Diabetes Books

This book can help many who are in need of getting back on track, or trying to begin a life of health as a diabetic. Laying out information that is simple and easily understood, her book also has a step-by-step plan to help even the most timid achieve success. This author has been recently nominated as Diabetic Educator of the Year, and for very good reason. Her knowledge and compassion is constant.

The thing that sets this book apart is the way the author breaks down her program into simple, easy-to-achieve steps that makes it easier to follow. Allowing everyone to make their own simple step-by-step promises to change the way they approach diabetes control makes it a lot easier. In the end you are more likely to achieve your goals, because you are making incremental changes over time, not one drastic change that you likely won't stick with. I also liked her web site, which has lots of support; others tell what promises they have made, and what worked and didn't work.

The book explores the various methods that may be used to treat the disease in a fairly nonjudgmental way. Some diabetes books focus on drugs while others focus on alternative methods. This book attempts to help you decide what is best for you in your individual case. The book may deserve to be in your diabetes book library.

Janis Roszler has written a masterpiece! So much useful information. It will serve as a fantastic guide to a healthy, happy life for all inexperienced diabetics. I have beed diabetic for 61 years and yet I found much useful information in this wonderful book. All diabetics should purchase this book and keep it close at hand. A MUST for every diabetic's library.

Richard Vaughn

I have her first book and it really helped me a lot and now with her second one, it is a new wonderful beginning! She is very wonderful/kind person and always there for you and her writting shows it in her books. I frequent her website and she will tell you straight up, just like her books. Excellent and knowledgable! Thanks Janis! Paula Nowicki

If you are in an environment, a workplace, a neighborhood or an ethnic group where diabetes is prevalent, you have to wonder how your own diabetes is connected to your community's epidemic. David Spero does a brilliant job of connecting the personal to the social. Among other things, I found this book very helpful in dealing with guilt. I didn't screw up and 'get' diabetes. I was given diabetes along with millions of people like me. This books gives diabetics and their care providers a program that takes in personal responsibility and strengthens it through social awareness and action. A real eye opener.

Genre: Health/Well-being

Title: Diabetes: Sugar-Coated Crisis

Author: David Spero, RN

"We are a product of our environment." How many times have we heard that cliché?
Anyone who reads or watches the news is aware of the catastrophic epidemic of Diabetes, especially Type 2 (T2D). Diabetes has increased by 400% in the last 30 years, to become the fourth leading cause of death in the US.
With concise, understandable facts, Diabetes is presented as a social disease, largely caused by the individuals loss of power, economically and personally. Food alone cannot be blamed, car travel instead of walking, sedentary jobs and increasingly high levels of stress are just a few facts to be aware of. Genetics and trauma that damages self-confidence has been proven not just individually based but on whole groups of people. Native Americans, African-Americans and other groups with historical trauma, pass the stress of grief, anger and fear down to the next generations as post-traumatic stress disorder.
The chapter, Diabetes 101 gives you basic knowledge of Diabetes itself. The body loses it's ability to breakdown carbohydrates into our primary source of energy, glucose. We produce a hormone from the pancreas called insulin which facilitates the entry of glucose into body cells. It becomes our fuel or if there is extra glucose, it is converted into fat. In Type 1 Diabetes, the pancreatic cells have been compromised and no longer produce insulin. In Type 2, insulin is still produced but the cells don't want any more so the glucose builds up in the blood stream. Refined sugar is an addictive drug because it raises the body's level of serotonin which fights depression and beta-endorphin which is our own natural version of opiate drugs. These two chemicals give you a sense of control and calm therefore we crave sugar, "comfort foods."
Our society is high in sugar and stress, low in social support and opportunities to exercise. Unfortunately, medical systems focus on genetics, biochemistry and drug therapy. Governments spend billions on researching cures when the money would be better spent on education and prevention.
David Spero, RN is an author who has gone to great lengths to educate his readers and provides a valuable self-care chapter and resource guide. While reading, you actually feel like he is sitting beside you, coaching the need to survive. He believes that by becoming more active, eating healthier, well balanced with relaxation, your self-esteem and self-empowerment will rise, ultimately creating better quality of life.
I highly recommend everyone read this enlightening book. Reviewer: Cheryl Ellis, Allbooks Review.

In my spare time this week I read a couple of books. Both books are about diabetes. Both are new and both are very well written. But that is where the similarities end.

