Damp vs. Diabetes
I got back not long ago from my Friendly Local Gaming Store where, it seems, people really don't want to playtest games. They like their games shiny and already proven. While I would expect that from normal people, these are gaming freaks and I expected more of an open attitude to these things. Apparently not. (From the conversations I had, I don't think it's just a reaction to /my/ games either. They were fairly open about their reasons in the end.) It's somewhat disappointing. I may have to advertise for playtesters, which sucks.
On a more useful note, on Friday I got down to the hospital to talk to the diabetes nurse. As mentioned there were 3 questions I brought up for discussion (a two-way discussion to be more specific).
a) Tiredness. It is known that fatigue has a (detrimental) effect on diabetes. And of course, many patients with fatigue or lack of sleep do so because of infection which also makes things worse. Lack of sleep (for no particular reason) is not well studied and the nurse expressed an interest in exploring it further.
b) Artificial Insulin. Despite rumours my mother dug up, tests show that artificial insulin is no worse than natural insulin. Changing from one to the other can cause teething problems, but that has never affected me (natural insulin has not been widely prescribed for 15 years).
c) Damp weather. Surprisingly, to me, this was already known about. Negative weather can lead to worsening diabetes. Positive can lead to good changes. In both cases, the effect can be dramatic. However, it is not permanent since otherwise people in hotter climes would barely need insulin. It will last for a holiday though. I suggested that it should be pointed out to diabetics more.
I can't say that anything will particularly come of this, but it was very useful for my own benefit.