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4 out of 4 stars
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Today, the number of people in the world suffering from diabetes has exceeded 400 million, and the number is expected to continue to rise over the next couple of decades. Numerous complications arise from diabetes, ranging from acute complications, like diabetic ketoacidosis, to chronic complications, like heart failure and stroke, which are life-threatening. Thankfully, a lot of research has gone into this disease, and we know more about it now than we knew in the past.
In her book, Diabetes Beyond Numbers: A Complete Guide To Understanding Diabetes Management, Nuzhat Chalisa MD, with two decades of experience working as a clinical endocrinologist, offers a detailed guide to help readers in understanding and managing diabetes and its complications.
As a community pharmacist that has counseled a lot of patients with diabetes, I have to say that I was excited to see how the author would present the lessons here. Considering that the message is well organized and detailed and simple language is employed to improve readers' understanding, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. There are other reasons for my rating as well.
The author kicks off the book with a personal experience of how diabetes took her father's life and how this event served as an eye-opener and motivated her to start her nonprofit organization, Kisat Diabetes Organization, and offer this guide to readers. I could relate to her story, as my father has suffered from diabetes for a few years now, and I was thankful for the information discussed because I learned a few new things that will help.
From the book cover, which included pictures of a glucometer, an apple, vegetables, and sneakers, it was clear that the author's message would be in line with dieting and exercising. Also, it is refreshing to get a step-by-step discussion of everything I feel that a diabetic patient should know. Readers will get to learn about the different types of diabetes, types of glucose level tests and when to run these tests, and safe weight tracking and loss by employing the "Body Mass Index" (BMI), drugs, and surgical procedures. The author also takes the patients' financial capabilities and comfort into consideration in every aspect of managing this disease. I, personally, got to learn about different beneficial meal plans and that breastfeeding helps to reduce blood glucose levels. Also, it was reassuring to see that the author referenced the American Diabetes Association (ADA) while communicating the information in the book.
The book is heavy on pictures that illustrate most of the things discussed by the author. This was my favorite part of the book, and it was particularly important in areas where exercise methods were talked about, as readers will get to see exactly how to execute these methods. Furthermore, I found just two minor errors while reading through the text, and this gave me the impression that the book was professionally edited. I cannot think of any part of the book that I dislike or requires improvement. It is easy to read through Diabetes Beyond Numbers, as it is concise and spans just 144 pages. I would recommend this book to patients suffering from diabetes and their caregivers.
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Diabetes Beyond Numbers
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