Diabetes Forecast 2008

Diabetes Forecast turns 60 this year. As a part of the celebration, ADA is taking a look back at the progress in diabetes care throughout the decades. Each week, we will see what was new in diabetes at that time and meet a person who was diagnosed with diabetes during that decade. Read more about Forecast's beginnings in 1948.

Welcome to the new millennium!

The iPod is introduced. Airport security lines get longer. Going green becomes trendy. The July 2008 issue of Diabetes Forecast featured popstar group the Jonas Brothers and articles about withholding insulin as an eating disorder and helpful tips for your next pedicure.

Ina Beth Winer, Stoughton, Massachusetts
To learn more about having diabetes for ten or more years, we asked ADA's Diabetes World e-newsletter subscribers to share their stories with us. Ina Beth Winer is one of those readers.

I was diagnosed with diabetes on October 16, 2000. It wasn't a surprise. I had all the symptoms, I just didn't have the time to see my doctor.

I can say two words about having diabetes. It stinks. I am 48 years old, but my family and some friends treat me like I'm five years old. "You shouldn't eat this, you shouldn't eat that." Since someone's mother had diabetes 65 years ago, they think they know everything. But this is 2008. This is not your mother's diabetes.

Recently, I lost about 100 pounds on a diet. This diet is monitored by several medical professionals. Yet even on the diet, I often heard "you can really eat that"?

My husband and sons were 100% behind me on my diet and very supportive. My basset hound Copper was also supportive; she let me walk her every day for an hour. They say basset hounds are slow. Not this hound! She loves a nice walk. In fact, one time I had to bring Copper to the vet. The veterinarian mentioned that Copper had lost four pounds and asked what I did. I told him that I went on a diet and Copper helped!

My son Dan graduated high school this past June. I made him a graduation party at Town Spa in Stoughton, MA. On April 2, 2007, the day my diet began, I promised myself that I was going to enjoy pizza and chicken fingers at his graduation party. I did! I ate barbeque chicken and pineapple pizza with chicken fingers... in moderation, of course.