The Smart Woman's Guide to Diabetes: Authentic Advice on Everything from Eating to Dating and Motherhood

by Amy Mercer

Of the 17 million Americans who have diabetes, approximately 9.3 of that number are women. And it appears that number of women with diabetes is increasing each year. Diabetes is particularly difficult for women in large part due to the hormonal changes associated with the menstrual cycle, changes that affect blood sugar levels. As a consequence women with diabetes have higher rates of chest pain, heart attack, coronary heart disease and stroke. And women with diabetes face special challenges. The Smart Woman's Guide to Diabetes provides advice, tips, and research from a diverse community of women living with diabetes. It provides practical insight and references for the optimal management of diabetes from women living with the disease as well as doctors, nurses, nutritionists, and educators. Personal anecdotes from nearly one hundred women throughout the book reveal both the good and the bad of living with diabetes, including the frustration, sense of shame, sense of isolation as well as the capacity for strength and the opportunity for growth. The Smart Woman's Guide to Diabetes lets you know that you are not alone but rather it will make you feel like you are sitting in your favorite coffee shop with your friends who share the same disease. Special Features of Smart Woman's Guide to Diabetes

Genres: Health

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2011

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had this book on hold from my library for the longest time hoping it would be a resource I would enjoy. I've had Type 1 diabetes for 15 years, and there's not a whole lot of information about the disease I haven't discovered first-hand through living it. But I still believe I have a long way to go before I can say I have complete control over this illness. I am always searching for new ideas, new research, new recipes, and new means of controlling blood sugars.

Unfortunately, this book didn't help me in the slightest. For something whose title includes the word guide, it was way off. This is basically nothing more than a collection of about a hundred or so women giving their personal experiences with diabetes. In all honesty, about 85% of the book is quoted. This made it very confusing to read. Each narrator was quoted multiple times, but introduced each time whether she had just been quoted on the last page or not. Quite frankly, it felt a bit all over the place. I also had a problem with the quotes themselves. I'm assuming these women were told they were being interviewed for a book, and many of the responses felt unauthentic and pretentious. As someone who has lived with this disease for 15 years, I do not believe anyone who says they have never gotten frustrated with the lifestyle changes one has to make in order to survive it. Claiming that you accept it as part of your life may hold a shred of truth, because I think many of us feel that way at times, but I cannot believe that anyone has never asked why or lost patience or just flat-out balled over this disease. Even the kindest, most patient diabetics I know would never insinuate that this huge lifestyle change that has claimed the lives of so many people was just something that never really crossed their minds. Give me a break. And on the other hand, there were women whose quoted answers seemed to be a non-stop pity party, which also annoyed me, because if the reader is a diabetic herself who picked this book up as a guide, chances are she doesn't want to read about all the ways other people found it made them miserable. There should be a balance, and there wasn't. Definitely wouldn't recommend this to anyone expecting actual advice on the subject.

[Julie Bestry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine if you woke up one day and were diagnosed with a disease you knew almost nothing about. If you were brusquely (or even kindly) given advice from physicians, nurses and diabetes educators, but your awareness of diabetes was still mostly limited to drug commercials and ads with Wilford Brimley, and scary things you'd seen on Lifetime Television for Women, or, if you're a little older, the worrying story of teenage Nina Cortland on 1970's era All My Children? What would you do to get control of your fear?

You'd pick up Amy Stockwell Mercer's The Smart Woman's Guide to Diabetes and read it in one long sitting. And then probably start over at the beginning.

Mercer combines her own life narratives with those of multiple women in various walks of life to portray a richly textured and encouraging picture of a better way. Neither Mercer nor her contributors ever sugar-coat things, but in sharing personal advice, warm wisdom and realistic anecdotes, along with Mercer's well-researched journalistic approach to medicine, the reader feels like she's on more solid ground. Topics range from coping with diagnosis to diet and exercise to handling relationships, and cover the specifics of being a women with diabetes in adolescence, during pregnancy and as an older woman. There's even a section on travel.

Mercer did her homework; this shouldn't be the only book a new diabetic (or loved one) should read, but it's a good companion for all of the scary medical books and dry diet tomes. I'd definitely recommend it.

[Debbie Heaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from the Library Thing and was not required to write a review but I was impressed enough with it to do so. My mother suffers from diabetes so for me there was a personal connection with this book. I was impressed by the author's voice which serves as the book's rudder. Each chapter is introduced with personal stories. My mother finds it difficult to glean information from most books but the use of such stories allowed my mother to "feel connected with someone who understood what she deals with everyday." One of the things I enjoyed most about this book was reading about the stages my mother has already passed through, allowing me to relive my mother's experiences in black and white. I also felt empowered by other's stories and gained greater insight about the stages my mother has yet to go through. I passed this book on to my mother, who rarely reads, and she has already put a dent in the book. That's a powerful testimony right there. This is most definitely a book that will join my professional library and will be recommended often.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well-written and useful book. It is different from the straight "here's-the-science/medicine" approach so it isn't the "only" book on diabetes you would want to own, but it does a much better job than that kind of book in delving into the "soft" parts of diabetes -- emotions, variability, specifics to women, and the need to know that you aren't alone. You'll still get lots of ideas of things to try when it comes to carbs, dealing with other people, exercise (this book has awesome coverage of keeping fit!), work, pregnancy and parenting -- and the advice comes with context that is bigger than the medical facts. Highly recommended.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the multiple perspectives offered by this book, especially some of the "negative" ones. Having recently been diagnosed with Diabetes, I've struggled with some of those negative feelings towards trying to feel better and it's nice to know I'm not alone! Like another reviewer mentioned a lot of the book will not pertain to all people because there are perspectives for both type I and type II and some in between.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hearing the voices of so many women with diabetes was probably the most helpful part of this book. You won't walk away with practical knowledge, but rather anecdotes and the experiences of many who have been there before you.

[Kate]

I'm not diabetic but it provided an interesting perspective on the challenges that diabetics face through the lifespan.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very useful and approachable. Good information with an emotional connection via the first-person stories.