Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes, America's Biggest Epidemic by James S. Hirsch is a serious sounding title for a serious book. Hirsch's study runs the gamut from a history of the "cures" to control diabetes, to the breakthroughs that still have to come. He chronicles the various folks who have made a difference with the treatment of the disease. And in between, he writes about his own life dealing with Type 1 himself and in his children.
Hirsch is very matter of fact about this disease, and it, quite frankly, really needs that approach. I found his chapter on the development of the Juvenile Diabetes Association and the infighting between the various diabetes organizations, extremely interesting and frightening at the same time. His chapter about how the most of the medical community went from a search for a cure to a search for how to "control" the disease in the "easiest" manner possible - i.e. medication, is personally an eye opener. He is a former writer for the Wall Street Journal and he makes this difficult and murky topic, clear. A must read for anyone suffering from the disease.
