The author, director of the University of Southern California clinical diabetes program, has not only had experience treating hundreds of people with diabetes, but her husband was diagnosed with prediabetes, and she writes, “I suddenly saw firsthand the challenges and frustrations that occur when a health care professional says, ‘Change your lifestyle.’” Luckily, her husband was able to change his, and with that and a TZD (the thiazolidinedione class of drugs that includes Actos and Avandia) has kept diabetes at bay.

She also admits that she herself doesn’t always reach her exercise goals because she’s too busy, tired, or bored. Hence Peters can empathize with her patients, and this empathy and true concern for their problems comes through in her writing.

The book covers the usual bases in a basic diabetes book, and coming from a diabetologist, the information is accurate. But even a patient who is already familiar with the basics might enjoy it because it shows you the problems physicians face as well as those you face yourself, and I think understanding the person on the other side of the desk helps with communication. She has a liberal attitude toward diet, saying “there is no diabetic diet,” and the best one is the one that works for a particular patient. However, she leans toward lower carbs and says she thinks people with diabetes lose weight more easily with fewer carbs.

The bulk of the book is devoted to prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, which makes sense because the bulk of people with diabetes (about 90 percent) have type 2. She also discusses LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults); thin type 2s, gestational diabetes, female troubles, and what used to be called “reactive hypoglycemia” and often precedes type 2. She discusses the GAD (glutamic acid decarboxylase) test but never mentions C peptide (maybe she doesn’t use that test),

Although Peters does have a couple of chapters about type 1, there’s not much detail about insulin usage, as she thinks you need to see a physician or CDE to learn how to use insulin. So this might not be the best stand-alone book for a person with type 1; they’d want to read one of the books on insulin usage as well.

For anyone with type 2 or prediabetes, however, this book is definitely an interesting and instructive read.

Hudson Street Press published Conquering Diabetes for $24.95 in April 2005. The ISBN of this 349-page hardcover book is 159463003. [Available at Amazon for $16.47 as of 04Aug2005.]