Q & A article answers some of the more-commonly asked questions on Diabetes today. Some of the questions answered are: Why is diabetes so  common today? What is prediabetes? Is type 2 more serious  than type 1 diabetes? If nobody in my family has diabetes, why did  I get it? To get [...]

Diet Soda And Diabetes

You may have heard about recent studies showing that people who drink diet soft drinks 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 [...]

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Articles by Martha Funnell, MS, RN, CDE

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