The first of these books left me feeling that having diabetes was hopeless. So hopeless, in fact, that I despaired that my articles could make a difference in the lives of any but the most motivated readers. And perhaps not even for them.

It is unheard of to review a book and not even mention its title. But I won't oblige. Any publicity is good publicity, and I wouldn't be doing anyone a favor by leading them to the first book.

The second book could not have been a better antidote to the depression that the first book caused. This book does start out by describing how this society's environment and the ensuing stress leads many of us into diabetes.

It notes the conventional wisdom that our genes or our bad behavior or a combination of the two causes our type 2 diabetes. Either we are doing something wrong or there's something wrong with us. It's blame-the-victim time.

But this book shows how type 2 diabetes is much more of a social disease than a medical one. The truth is that the disease is inherent in the society that surrounds us.

"The environment is set up to make people sick," the book says. "It's toxically high in sugar and stress and low in social support, opportunities to exercise, or to feel good about ourselves."

If it stopped there, this book might be almost as pessimistic as the first. But after brilliantly setting out the problem, the bulk of the book in fact deals with the solution.

Since diabetes is a social disease, the solution must be a social one. Not a medical solution, since medicine itself in embedded in the society.

We can get healthier by joining forces to change our environment. We start by building our personal power - increasing our self-confidence and our self-esteem, setting positive goals, and giving ourselves reasons to live.

Then we build social power. We do this by working together. Only then can we change our environment.

This second book brought to my attention one of the most remarkable scientific studies of diabetes empowerment. The study is set among the Pima Indians of Arizona, who have perhaps the highest rate of diabetes of any group in the world and certainly have the highest rate of diabetes in America.

The scientists set out to compare a structured program of exercise and nutrition interventions - which they labeled Pima Action - with unstructured activities emphasizing Pima history and culture - Pima Pride. Those in the Pima Pride group got a more positive sense of themselves.

The scientists planned Pima Pride as a sort of control group. Fortunately, they had a real control group in those who declined to join either Pima Action or Pima Pride.

It was fortunate that they had this third non-participatory group as a control because the results shocked the scientists. After 18 months, the Pima Pride group had better results than the Pima Action group in everything they measured - weight, blood glucose control, waist size. But those who didn't participate were worse off than either group. This showed that exercise and nutrition does help, but self-confidence and self-esteem helps even more.

There aren't many studies as good as this Pima one. But there are many heros working to empower small groups of us all around the country.

The author of this book, David Spero, has met with these groups and their leaders, including America Bracho, an M.D. from Venezuela at Latino Health Access in Santa Ana, California, and Kate Lorig, a researcher and health educator at Stanford University, who started the Arthritis Self-Management Program.

The arthritis program started a revolution by using lay leaders instead of health professionals to deal with chronic illness. Those who participated in this program exercised more, felt better, and were hospitalized less than the control group.

Arthritis, like diabetes, is a chronic condition. The author of the second book that I read this week, David Spero, doesn't have either illness. But for the past 25 years he has lived with an even more devastating chronic illness - multiple sclerosis. He has been a nurse for 32 years.

Since writing his first book, The Art of Getting Well: Maximizing Health When You Have a Chronic Illness (Hulter House, 2002), David Spero has led self-management and wellness groups for patients and has trained health care providers in the U.S. and Europe.

I'm still not going to tell you the name of the depressing book that I read first this week. Just as we are all better off by staying away from negative people as much as our work allows, we need to avoid negative books as much as possible.

But I have waited until now to tell you the title of David Spero's new book. I wanted to tell you what it was about before I told you what it's called, because I think that its name is misleading, with an emphasis that doesn't reflect its contents.

Its title is Diabetes: Sugar-Coated Crisis: Who Gets It, Who Profits and How to Stop It. New Society published this 222-page paperback for $16.95 this month. The ISBN 13 is 978-0-86571-567-7; the ISBN 10 is 0-86571-567-X. In spite of the title, this is a great book.

