Both my mother and father suffered from diabetes, so I am always on the outlook for information about this disease. My mother, who now needs four insulin shots a day, told me once that when she was first diagnosed fifteen years ago, she thought the insulin pills were more a preventive measure. She felt fine. She cheated on her diet. She ignored her doctor’s warnings.

Then her memory worsened. She developed dementia. Her mental decline stemmed from small TIA strokes, not the diabetes, but dementia is the kiss of death to a diabetes patient. Nursing homes don’t believe in limiting the diet of an Alzheimer’s patient. She gained more than 40 pounds in the Alzheimer’s facility as they feed her cookies, cake and candy during the day. Her diabetes grew worse. The doctors can no longer stabilize her sugar levels. Nurses don’t want patients to feel left out by offering two different types of dessert – one with sugar and one without. Besides, one nurse told me, dying of diabetes is preferable to dying from Alzheimer’s.

At the World Health Organization today is World Diabetes Day. Read about how you can prevent diabetes. This is a common disease and one that John Sanger in the Charles River Killers confronts on a daily basis.