BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

I have suffered with this disease for 49 years. If you have questions, write me.

My father, of blessed memory, was a respected Lieutenant with the NY State Troopers. And a Type II Diabetic, as was his mother and her whole family. That said, he would never, ever have done this. It is so horrible when bad apples are encouraged to be worse... and below this I will tell you why I find this so personally scary. On the other hand, having given some seminars to law enforcement officers on the dynamics of domestic violence, I can say that many police officers do not get it about abuse (and don't seem to care, either). And they don't get how abusers can seem quite normal and even charming while they sit in a precinct office blaming their victims or even filing false charges to blame shift . In some cases, if an officer wasn't on one side of the bars, some would probably be on the other . That said, I still have high respect for police officers - many of whom do a difficult and often thankless job - day in and day out. Police cadets urged to go cau...

I have suffered with PCOS since 1966 and it has affected my physical and emotional health in ways too numerous to elaborate on on this blog. I have had 3 surgeries for PCOS consequences, including one just a few weeks ago. I was in my 40s when I finally found a doctor who "got it" and treated the disease, not just the symptoms. If you need to know more or need to find a doctor - please feel free to write to me. - Barbara If you have PCOS, you've probably heard that you have a much higher risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But what about cancer? Are you at risk? The relationship between PCOS and cancers in general is not completely clear, although women who are overweight are more likely to get some kind of cancer. Women who are infertile ( whether they have PCOS or not ) are more likely than fertile women to get a cancer of the reproductive system. The strongest link between a cancer and PCOS is endometrial cancer. A few studies have suggested a correlation ...

DIABULIMIA - A NEW DANGEROUS PRACTICE Some skipping insulin to slim down -- Practice results in grave diabetic complications earlier in life, expert warns Like many teenage girls, Lee Ann Thill was obsessed with her appearance. A diabetic, she was already suffering from bulimia — forcing herself to throw up to lose weight. But it wasn’t enough, and she’d recently put on 20 pounds. Then one day at a camp for diabetic teens, she heard counselors chew out two girls for practicing “diabulimia” — not taking their insulin so they could lose weight, one of the consequences of uncontrolled diabetes. Don’t you realize you could die if you skip your insulin? the counselor scolded. Don’t you know you could fall into a coma or damage your kidneys or your eyes? But that’s not what registered with Thill, who has type 1, or juvenile diabetes. Instead, she focused on this: Skipping insulin equals weight loss. For the next 17 years, diabulimia was her compulsion. “I took just enough insulin to function...