This is a wonderful book! I have never read anything like it. It's part self-help guide, part social criticism, part strategy for social change. In discussing causes and solutions to the diabetes crisis, Spero shows the connections of health issues, not only with emotional wellbeing--what is usually called a holistic approach--but also with family, community, politics, social power, and social justice. And he does all of this in a gentle, caring, humorous, and down-to-earth voice that makes you feel like he's sitting in your kitchen talking to you, and that he really cares about and respects you. He attacks our culture's blame-the-victim explanations for overweight and diabetes, showing how the stresses of social injustice, isolation, and materialism--as well as environments that make exercise difficult and unhealthy food readily available--contribute to disease. But the best part is his discussion of steps people can take toward self-care and empowerment, on an individual, group, community, and societal level. He includes dozens of inspiring stories of how ordinary people--both people with diabetes and health professionals--are building new, more effective ways to promote personal and community wellness. All of this is supported by clearly presented scientific evidence--- including numerous studies showing that personal and group empowerment produce better clinical results in controlling diabetes than medication! Anyone who cares about healing and wellness on an individual, community, or societal level will love this book!

I just finished reading this book -- in one sitting, mind you, and
that's saying a lot for somebody who doesn't have diabetes and hasn't had an
overwhelming interest in chronic disease. But it's a good & compelling
read. For instance, how can you resist little tidbits like the fact
that dinosaurs have arthritis, or that Cubans have the same life expectancy
as Americans with only 4% the health care outlay.....

Any writer on the diabetes epidemic might easily fall into one of two
errors: either growing paranoid and hateful toward the power structures
that support the epidemic, or else downplaying the contributing social,
political & economic outrages. I thought Spero did a great & graceful
job in balancing between the two -- painting a very full picture, without
getting stuck in blame or hatred.

Especially liked the tone of the ending, positive without any trace of
smarm.

It must be hard to write a book for everybody -- individuals with the
disease as well as health care workers, policy people, community
organizers -- but Spero has probably done that as well as it could be
done.

I suspect this book has the power to change a lot of lives. It could be
a classic.

I got diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 2 months ago. I wanted to know more about diabetes so I got this book. It's very informative on what diabetes is(very detailed) It's written in a clear manner. It has information on how the different diabetes medications work, it has a nutrient counter(which basically tells you how much carbs are in certain foods which is good to know), the complications that might happen if you don't get your glucose under control, why you must test frequently, and of course recipes. If you buy one book to help you understand being a diabetic chose this one!! It's the best one I've seen so far. I gave this book 4 stars because on pg. 73 it says this"To know what food causes your glucose to rise eat what you want, in whatever amount you desire." This is not good advice because if I did this my glucose would be over the 200 range. But still all in all it's a great book and I'm glad I bought it.
If you are looking for easy diabetic recipes I really like Dawn Hall's Busy People's Diabetic Cookbook. The recipes are really good.

You must check out this book I know the Doc . When I went to see him at his office he told to get the book and where to find it and how much. they ( the doc,s do not get the cash) and it is so cheap it's one of the best buys I have. So give a shot you may save you own life it help me :)

This book The Diabetic Bible has so much useful information for everyone with diabetes and their families too. It is written very well for the average non medical person to understand and it even has colored pictures in the recipe section.
Just wonderful,
Chris Lewis

I got this book as a present when I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and I have found the information in there invaluable. It is easy to understand, well written for the lay person and most of all has simply awesome recipes in it.

I have had friend and family diagnosed after I was and I have gotten each of them this book. Make a great beginning to any diabetic library.

My mother was just diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and she had a million questions which I couldn't seem to find sufficient answers to on-line. I purchased this book and she's been reading it for the past week and says it has answered every question she had about diabetes and how she should be eating. She's going to be talking to a dietitian soon and wanted to have a general understanding of the disease. She highly recommends this book to anyone with diabetes.

This is so easy to fit into my busy schedule. I expected to see huge rules and regulatios and do's and mostly don'ts. But I found that it seemed to be written just for me. It is so easy to incoporate into my life and so easy to keep in mind. Great book. Highly recommended -- especially if you are struggling to keep your weight down.

This book was recommended by my endocrinologist. It explains everything in an easy to read and understand manner. Just where I had questions was an answer that appeared to be waiting for me!!

I used to be an overweight kid who used to eat lots of fast food all the time.
I bought this book. and have been using this book for a while. I have lost lots of weight and have changed my eating habits too!
it changed my entire life!

This book works! The advice is sound and simple. Put it to the test and you will note be disappointed. Through daily excersize and cutting back on portion size, I have lost over 25 pounds!

