Dr David Cavan

Published by Vermilion via Ebury Publishing

http://www.eburypublishing.co.uk/editions/reverse-your-diabetes-the-4-step-plan-to-take-control-of-type-2-diabetes/9780091948252

ISSBN: 9780091948252

Price £9.58 (From Diabetes.co.uk) http://www.diabetes.co.uk/shop/productdetails.aspx?pid=4234

Dr. David Cavan is Director of Policy and Programmes at the International Diabetes Federation. The relaxed dialogue of his book about Type 2 Diabetes just bounces through the complex pathology and treatment of diabetes, and it does so in a way that all patients can, and will understand with ease. It keeps the reader engaged throughout and is certainly a book that healthcare professionals could recommend to patients who have been recently diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. For patients who have had the condition for longer it does provide a balanced and reassuring perspective for managing and optimising treatment and lifestyle changes. The clarity of his discursions on a wide range of topics is based on his 17 years as a consultant physician at Bournemouth Diabetes and Endocrine Centre, and may also prove instructive to healthcare professionals. For patients and their carers the slow logical progression of the book ensures a comfortable journey.

Starting with the pathology of diabetes it moves on to consider complications, many of which are the sequelae of obesity and poor diet choices. Following on from the pathophysiology and epidemiology of diabetes the book offers an encouraging review of the efficacy of lifestyle interventions, especially with regard to exercise and diet that will facilitate the prevention of diabetes, the attenuation of the progress to diagnosis, or a post-diagnosis improvement in the progression of the disease.

While discussing studies into the beneficial effects of low and very low calorie diets the book expounds on the criticisms of colleagues in the field. The book does not proselytise! But educates! Whilst still explaining the details of diet and recommendations for change. Dr. Cavan’s writing on diet is straightforward and sensible, it is not pedantically prescriptive, or radical, but is reassuringly balanced.

Whilst some of the advice about diet and exercise may seem like common sense, it is only when you see them collated and applied to the goal of health improvement in diabetes that one recognises that their fundamental goodness is so often obscured by their perceived banality. That it can be this simple to move into a world of health improvement and positive mood enhancement is an eye opener!

The book also covers diabetes medications, hypertension, raised cholesterol levels, and all of the main pathological sequelae of diabetes such as nephropathy, retinopathy, and neuropathy. These are all dealt with a light touch that induces an ease of assimilation page by page.

This book is an ideal entry level into type 2 diabetes and its management and should enable us all to influence the prognosis of diabetes.

Jim Young

January 2015