Saluting Self-Testers

Saluting Self-Testers

I found the article "Heal Thyself or Die Trying"¹ particularly interesting because my father, Richard K. Bernstein, MD, developed blood glucose while self-monitoring for diabetes almost 30 years ago. A Type-1 diabetic from age 12, Dr. Bernstein was beginning to suffer from diabetic complications in his 30's. Using a cumbersome, first-generation blood glucose monitoring device available only to hospital emergency rooms (to distinguish comatose diabetics from drunks), he learned to control his diabetes by appropriately titering his insulin and adjusting his diet. Although successful small-scale trials of his methods were conducted at New York's Rockefeller University, physicians remained reluctant to promote my father's approaches, which included adherence to a high protein/low carbohydrate diet and multiple small doses of insulin daily. Diabetologists feared the possibility of hypoglycemia (low blood sugars) in patients attempting to maintain normal blood sugars.

At age 45, my father left successful careers in biomedical...