Jo Ann Hattner (national media spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association), Ann M. Coulston (1998-99 past president of the American Dietetic Association); and Mike Goodkind (former Associated Press writer and editor at the Stanford University Medical Center for more than twenty years) successfully collaborated to write Help! My Underwear Is Shrinking!, which is a quite straightforward, "reader friendly" instructional guide especially intended for diabetics on the critically important subject of weight-management and good nutrition. Personal testimony; advice on working exercise into one's daily routine; tips, tricks, and techniques for maintaining healthy eating habits in all social settings, and much, much more fill the pages of this excellent guide which is very highly recommended reading for anyone with diabetes or a family history of diabetes.

The author has done a wonderful job conveying a complex set of issues in a user friendly manner. This killer disease is the subject of intense research and it was good to get an up to date perspective on the topic. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in being empowered on the subject.

Excellent! Up-to-date information in understandable terms! The new edition of Hepatitis C, The Silent Epidemic gives basic explanations and also features recent breakthroughs in the use of PEG Interferon treatments. This paperback brings valuable and hopeful news!

This book let me finally understand where my doctor was coming from. I read the book three times, I found it so useful. Being able to understand both the potential dangers that lie ahead and how to avoid them has made me a stronger person as I confront this disease. I have read several other books on hepatitis C, and I liked this one the best. I really liked learning about the PEGYLATED Interferons as well as the safe use of alternative antioxidant treatments along with the ones my doctor is prescribing. This book seems really up to date. I am pumped about it.

A non-technical, easy to read approach. Short chapters cover the realm of topics and FAQ's. This may not be the only book you read if you want an in depth knowledge of the disease but it is excelent starter book. The information is current and timely. Timely information is important on this subject.

This book reads like a conversation with a concerned, experienced and optimistic doctor! It describes Hepatitis C and its life threatening effects with the sincereintention of making the public "...aware of the potential danger lurking within thelivers of so many unsuspecting Americans..." For those of us who may already beinfected, it gives easy-to-use tables listing diagnostic tests, people who should be screened, treatment side effects, and more. In addition, there is understandableinformation about everything from the newest research to alcohol consumption, to nutrition, and even to "alternative medicine" discussion. If you have Hepatitis C,if you think you may have Hepatitis C, if you are thinking about getting a tattoo,this is the book you've been looking for!

This was a great book. My only wish is that I would have found it 2 years ago when my son was diagnosed. This is a book that is written for "normal" families that have been attacked by this stupid disease known as Type 1 diabetes. I will recommend it to anyone I come into contact that has a newly diagnesed child. Thank you for writing this book.

The first exposure I had to the Loy family was when I read the book "Getting a Grip on Diabetes" written by this author's two sons who were both diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when they were six and seven. They mentioned in their book that their mother had also written a book, and I couldn't wait to read about living with diabetes from her perspective. I was not disappointed! Her writing style is so conversational and easy to understand. It was nice to read about how she and her family dealt with different aspects of parenting kids with diabetes. My 13-year-old son was just diagnosed three months ago, so this book helped me to get more comfortable with our new life with diabetes. I thoroughly recommend reading this book.

I have read quite a few books on Type I Diabetes since my now-10-year-old son was diagnosed 5 years ago. This book and the one by Ms. Loy's sons, Getting a Grip on Diabetes, are by far the best ones I have read. Helpful information in a readable form with suggestions that are easily incorporated in to anyone's life. This is the book I have shared with friends who have had children diagnosed with diabetes.

When my 4 1/2yr old was diagnosed in 2002, I was so scared that the fun part of his life was over. I bought 10 books & decided to read this one first. I was so happy & relieved to read about this great woman's calm approach to her boys diabetes. Both of her boys were diagnosed before 7 & continued on to do great things with their lives. This is a must read, it will relieve some of your worries & give you hope that life does go on & your child WILL be just fine.

When my daughter was diagnosed with diabetes last May, our dietician lent me a copy of this book--it helped me so much! I didn't know anything about diabetes at the time and was frightened out of my mind! Ms. Loy has so many fantastic coping ideas--I've put many to use--this book is a wonderful tool--especially for parents of newly diagnosed children.

Laurence has taken an extremely complicated subject and not only brought it to a level that is incredible understandable, but his approach is so practical that not adopting this lifestyle simply doesn't make good sense.

