Living with diabetes can be a challenging burden. But it can be helpful to share your frustrations and successes, and read about people’s similar experiences. We have identified the best diabetes blogs that aim to inspire, empower, and educate readers.

digital tablet with diabetesShare on Pinterest
Diabetes blogs can help to provide support to people with diabetes, as well as to those who care for them.

Diabetes is a group of diseases that impact how the body uses blood glucose, and it affects around 29.1 million people in the United States.

Having type 1 diabetes means that the body does not produce enough insulin, and the condition is more commonly diagnosed in childhood or adolescence.

But having type 2 diabetes means that the body cannot use insulin properly, and this type is more common in individuals over the age of 40 years. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 95 percent of all diagnosed diabetes cases.

Keeping on top of your diabetes treatment plan can be a round-the-clock commitment that may feature blood sugar monitoring, medications and insulin, healthy eating, and regular physical activity.

Medical News Today have rounded up the top 10 diabetes blogs, based on the quality of their information, helpful tips, recipes, fitness advice, and personal accounts.

Speaking of Diabetes is the blog of the Joslin Diabetes Center. The Joslin Diabetes Center is a research and teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School. Their team of more than 300 scientists is dedicated to finding innovative pathways to prevent, treat, and cure type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

While in pursuit of a world without diabetes, Joslin is helping to improve the lives of individuals with diabetes through patient education programs and care provided by their highly specialized and multi-skilled team.

Speaking of Diabetes is designed for people with diabetes, as well as for their friends and family. Recent posts include tips for barbecuing diabetes-friendly foods, the benefits of having an exercise physiologist, and understanding oxidants and diabetes complications.

Visit the Speaking of Diabetes blog.

Diabetes Developments is the creation of David Mendosa. David is a medical writer, advocate, and consultant specializing in the area of diabetes, and he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1994.

Being diagnosed with diabetes changed David’s focus, pushed him to change his lifestyle, and made him learn as much as he could about the disease. Coincidentally, by signing up to a diabetic mailing list and sending a tongue-in-cheek message, David met his wife Catherine.

Diabetes Developments is a blog on the latest developments in diabetes. David’s latest articles include an account of toxic relationships and how they should be avoided, the worst myths about diabetes, and how mindfulness can help to manage diabetes and weight.

Visit the Diabetes Developments blog.

Husband and wife team Tobias and Christel Oerum are the combined force behind TheFitBlog. Christel has been living with type 1 diabetes since she was 19 years old and has had the determination from that point onward not to let the condition affect her quality of life. Christel’s motto is, “There is nothing you can’t do with diabetes.”

Tobias and Christel created TheFitBlog as a place where people can find useful and readily accessible information about exercising safely and effectively with diabetes. Posts mostly focus on workout tips and healthy recipes and are filled with positive motivation to help people to take charge of their health and diabetes management.

Christel’s latest blog posts include content such as how to treat low blood sugar (when all you want to do is eat everything in sight), how to manage your diabetes, make healthy food choices, and find time to exercise when traveling, and the pros and cons of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM).

Visit TheFitBlog.

Kerri Morrone Sparling started Six Until Me in 2005, fuelled by exasperation when presented with lists of complications and frightening stories after Googling “diabetes.” She questioned where all the people like her were, who had lived with type 1 diabetes since early childhood.

Upon starting the blog, Kerri was one of only a few diabetes bloggers. But now, she says, she is a proud member of a vast diabetes community who write about the condition and share stories, proving that they are not alone with the disease.

Six Until Me includes personal accounts, such as Kerri’s purchase of “useless juice,” changing an infusion set under cover on a plane, and a comparison of pregnancy and diabetes management now and 30 years ago.

Visit the Six Until Me blog.

The College Diabetes Network (CDN) is a non-profit organization that provides programs to connect and empower students to thrive with diabetes. The CDN’s website provides tools and resources to help students with diabetes live a healthy life. It also aims to facilitate connections between students and local resources, and it is a dynamic resource for parents, family members, clinicians, and campus staff.

The CDN’s blog includes categories covering campus health, clinics and providers, dining hall eating, technology, and exercise, as well as relationships, advocacy and students rights, job opportunities, and preparing to leave college.

