New App Delivers a Daily Dose of Diabetes Advice and Humor

A new app delivers a daily dose of advice — and humor — to help people with diabetes feel better...one day at a time

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Apr 28, 2011, 05:06 ET

SALT LAKE CITY, April 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A new iPhone/iPod/iPad app offers practical care pointers and humor every day to America's diabetics — perfectly timed to help them learn more and feel better, one day at a time.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110428/NYFNSD01 )

The app, titled "Shot in the Arm," delivers diabetes management advice in brief, simple doses — which gives diabetics a prompt every day to improve the way they manage the disease. The care tips alternate with anecdotes and jokes from some of America's best comics.

Two examples of the kind of care tips the calendar delivers:

A good rule of thumb for handling an insulin reaction: If your blood glucose shows you're below 80, treat it with fast-acting carbohydrates — not a cookie or fruit.
When you don't eat regularly, or if you skip meals, your blood sugar will fluctuate. That can be dangerous from a diabetic standpoint, plus it can mean you'll face extreme hunger and you may crave carbohydrates — which will mean you'll gain weight. The solution: Eat regular meals at regular times throughout the day.

And two examples of Shot in the Arm's humor:

Quote of the day from Bruce Streibel: "Whoever said 'No man is an island' has never seen my stomach in the bath tub."
One sign a newspaper story may be inaccurate: You're pretty sure the capital of Chile isn't "Hormel."

The magic of Shot in the Arm is TIMING, BREVITY, and HUMOR. "The ideas come at exactly the right time," says Richard Nash of Nashsmile LLC, the developer of the calendar, who's had type 1 diabetes for 42 years. "You check your phone one morning, you read a brief, simple idea to help you control your diabetes, you try it that day, it works — and all of a sudden, it's not a diabetes management tip from a book or a website. It's part of your life."

"And the next day, you check your phone again and there's something funny; it's not a lecture from your doctor or your spouse — it's fun."

"One key to the app — one thing that makes it different than almost every other diabetes resource, from websites to pamphlets to medical advice — is that it comes to you," he says. "You don't have to go get it. Once you sign up for it, you get a new message every day. You don't have to read a brochure or log onto a website. It's right there on your phone or your iPod or your iPad."

Diabetes is a chronic disease in which the body doesn't produce or can't use insulin, which converts food into energy. Complications of diabetes, which normally result from ineffective management of the disease, include heart disease, kidney failure, and vision problems. An estimated 25.8 million people in America — or 8.3 percent of the total population — have diabetes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The CDC projects that one in three Americans will have the disease by 2050.

"Shot in the Arm" is available for $2.99 in Apple's App Store at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shot-in-the-arm/id421201255?mt=8&ls=1 More details, including more samples of the app's care tips and humor, are available at www.DiabeticCalendar.Com or by e-mailing [email protected].

Shot in the Arm" is developed by Nashsmile LLC

Contact: Richard Nash, 801-455-3193 or [email protected]

SOURCE Nashsmile LLC