Provides great insight into what it means to be diabetic. I have a much better understanding of the challenges my diabetic friends face.

I just finished reading the book. Most impressive to me was how all the available information about diabetes is compresseed into an accessible and easy to understand book. The author provides profound insight into what's really going on, convincing me to curtail my consumption of carbohydrates and change my lifestyle.

Laurence takes all the available information about diabetes and compresses it into an accessible, easy to understand, actionable plan.

In addition, he provides the holistic information that everyone, diabetic or not, needs to grow psychologically, through different phases of the human life cycle. I have incorporated much of what I learned into my daily nutrition plan.

Excellent read!

I've read "Thrive With Diabetes" more than once and found it to be extremely educational for diabetics - a REAL EYE OPENER!

Mr. Chalem touched upon important points that you'll have to read in order to live long and healthy especially if you're diabetic (or in the author's words: "a member of the club").

"Thrive With Diabetes" is a must read for diabetics but good read for everyone else because it contains a lot of practical life lessons to be learned.

Be MORE AWARE (don't inadvertently self destruct your health from insufficient knowledge/advice) and be MORE ENLIGHTENED. A must read!

A good book for anyone interested in self-help, or positive thinking. You have to take the journey, but not alone. This book can serve as a partner to you - through your own self-discovery of your life and diabetes.

You will find both this book
and it's new revised edition to
be helpful long-term.

This is the type of book on diabetes
you will want to keep on your book shelf or
bedside table and refer to for many years.

It is also an excellant book for those
who do not suffer from diabetes, but who have friends or family who do,
and want to learn more about the disease for themselves.

This is an excellent book for diabetics, no matter what type. Gives hints to control diabetes, importance of testing, controlling stress, things to look out for, complications. Dr. Juliano writes a compelling book on the disease and give pointers on how to live a normal, healthy life, without complications. I am diabetic, and highly recommend this book. I hope too, that Dr. Juliano re-issues this book. It is a keeper.

An endocrinologist and research scientist and juvenile-onset diabetic for (more than) thirty years, blind as a result of the disease, Joseph Juliano knows what he is talking about. Denial, he writes, is common. There's no cure for diabetes now and it is folly to pretend that diabetes will have not effect on the diabetic's life. His strength is getting the diabetic involved in managing the disease and living with it. This he accomplishes with authority and sensitivity.

Dimensions in time flutter and waiver,
to the majestic sympathic algorythyms of reality.
But what of this time
This time of now
This time of you
This time of me
This dimension in time of you and me.
Oh brutal reality oh exquisite fantasies,
Permutations beyond glass rainbows abound.
Cry out to me not softly your dreams.
Thinsil thin glass surrounds a framework of heavy metal
as I look into her soul to witness synchronistic chromatic colors.
Spring forth oh beautiful glass butterly
and as you take on life's blood flow
emerge into the aura and redefine
the colors of rainbows in the dark for him.

28 Days to Diabetes Control is a great way to learn more about diabetes and get a handle on your own diabetes as well. Lance has illustrated the importance of diabetes and how one should go about dealing with every-day situations. Wheather you are recently diagnosed or someone that has been living with this disease, it is an excellent guide book to gaining better control of your diabetes (Type 1 or 2). I am impressed with the broad range of topics covered throughout the book to help with the success of better diabetes management. If you have not read this book, go out and get a copy. You won't be dissapointed !!

I have Diabetes type II and was lucky enough to get this book, I followed the instructions to the letter, step by step and from the very first week I could tell that it was working.
I felt better physically and mentally, more alert. Slept better, my glucose level was getting better.
When I started the prgram I was taking Glucophage and Avandia, by the 18th day I no longer needed Avandia, my daily blood glucose average was 121 the highest with the 94 the lowest ( when watching my carb intake).

I got to the point that I cut the half the daily dose of Glucophage.
Commitment is the key, reading the book is not enough, you have to decide to DO as the book says.!! Getting into this program is one of the bets things that ever happened to me.

A must have for anyone with diabetes! Lance Porter gives you the tools to be successful at maintaining a healthy blood glucose level.