The most recent posts include sophomore Tyler’s type 1 diabetes diagnosis story and the challenges he has faced as a college student with the disease, Deanelle’s account of studying abroad for 6 months with diabetes, and Lissie’s type 1 diabetes diagnosis experience during her freshman year at Penn State University.

Visit the CDN blog.

Shelby Kinnaird is the Diabetic Foodie. If you have diabetes and are looking for recipes, have a family member that has diabetes, or just want to eat healthfully, the Diabetic Foodie is the blog to visit.

Shelby found out she had type 2 diabetes in 1999. Fast forward a few years, and Shelby began reading about new foods and experimenting in the kitchen, adopting a philosophy of eating that used fresh, local foods and incorporated lean proteins, healthful fats, and non-starchy vegetables.

The Diabetic Foodie includes content such as yoga poses to help manage stress and diabetes and promote healthy eating, and delicious recipes including oatmeal muffins with pumpkin seeds and nuts, sweet potato noodles with black beans and peppers, and a berry smoothie bowl made with high-protein Greek yogurt.

Visit the Diabetic Foodie blog.

Bitter-Sweet

Karen Graffeo was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 11. She vividly remembers when diabetes management consisted of taking a daily insulin shot, following a strict exchange diet, and monitoring for sugar in urine with glass test tubes and fizzy tablets. Karen is thankful for the improved insulin and new tools for diabetes care that are available today.

Karen started her diabetes blog Bitter-Sweet in 2008 and has since become immersed in the online diabetes community. She says that the tagline of her blog sums up what she has come to realize over her years with diabetes: “life with diabetes isn’t all bad.”

Latest blog posts on Bitter-Sweet include turning a dietary failure into a success, Karen’s account of having diabetes at college and her struggles of managing the disease without tools and support, and Karen contemplating a “day off” from diabetes with her husband stepping in and completing some of the diabetes-related tasks.

Visit the Bitter-Sweet blog.

The Children’s Diabetes Foundation (CDF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to diabetes research and providing clinical and educational programs for individuals with the disease.

The foundation raises funds to support the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes. With her husband Marvin Davis, Barbara Davis established the CDF in 1977. She has collaborated with diabetes organizations nationally to focus on diabetes education, care, prevention, and cure.

Blog posts by the CDF include an account of Annie’s inclusion in research studies from the age of 6 years old, 10-year-old Corinne’s story of being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and being a CDF advocate spreading awareness about the disease, and a mother’s tale of finding her son’s CGM reading at 48.

Visit the CDF blog.

Meri Schuhmacher is a mom to four boys, three of whom have type 1 diabetes. They were diagnosed with diabetes at ages 8 months, 5 years, and 2 years.

Through the Our Diabetic Life blog, Meri shares her family’s ongoing story and hopes to help others to see that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Similar to other parents of children with diabetes, Meri has struggled through the emotional phases and worry that comes with the disease.

Meri’s blog posts are from the heart, and they include a reenactment of changing her teenager’s set, a life of “probably” and how the Dexcoms that her boys wear have been life-changing, and an account of the cost of diabetes.

Visit the Our Diabetic Life blog.

Tom Karlya writes the Diabetes Dad blog. Tom has been an active member of the diabetes community since his daughter was diagnosed with the condition in 1992 at the age of 2. His son was also diagnosed with it in 2009 at the age of 13. Tom’s world is mostly about diabetes, but he says that is a choice he made after his daughter Kaitlyn’s diagnosis.

“I made her a promise that I have kept to this day that we would not stop until we found a cure for her and millions more like her,” said Tom. “We would also do everything we could to keep ourselves educated so she would know what the best management tools were to keep her healthy, and all of that was also added when her brother was also diagnosed.”

Diabetes Dad was started to help educate and inspire everyone who lives with the disease. Tom’s recent posts include inspiration from 20 riders riding 4,296 miles from New York to San Francisco, whether the future name of a CGM communicating with an insulin pump should be called an artificial pancreas, and a heartfelt account of the juice box on the nightstand.

Visit the Diabetes Dad blog.