Diabetes Seminar Touts 'Counting Carbs'

Radio personality Russ Cassell attended a recent course on diabetes

As much as I write columns here at my blog, you probably wonder if there is ANYTHING else that I do with my time. LOL! Sometimes I wonder that myself. But aside from my regular job (you know, the one that actually pays the bills) and my second job (the one that takes up the slack from the inadequacy in pay from the first job!) along with my church activities and daily workout schedule, I do enjoy listening to my local talk radio station Newsradio 1330/950AM WORD in the Greenville/Spartanburg/Anderson, SC area.

Regardless of the topic of discussion, I always enjoy hearing the hosts and callers debate both sides of the issues with an occasional nut job here and there. :-~ I suppose every area in the country has a caller or two like that!

When the topic of discussion is about health or diet, then I usually try to chime in with my personal comments (which I know is big shock to you! LOL!). In fact, it has been a dream of mine to be able to host a one-hour show called "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" where I can talk about health, diet, and fitness from my perspective as a 180-pound low-carb weight loss success story. Maybe that'll happen...someday! :)

If you have read my book, then you already know about the afternoon host on WORD named Ralph Bristol because he wrote the foreword. I entered his weight loss contest called "Ralph's Incredible Shrinking Ton" in 2004 and won it. I briefly blogged about this in a recent post and even posted my before and after pictures from the contest. Ralph was even nice enough to invite me back in the WORD studio last year for a follow-up interview about how I was doing since winning the contest. THAT WAS A LOT OF FUN!

But in the morning there is a host by the name of Russ Cassell who has been on the air for over a quarter century antagonizing radio audiences on topics as varying as religion, politics, goverment, and Hollywood. The man gets paid to spark interest in his listeners for 20 hours of airtime a week and he does so very well along with his sweet sidekick Lisa Rollins.

You have probably heard Russ' voice in national radio or television commercials and never even realized it was him since he is in such high demand for his excellent voiceover work. His professional talent when it comes to what he does is unmatched in the industry and I am privileged to have gotten to know this man in recent years. I even gave him an autographed copy of my book at a recent public appearance at a restaurant in Spartanburg, SC.

Of course, giving him my book turned out to be an ironic foreshadowing of what was to come for Russ. Last week he took a day off from his radio show and he talked about where he was on his day off when he returned to the air the next day.

As I was listening to WORD while getting ready for work like I always do in the mornings, Russ talked about a diabetes seminar he had attended at a local Greenville, SC hospital. As somone who has Type 2 diabetes, Russ was looking to find out the latest news and research on the best ways to treat and manage his disease.

Lo and behold, I'm brushing my teeth and just about splattered toothpaste all over my bathroom mirror when I heard Russ exclaim, "I"m counting carbs now" to control his diabetes. Cough cough cough...excuse me, did he just say what I thought he said? Yeah, he did! He said he's COUNTING CARBS to help his diabetes! HA! How about that?!

With recent studies like this, this and this confirming livin' la vida low-carb as a great way to take care of Type 2 diabetes and even the American Diabetes Association backing into supporting low-carb, it seems local hospitals are beginning to take this message back to their patients to arm them with the information they need to make the smart decisions about what to do with their diabetes.

WOO HOO! What a victory this is for people who support the Atkins/low-carb nutritional approach not only for the management of weight, but also diabetes. While I am fortunate that diabetes has not struck me personally, there are still 73 million people who are diabetic or pre-diabetic in the United States alone...and the numbers are expecting to continue to rise!

We have a lot of work left to do before a surefire cure can be found for diabetes. That's why I am excited about programs like Dia Healthcare that are out there helping real people like Russ Cassell find out more about what they can do to not only manage their diabetes, but to hopefully reverse it for good! That's the power of livin' la vida low-carb!

You can e-mail Russ Cassell to encourage him as he begins "counting carbs" at Russ@entercom.com.