Lance Porter has put together one of the most useful "self help"

books to come down the pike in a long time. With this book

whether you are a diabetic or someone who knows a diabetic you

will find answers to a lot of questions about the disease and

plenty of ways to help gain control of it! One of the things

Lance does in this book is to remind the reader that maintaining

a postive outlook on things will go a long way to help you

get your life together after the diagnosis of diabetes has

knocked it apart. This book can also be of much help to those

who might be at risk of developing the disease too. Who knows

if you read this book and follow its precepts you might ever be

able to keep yourself from getting diabetes. This book is also

a great way for the people in your life who are trying to

understand what you are living with and going through each day

with diabetes to learn how to help you with it. This book is

a must for all diabetics and those who care about them. I know

because I am on of the many Type 2 Diabetics out there, and this

book has been a " Godsend" to me and mine. Bravo Lance Porter!!!!

When I first read this book my diabetes was totally out of control. This book explained a lot about diabetes that I didn't know. I took the 28 day challenge and changed my life. I lost 14lbs also. Thank You! Mr. Porter for this life saving book!

I don't have diabetes, but I found this book to be humorous, informative and most of all, inspirational. The illustrations are quite charming.
If you want to feel good about yourself, buy this book!

What a wonderful little ode to self-acceptance and motivation! Like a skilled quilter, Riva Greenberg has somehow managed to patch together poetry, self-help, and diabetes advice into an irresistible pattern. Some may find it sappy and old-fashioned, but isn't that exactly the charm of a well-made quilt? This book will refresh your diabetic spirit.

-- AmyT of [...]

Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes: 5 Essential Health Factors You Can Master to Enjoy a Long and Healthy Life (Marlowe Diabetes Library)

With this small, adorably illustrated paperback, Riva Greenberg has created a joyful field guide for living with diabetes. You can't read it without feeling uplifted. For anyone struggling to cope with all the hassles of this disease, here's a prescription: Read this book, and repeat as often as necessary.

I hope this book finds its way into your hands if you are struggling with your diabetes or just need a boost now and then. This book introduces a new approach to diabetes management - it coaches you to improve your management through using your own positive emotions. I know the power of this approach from my own personal experience and coaching others. I wrote this book because I wish you to have the life that you deserve, fun, full and rich, even with diabetes, and I know that you can. From each book sold a significant contribution will be donated to Diabetes Research Institute, a world-leading cure-focused institute seeking a cure for diabetes. That is why this book costs what it does.

I have learned a lot through the years about how to manage my diabetes: what to eat, the importance of exercise, carb-counting, checking my blood sugars, but that all felt like work. Lots of work. Today I still do these things of course, but I do them with a profoundly different attitude; rather than seeing them as work I focus on what they give me - energy, strength, good health, the rewards of how brave and powerful I am and pride in meeting the demands of diabetes, face-to-face day after day, joyfully.

I have learned to be patient, kind and forgiving with myself and manage my diabetes from a place of love, courage, kindness and appreciation for all my blessings. By focusing on these emotions, they grow in your life and you end up infusing your day with greater happiness. When the quality of your day changes, your life changes.

I wrote this book for my fellow diabetics and for health care providers, so that they will better understand, coach and counsel patients. Here are some comments from diabetes educators who have read the book, "It was magical to read "The ABCs," it brought tears to my eyes so many times! I will be recommending this book to so many of my patients with diabetes - young, old, parents and fellow professionals." Another, "What a delightful book. I enjoyed all of it and found gems of insight, observation and wisdom for people to consider, savor, and act on. Reading this book is a bit like taking small, regular doses of healing and inspiration." And finally, "At my work I see mostly type 2 patients. When they hear their diagnose I give them education about lifestyle, medication, teach them to control their blood sugar and to inject insulin. We also talk about the emotional side of diabetes, but now that I am reading your book I know it is not as much as it should be. Diabetes is much more than the blood sugars, blood pressures and weight control. My colleagues also want to read your book. I hope we will all use your vision and tools to help our patients."

These words are my gift. I hope you give yourself the gift of better management through your own positive emotions as this book will coach you to do. I wrote this book so that you can live happier and healthier - and create the life you want - not despite diabetes, but because of diabetes. That's my wish for you.

Often times those of us with diabetes follow the rules of good diabetes care all the while gritting our teeth. We often put managing the disease before "loving" ourselves and become angry, stressed, and a real pain to others and to ourselves. Riva's book reminds us that we came first and that managing this disease should not crowd out the joy of living. Her warm and inviting illustrations bring a smile to the face and joy to the heart. Thank you, Riva