Here's your newest edition of Dr. Marcantel's Health and Wellness News.

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This month's articles:

Food Fact and Fiction

A patient shares her great results

Bad Glucometer Test Strips: a MUST READ article for diabetics

Diabetes support group meeting Wednesday, February 21

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Dr. Marcantel is now seeing patients in her new office located at 

5416 East Southern Avenue #109

Mesa, AZ 85206

480-985-0000

To find a map to our office, please click here to visit our contact information page on our web site.

Watch the web site (and this newsletter) for a future page featuring pictures and lots of information about the new office, the other doctors Dr. Marcantel will be working with, the services available, and an invitation to our grand opening in March!

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Read the new article Food Fact and Fiction on our web site and find the answers to some of life's most difficult questions: "Are all fats bad for me?" "Will late-night snacks really make me gain weight?" "Is a glass of wine actually good for my heart?" "Should I avoid all carbohydrates?" and more. This article by Reisha Zang first appeared in the January 2007 Northeast Mesa Lifestyle magazine and features interviews with Dr. Marcantel, American Dietetic Association spokesperson Melinda Johnson and dietician Amy Pendergraft.

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Amy S. has shared her story of her success with Dr. Marcantel's diabetes program with us for our web site. She says, "Not only did my cholesterol drop from 301 to 189, my LDL from 205 to 96 and my Cholesterol/HDL ratio from 5.9 to 4.5, but I lost 10 pounds--all in just under three months!" Read more about her and others' experiences on the "Testimonials" area of our web site.

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Bad Glucometer Test Strips:

An important warning for diabetics

By Dr. Tina Marcantel

A recent experience with one of my patients prompted me to write this cautionary tale about how using bad glucometer test strips could potentially lead to serious problems.

Harry had been on my diabetic “jump start” program for several weeks and we were trying to get his blood sugars into an acceptable range. He was doing all the right things: he was faithfully following the diet plan I had given him, taking his medication properly, and exercising regularly. Still, he was getting very high glucose readings when he did his glucometer testing at home.

Something wasn’t adding up. I was concerned about Harry’s high glucose readings, but I was reluctant to raise the dosage of his medication because I knew that he should be getting very different results after following the program for several weeks. At the beginning of the program I had checked his glucometer and it was working properly. As we discussed the case, it turned out that Harry had recently purchased new test strips. I asked him to go back to the pharmacy where he had purchased the glucometer and strips to be sure they were working properly.

The glucometer was fine, but when Harry contacted the company that made the test strips, he learned that the batch he had purchased had been recalled because they were contaminated. The contaminated strips would give inaccurate glucose readings and were to be returned to the company or discarded immediately. When Harry bought new test strips, his glucose readings were suddenly within the target areas we were hoping for.

After this episode, I went online to research this further and found an FDA press release dated December 16, 2006 at www.fda.gov/diabetes/news.html regarding counterfeit test strips. The article states that, “The counterfeit test strips potentially could give incorrect blood glucose values--either too high or too low--which might result in a patient taking either too much or too little insulin and lead to serious injury or death.”

The lesson in this? Always be sure that your glucometer and test strips are working properly. Keep your doctor informed and let him or her know if the test results you are getting don’t seem to be accurate. A physician who is simply looking at blood sugar test results could easily be misled into improperly altering your medication if you do not express your concerns about their accuracy, and that could lead to very serious consequences for your health.

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A diabetes support group will meet this Wednesday, February 21, at  6:30 p.m. at 1620 S. Stapley Drive, Suite 132 in Mesa. For more information about the group or contact information please visit our support group web page.

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Dr. Tina Marcantel

5416 East Southern Avenue #109

Mesa, AZ 85206

480-985-0000

Newsletter written by Peter Marcantel, webmaster for DrMarcantel.com.